There has been a lot of comment and hyperventilation about how purple
cleaner and its relatives will eat aluminum parts. I say it doesn't, and I
decided to do a test.
Aluminum foil seemed to be a good subject for a test, it's thin, and might
provide dramatic photos of the foil eaten right up to the "water line".
Well, don't get excited, it wasn't very dramatic.
I filled a small yogurt cup (chobani greek, if it matters, 6 oz size) about
half full of undiluted purple cleaner (Zep Industrial Purple Cleaner from
Home Depot). A square of standard aluminum foil (2.25" x 2.35") was
immersed approximately halfway in the purple cleaner. Aluminum foil was
measured to be 1.8 thou thick, using a Mitutoyo 1" micrometer.
After 20 seconds or so, it began to foam up, and looked like this
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jstanley/media/purpleclean1_zps3aa3fccf.jpg.html
I waited 10 minutes, after which not much seemed to be happening, and
removed the aluminum foil.
The remaining cleaner in the cup had a very substantial "head" on it.
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jstanley/media/purpleclean2_zps8c4aeb1f.jpg.html
The aluminum foil was visibly complete, and after washing it was not visibly
affected by its immersion.
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jstanley/media/purpleclean3_zpsfd7d5ffc.jpg.html
The immersed portion measured at approximately 1.2 thousandths of an inch
thick at the thinnest part, and the non-immersed part ws confirmed at 1.8
thou. The difference was 6 ten-thousandths of an inch.
Another piece of foil was immersed in the remaining purple cleaner, and did
show some bubbling, but nothing like the original thick "head" was present
after several minutes.
What I get from this is that if about 3 oz of the purple cleaner can remove
only 3 ten-thousandths of an inch thickness from each side of a piece of
aluminum foil in ten minutes of soaking, and is apparently substantially
exhausted in doing that, it is extremely unlikely to do any measurable
damage to your machine parts in any reasonable cleaning process involving
repeated dunking, scrubbing, and rinsing.
I think a good cleaning does not have to include this process, but if you
choose to use the lye-based Purple cleaners, you may do a normal sort of
cleaning (no extended soaking) without fear
Posted by: <jerdal@sbcglobal.net>
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