REGULAR
the scale from seven towards zero, cleaning chemical strength increases in terms of acidity. Acids naturally make effective descalers so again we know that any product with a pH value in this territory will have descaling capabilities. Obviously the further away from seven in either direction the pH of a given product is, the greater its ability to descale or degrease.
Another feature of the pH scale that surprised me whilst first dusting off my GCSE chemistry early on in my career with Premiere is the fact that you only need travel what you might perceive as a relatively short distance up or down the scale to find that the increase in acidity or alkalinity is actually really quite significant.
The reason for this is that the pH scale is logarithmic and each number represents a difference in strength to the power of 10 from the number either side of it. Therefore eight is ten times more alkaline than seven, nine is 100 times more alkaline than seven and ten is 1,000 times more alkaline and so on. Whilst writing this I have come to realise that it’s quite tricky to explain in writing and have thus included the diagram below to assist. Clearly this is also true when moving down the scale from pH 7 in terms of acidity.
absolutely essential that the staff using it are trained to understand the relative risks and the necessary control measures (PPE, etc.) in order that they are working safely.
In order to give a flavour of what type of product sits where, the following is a list of common commercial cleaning product type pH values. Although this doesn’t necessarily exactly reflect every manufacturer’s range, it is reflective of Premiere’s offering and there or thereabouts for most others in my opinion.
• 14 Oven Cleaners/Machine Dishwashing Liquids
• 13 Floor Polish Strippers
• 12 Heavy Duty Degreasers/ Bleaches
• 11 Multi-Purpose Cleaners
• 10 Mildly Alkaline Kitchen and Washroom Cleaners
• 9
Laundry Detergents/ Cream Cleaners
• 8 Disinfectant Cleaners
• 7 Washing Up Liquids/Floor Maintainers/Rinse Aids
• 6 Carpet Shampoo • 5 • 4
Hand Soaps Laundry Destainer
• 3 Mildly Acidic Washroom Cleaners
• 2 Descalers – Toilet/Catering Equipment/Dishwasher
• 1 Descalers – Toilet • 0 Descalers – Toilet
Although it might not seem a huge gap numerically speaking, the difference between pH 7 and pH 14 in chemical terms is the difference between something fairly innocuous that would cause no concern where limited skin contact was concerned, as compared to a product that could cause immediate and severe chemical burns to skin. This is not to say that chemicals with extremely high or extremely low pH values have no place in modern cleaning, it’s more that when a given set of circumstances require a product of this nature, it is
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As previously mentioned, I have found this tool to be invaluable over my years in cleaning. It has assisted me in product comparison exercises, troubleshooting exercises and a whole host more and I would recommend that anyone working in cleaning develop at least a basic understanding of its machinations.
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Tomorrow’s Cleaning January 2016 | 31
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