Sulphuric acid
The acid in the acidic class of drain openers, and the one substance in this catalogue where the standing advice to flush with water is wrong.
What not to do
Sulphuric acid is unsafe on Stainless steel
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
Precautions
- Ventilate the area
- Wear gloves
- Wear eye protection
- Consider professional help
Why we say this
Strongly supported
The regulator's statement covers most metals, which includes every metal in a domestic drain assembly.
Sources
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Sulfuric Acid (RTK 1761)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2016 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That sulphuric acid reacts with most metals to produce flammable and explosive hydrogen gas. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'Description and Use' paragraph and the 'Handling and Storage' reactivity list. Supports the claim as stated. Establishes the acid drain-cleaner chemistry, and gives the catalogue its first agent where dilution itself is the hazard — which is why no household preparation is described for it anywhere on the site.
Last reviewed by a person on .
Precautions
- Never mix with other cleaning products
- Ventilate the area
- Wear gloves
- Wear eye protection
- Keep away from children and pets
- Consider professional help
- Check the manufacturer's instructions
In detail
Sulphuric acid is the acid side of the drain-opener aisle, and CleaningHQ describes no domestic method for it. It is recorded because a reader may have a bottle of it and needs to know what it is. The New Jersey Department of Health's hazard banner carries four terms that rarely appear together — carcinogen, corrosive and reactive, oxidiser, and do not use water — and the reactivity list explains the last: it reacts violently with alcohol and with water to release heat. Every other spill in this catalogue is answered by flushing with plenty of water, and this is the exception, which is exactly why it needs a page rather than a silence. It reacts with most metals to give flammable hydrogen, and violently with organic material, combustibles and strong bases. The UK poisons service's own drain-cleaner guidance divides these products into enzymatic ones and non-enzymatic ones, and names sulphuric and hydrochloric acid on the acidic side of that division alongside sodium and potassium hydroxide on the alkaline side. It also names the two ways people get splashed: pouring from a height, and overpouring into a drain that is completely blocked so the product has nowhere to go.
Properties
- Chemical name
- Sulphuric acid
- pH
- Strongly acidic
Why
- Sulphuric acid is explained by pH in cleaning
Sources for this page
Sources
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Sulfuric Acid (RTK 1761)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2016 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That sulphuric acid is corrosive, reactive and an oxidiser, that its hazard banner states DO NOT USE WATER, and that it reacts violently with alcohol and water to release heat. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'Description and Use' paragraph and the 'Handling and Storage' reactivity list. Supports the claim as stated. Establishes the acid drain-cleaner chemistry, and gives the catalogue its first agent where dilution itself is the hazard — which is why no household preparation is described for it anywhere on the site.
What's in drain cleaner and what happens if you drink it?
National Capital Poison Center (Poison Control) · Poison or chemical-safety authority
Relied on for: That non-enzymatic drain cleaners are strong acids or strong alkalis, with sulphuric and hydrochloric acid named on the acid side. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The composition section and the exposure-and-first-aid sections. Supports a narrower statement — our claim was reduced. This establishes the composition and the injury mechanism and NOT the mixing hazard, which CleaningHQ had expected it to carry. The article does not discuss mixing two drain cleaners, using a plunger after a chemical has been added, or what to do with a drain holding an unknown product. Those questions are therefore answered from the general never-mix position and the standing refusal in the mixing model, not attributed here. What it does newly support is the completely-blocked-drain splash case, which is exactly the situation a reader is in when they reach for a second product.
Last reviewed by a person on .