Wednesday 22 July 2009

Free Acid!

There are hundreds of different products for getting limescale off toilets, sinks and kettles, and they all basically involve acid, which dissolves limescale if you leave it to soak for long enough.

There are also a lot of people, like me, growing hundreds of times more rhubarb than they can really handle because the plants get very very big and there's a limit to the amount of rhubarb crumble one can eat in a year.

Rhubarb is incredibly acidic.

Can anyone think of any reason I shouldn't boil up a load of rhubarb and use it as an organic, eco-friendly and incredibly cheap kettle, sink and toilet cleaner?

9 comments:

James Higham said...

Oh, I thought you were getting all Timothy Leary there.

Alice said...

Someone pointed out to me recently that if you do your blogroll properly it can show not just links but the titles of everyone's most recent post...

James Higham said...

That's true and I've seen it but I haven't worked out how yet. Think it might be a widget.

Alice said...

On Blogger, Click "Customise", Click "Add A Gadget", and choose "Blog List". There are different options depending on how much space you want it to take up, etc.

retoque fotografico said...

They will probably tell you you cant use it as they cannot make money from it! Great photo blog!

Alice said...

Well, I've used rhubarb twice to descale the kettle and have left it in the toilet twice for a good soak while I've been away, and it works a treat. Doesn't seem to be going off in the bottle yet either.

What else can I use my free acid for?

Anonymous said...

Wow how did you make it? Please tell!

Also did you find out about composting teabags (from your post way back in 2007!)

tony.callaghan said...

Hi Alice
I hope you are only using the stalks not leaves!
It might be free but I'm not convinced you gain.
If you boil the whole stalk, you create a soup of acids but also sugars and cellulose. The later are food for bacteria. So once the acid neutralises, you might be leaving thin coating of bacteria food? (not an issue in kettle but in toliet you are leaving a perfect growing medium for bacteria.
(From memory I think the reason Rhubarb leaves are poisonous to humans is oxalic acidic. If you are using domestic pans etc, you might be putting yourself at risk from cross injestion if you use the leaves)
Sorry if you know this, but I jumped to your blog from tea bags info

Alice said...

Tony thanks, that's a very good point. I guess I should put a bit of detergent in the loo to wash the rhubarb off when it's finished dissolving the limescale?

I hadn't been using the leaves but it's always worth mentioning when something is very highly poisonous - I am indeed using cooking pots!