Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Coke dissolves road dust?

Via the New York Times, this odd little article about using food as cleaning agents, including the classic 101 uses for Coca-Cola: 
...Speaking of sticky things, our reader Peggy offers this suggestion: “I use a product called Goo Gone but its main ingredient is orange oil. If you have no Goo Gone, rub a piece of orange on the gunk from stick-on labels and Bob’s your uncle.” 
Ketchup — yes, it’s a vegetable, just go with us — can be used to polish brass and copper. But if you’re out, and you happen to have a pineapple handy, you’re in luck. 
“Whenever I trim a pineapple, I grab a saltshaker and whichever of my copper bottom pots needs tarnish removed: Sprinkle salt, rub with pineapple peel — Voilà!” wrote another reader.... 
...We noted that Coca-Cola can be used to clear a slow-moving drain, clean a toilet bowl and remove motor oil and grease from clothing and pavement. You all had many uses to add. Bill writes: “If road oil and dust have made your windshield smeary, pour Coke on it. The windshield comes clean,” and Thomas added, “Coke rejuvenates old windshield wiper blades.”
Orange oil as a handy solvent makes sense to me, but ketchup to remove metal oxides? Also carbonated sugar water for motor oil?  

2 comments:

  1. Citric and phosphoric acids plus carbonation will help to remove very minor/light grease smear.

    Additionally, this website attempts to briefly explain the reasons: http://greencleaningproductsllc.com/mythbuster-science-of-cleaning-cleaning-with-coca-cola-effective-green-cleaning-products/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Toothpaste is also good for polishing silver and gold. I also recall stripping floors with concentrated, unsweetened "bug juice" when we had to get into the corners where the machine wouldn't go.

    ReplyDelete

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