Household Ammonia - Safety

[patrickfp]

What is the best way to handle household ammonia safely? In short, what I would like to know is:

 

- What is the proper way to store it?

- Does it need to be used in a ventilated space?

- Does tap water contain chlorine which can react with the ammonia?

[JefferyS]

(1) Tightly capped bottle, (2) no, and (3) no.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Jeffery Smith

[pokermind]

While I agree with Jeffery, I just pulled out my bottle and it says "... Avoid inhalation of vapors, use in a well ventilated area."

 

So, for basic pen cleaning activity, you have nothing to worry about. But don't stick your nose in the bottle and inhale. And if you put it in a spray bottle (like as I sometimes do), be careful to not breathe in the spray or get it in your eyes. Basic common sense stuff.

 

 

Edited for grammar.

Edited September 8, 2012 by pokermind

[pencils+pens]

Read the risk factor section of the Wikipedia article about Smelling Salts which is the most commonly used form of administered ammonia.

 

Diluted ammonia should not be a problem.

[OakIris]

You should keep ammonia in the container that it came in from the store, with the lid tightly closed, as Jeffrey mentioned. Store it with the rest of your cleaning supplies, out of reach of children and pets. You definitely want to use it in a well-ventilated area; the fumes from ammonia can be harmful (corrosive) to the eyes, nose and breathing passages. Once you have diluted it with water in the small container you will use to soak your pen, it is somewhat neutralized, but I still don't make a habit of deliberately smelling it!

 

Speaking of water, I never thought of this until you mentioned it but, yes, most tap water, at least in the USA, is chlorinated. It is well known that mixing chlorine bleach and ammonia will release a toxic vapor. The only thing I can think - I am not a chemist - is that the chlorine compound used in bleach is different from the chlorine compound used to treat water so it is not harmful when mixed with ammonia. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than I am will explain why chlorinated tap water does not react with ammonia to cause a toxic gas.

 

Holly

[patrickfp]

You definitely want to use it in a well-ventilated area; the fumes from ammonia can be harmful (corrosive) to the eyes, nose and breathing passages. Once you have diluted it with water in the small container you will use to soak your pen, it is somewhat neutralized, but I still don't make a habit of deliberately smelling it!

 

The "corrosive" part is what is worrying me. I guess I will have to clean with ammonia in warm months, outside. Isn't household ammonia somewhat diluted already?

 

Also, I am guessing distilled water is safer to use than "potentially-chlorinated" tap water.

[myn]

The easiest way to avoid any "what ifs" with water would be to used distilled water. I've seen many recommendations here on FPN to use distilled water even for simple flushing of pens.

[OakIris]

You definitely want to use it in a well-ventilated area; the fumes from ammonia can be harmful (corrosive) to the eyes, nose and breathing passages. Once you have diluted it with water in the small container you will use to soak your pen, it is somewhat neutralized, but I still don't make a habit of deliberately smelling it!

 

The "corrosive" part is what is worrying me. I guess I will have to clean with ammonia in warm months, outside. Isn't household ammonia somewhat diluted already?

 

Also, I am guessing distilled water is safer to use than "potentially-chlorinated" tap water.

You are only using a tiny bit of ammonia - a 1:10 solution where the "1" is about 1 tbsp of ammonia and the "10" is about 2/3 cup of water (per Richard Binder) - so as long as you don't stand over the bottle of ammonia inhaling deeply I don't think that you have to worry about inhaling harmful fumes. If you read the label on the bottle of ammonia you will see that their cleaning recommendations/directions are that you should add ammonia to water for the proper cleaning solution; in this day and age of "frivolous" law suits, I am sure the companies that make and sell household ammonia are not going to recommend things that will end up sending their customers to the hospital.

 

Thus far I have only used tap water, but if you feel it would be safer and better to use distilled water, as myn also posted, by all means do so. A gallon of distilled water is cheap and will last you a very, very long time. Remember that not every pen needs to be soaked in the ammonia/water solution (and some shouldn't be, depending upon what they are made of,) as most nibs and feeds can be easily cleaned by using just water, or perhaps water with a drop or so of dish washing liquid. The ammonia is for those stubborn clogs caused when ink is allowed to dry out in a pen, such as when you buy the pen used and it hasn't been properly maintained.

 

Holly

[inkstainedruth]

While I agree with Jeffery, I just pulled out my bottle and it says "... Avoid inhalation of vapors, use in a well ventilated area."

 

So, for basic pen cleaning activity, you have nothing to worry about. But don't stick your nose in the bottle and inhale. And if you put it in a spray bottle (like I sometimes do), be careful to not breathe in the spray or get it in your eyes. Basic common sense stuff.

 

And if you *do* put ammonia into a spray bottle, for goodness sake LABEL it as to the contents. You don't, for example want to mistake it it for bleach.... :blink:

I personally just pour a little into a small glass jar that's mostly filled with distilled water, as needed, when I need to flush out a pen; remember the old "alphabet" mnemonic from high school chemistry:

A [acid] into W [water]

B [base] into W [water]

A [acid] into B [base].

I'll admit that I don't really measure amounts, just eyeball it. I keep a gallon jug in the bathroom, under the sink, and just pour a small "glug" (yeah, real scientific term, there :roflmho:) into the bottle. With distilled water you probably don't have to worry about chlorine (plus, my water is really hard -- I don't want other sorts of deposits clogging up my nib and feed).

I also tend to add a tiny bit of Dawn dish detergent as well, to help really clean pen innards.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[cuanmaccu]

I used to do hazardous waste sampling and we had to decontaminate the sampling equipment in various solutions and end with a rinse using distilled water. In remote locations or when doing a lot of sampling, it was easy to run out of distilled water. We questioned the lab as to what we could use instead if we had to and we were told that Poland Spring water was equivalent to using distilled water. This was quite a few years ago but when I want to use something different than tap water, I will still often reach for the Poland Spring bottle or the collected condensate from an air conditioner or dehumidifier.

Edited September 7, 2012 by cuanmaccu

[pokermind]

The "corrosive" part is what is worrying me. I guess I will have to clean with ammonia in warm months, outside.

You are over-reacting. You can clean with ammonia any time of year, inside or out.

Isn't household ammonia somewhat diluted already?

Yup, about 5-10% by weight, so what you mostly have is... water.

Also, I am guessing distilled water is safer to use than "potentially-chlorinated" tap water.

You need not worry. The amount of chlorine in tap water is significantly lower than 4mg/l (according to http://www.waterandhealth.org/drinkingwater/wp.html#chlo). You are simply not going to be generating toxic gasses by diluting ammonia in tap water.

 

Now, the label on my bottle also says "Do not soak aluminum or brass." Generally the pen parts that you will be soaking (nibs and sections) do not contain these metals, but if yours do, I'd suggest a water and dish soap soak.

 

Edited to remove/change a poorly phrased sentence that could have been mis-interpreted as being derogatory to the OP. My apologies if I offended anyone.

Edited September 8, 2012 by pokermind

[JefferyS]

Ironically, deionized water is toxic enough to kill cells in culture. It removes ions, but adds nonionic toxins. Reverse osmosis can make seawater into something potable. Chlorinated water kills bacteria, but leaves a lousy swimming pool taste. Not toxic, but revolting. I use distilled water for making developer and fixer for films. For cleaning nibs, tap water is fine.