Ammonia

[sudsmaster]

AFAIK, ammonia's main action in cleaning is to cut grease. So for laundry with excessive body oils or other greases and fats, it should be useful.

Useless Tidbit: Ancient Greeks and Romans used to collect urine and let it sit for a while. Over time bacteria would turn the urea in it into ammonia, which they then used for cleaning purposes (like laundry).

 

[sarahperdue]

Ammonia

This thread has been very informative. Thanks very much.

Given the info about ammonia's grease cutting action, I cleaned my 3M half face reusable respirator with a wet cloth and ammonia. It cut...whatever the goo that is a combination of skin oils, sweat and dust fairly well--better than anything I had tried up to this point. I added a dash of Dawn and a bit of water to my ammonia soaked rag, and that was pure magic!

Sarah

 

[mrboilwash]

Isn`t ammonia hard on colors and fibers just like washing soda is because of its high pH?

 

[jamiel]

I don't think high pH is necessarily hard on cellulosic/synthetic fibers (protein fibers i.e. wool/silk are a different story). Washing soda, though, causes encrustation (non-precipitating scale) which is what's hard on fabrics...the gaseous dispersion of ammonia isn't going to linger and encrust.

 

[gyrafoam]

Ammonia was a laundry staple back in the day---------

Farm workers, mechanics, miners, restaurant employees, aircraft mechanics,etc. all made good use of Ammonia on wash day.

If you were good at measuring just the right amount then the "Sudsy" Ammonia was good just by itself or with some regular detergent. Especially in areas with very hard water.

If you had soft water you had best use "clear" ammonia along with your regular detergent. Or suffer billowing oversudz conditions-----like from a Kelvinator.

And HOT wash water.

It still works very well on loads of greasy/oily fabrics.

 

[askolover]

Ammonia works on cat pee too!  When my boy cat thinks the litter box isn't clean enough he will sometimes retaliate by peeing on any piece of fabric, blanket, or robe that has fallen off the couch and on to the floor.  Ammonia always takes it out.

 

[sarahperdue]

Urine

My mother taught me to use ammonia on pet pee as well, but I don't understand how this works. Bacteria break down the components of urine into ammonia, so how does cleaning with ammonia address this problem?

Sarah

 

[sudsmaster]

As mentioned, ammonia is a good grease cutter. I wouldn't be too worried about its alkaline character vis-a-vis colorfast fabrics, as many laundry detergents are on the alkaline side, with sodium carbonat (washing soda) being quite alkaline.

Ammonia may be good for removing urine odors from fabrics because the odor causing chemicals in pet urine are not ammonia, they are probably various other organic compounds in the urine which the animals add to provide scent markers to declare their "territory".

To neutralize ammonia and other odors one can use baking soda powder or solution.

If the pet urine has gone deep into a carpet, it may have to be peeled back and cleaned from the underside, particularly if the padding gets soaked.

Ammonia is not recommended for use on wool or fur fabrics, as it will attack the keratin component of such materials. Similarly, it will cause skin irritation by a combination of its ability to strip skin oils from the tissue, drying it out, as well as its alkaline character.

Length of exposure is probably key. In a washing machine, the fabrics are exposed to an ammonia additive for less than an hour. On a carpet that is not cleaned soon enough, the pet urine will decompose into ammonia and then over time attack susceptible fibers.

Personally I don't like wall-to-wall carpets - too hard to keep clean.

 

[jamiel]

I had always understood that you did NOT use ammonia to clean pet urine messes because that would merely reinforce the signal to "pee here"!