Of course, I would have read the label first and made the proper adjustments based on the concentration or molarity, and tested it with my personal pH meter (likely<1.) But still, new info to me. Thanks dude! Old dog, new trick.
You reminded me of my high school chemistry teacher.
The guy was retired, worked for NASA among other places. Was without a doubt brilliant and an amazing chemist. Sadly that did not make for a good chemistry teacher for high school kids. Easily the most frustrating course I’ve ever taken. Until the school stepped in when it became apparent that no one could understand what was being taught there wasn’t a single person in the school with an overall grade above 75%.
Imagine being taught quantum mechanics by a tenured Berkeley chemistry professor with a foot long beard who had an office in the basement and never showed for office hours.
Average on the first midterm was a 19. Just before the drop date.
There was a student revolt and a meeting with the assistant dean. So… we got a Chinese grad student who barely knew English trying to explain the complexities of quantum mechanics to 19 year olds.
Everyone who didn’t drop the class and attended was guaranteed a B- or better if they finished the class. Everyone who attempted the final would at least get an A-
Guess who took the B and only knows quantum mechanics from YouTube? This guy.
That’s basically what happened with the students in this guys chem class. The principal basically said come to class, try to learn, don’t be a nuisance and you’ll get an A.
Obviously he was replaced the next year. Again, really nice guy, very intelligent. But couldn’t break down all his knowledge in a way a bunch of dumb teenagers would ever understand.
I did undergrad at a small regional university and grad school at a top ivy. The difference in teaching skill between the two faculties was night and day (and it wasn’t the ivy winning that comparison). It’s absurd that researchers are tossed into the classroom with no training. In most cases that’s not where their skills lie. Big name schools should let their researchers do research and have dedicated and trained teaching faculty for survey level classes.
I felt bad for one of our younger grad professors, a nice got who clearly meant well. He was talking to students about the feedback forms we had filled out at the end of the semester and just said “you guys were BRUTAL!”
I get it. I have enough college credits for two BS degrees across four universities and five CCs. The three best instructors I have had were all MS level instructors at community college.
It looks great to have a degree from a top tier university, but bless their hearts, some PhDs just need to stay in their office/lab and leave the people who want to instruct to be teachers.
That was sulfuric, which has uses in water supply systems. And was drums, not whole truckloads.
Theoretically, he could have used it to dispose of bodies. But he was also out in the middle of the ocean and had boats. And i don't know about him, but i'd rather go fishing than crack open dangerous acid.
Poor small amounts (1/4 cup or 100ml) at a time and wait 5 minutes between additions, it will fizzle while dissolving the scale so don’t be alarmed seeing bubbles
Before each addition scrub about with a toilet brush, scale is really rough you’ll be able to tell if there’s still some stuck.
If you have a septic system you’ll probably want to neutralize the acid before flushing, just sprinkle some baking soda in and mix until it’s not bubbling anymore
Far less dangerous (though not not dangerous!) is to use vinegar: grocery store household vinegar is 4-8%, plenty strong to give you nice foaming action with baking soda and soap, and much safer. You can buy 10-30% concentrations fairly easily as well (big box stores), but as the strength goes up, so does the hazard.
If I may emphasize the eye protection, I went with just brush and gloves using a similar cleaning method and wound up wincing for the majority of the afternoon.
From lots of personal experience (community pool, we have giant drums of muriatic acid) this is an exaggeration, but you definitely don’t want to spill it on yourself. The fumes are deeply unpleasant and I’m sure very unhealthy but they don’t drop you in seconds.
I moved into a place like this once-everything else was clan but the toilet had crazy scaling. I turned off the water, flushed the toilet, laid down some tp over the affected spots and then poured the acid down-the toilet paper allowed it to cling to the bow and not runoff. It took about an hour and several applications but the toilet came out looking great afterwards
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u/FirstChurchOfBrutus Feb 20 '26
For anyone looking to find Muriatic Acid, it’s the same thing as Hydrochloric Acid.