How do I mix and scale up homemade oxiclean?

[Cro Magnon]

I've got some Hydrogen peroxide and washing soda. I've read to mix equal parts water and peroxide and washing soda - meaning for eg. 1 cup water + 1/2 cup each of h2O2 and washing soda. THing is the peroxide is a 35% solution. It says to dilute it to a 3% solution if the need arises. Would this be a need? And secondly, how do I scale this up. For eg if I'm washing like 15 bottles. Do I measure the volume of water first and then accordingly the others? So if I use 5 litres of water, I'm using 2.5 litres of peroxide and washing soda??? Seems like a lot!

 

[Gruel]

I'm not sure why you would want to do this (mix hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate).
My understanding is that sodium percarbonate (the main ingredient - 65% or so - in oxiclean) is a cheap and convenient way to generate hydrogen peroxide; cheaper than buying the 3% hydrogen peroxide mix with 97% water.
If you just want the bleaching action, and you do already have hydrogen peroxide, why not use the hydrogen peroxide alone without adding the sodium carbonate?

Sodium percarbonate is 2 Na2CO3 plus 3 H2O2. So if you wanted exactly the same ratio, you'd need 2/3 Na2CO3 plus 1/3 H2O2 by weight. Since your H2O2 is 35%, I think you'd need 2 parts washing soda and 3 parts 35% hydrogen peroxide by weight.

 

[Cro Magnon]

I'm not sure why you would want to do this (mix hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate).
My understanding is that sodium percarbonate (the main ingredient - 65% or so - in oxiclean) is a cheap and convenient way to generate hydrogen peroxide; cheaper than buying the 3% hydrogen peroxide mix with 97% water.
If you just want the bleaching action, and you do already have hydrogen peroxide, why not use the hydrogen peroxide alone without adding the sodium carbonate?

Sodium percarbonate is 2 Na2CO3 plus 3 H2O2. So if you wanted exactly the same ratio, you'd need 2/3 Na2CO3 plus 1/3 H2O2 by weight. Since your H2O2 is 35%, I think you'd need 2 parts washing soda and 3 parts 35% hydrogen peroxide by weight.

Hey thanks for your reply. The only reason I considered this is because I was advised to use oxiclean, which we don't get here, so I found recipe to make it at home....but I think I'm missing something...you say why would I want to make percarbonate if I already have hydrogen peroxide? So is the only reason percabonate is an ingredient in oxiclean, to release the peroxide as the desired cleaning agent? So you're saying a 3% peroxide solution is all the cleaning I need to clean bottles, fermenters etc? What about the bleaching effect? I happened to burn myself pretty bad with the 35% solution...instantly bleached my fingers and took 20 mins of continuous, vigorous washing to remove. That being said I know 3% H2O2 has infinite uses as a cleaner....so I'm not sure what to do. I've just been using dishwashing detergent but on another thread someone was saying it leaves a residue which may cause some problems.

 

[Gruel]

No, I was not saying that 3% hydrogen peroxide is all you need for cleaning. It might do the job for sanitizing, after cleaning. I do not know. I have never used 3% hydrogen peroxide for brewing purposes.

Here is an interesting article on a brewing specific cleaning problem: The removal and prevention of beer stone

 

[Cro Magnon]

Ah ok....sanitizing is not an issue for me cos I have iodophor. It's only cleaning. Can I use just plain washing soda then? Thanks for the link will check it out!