Soap scum cleaners

Household cleaners are generally used on every hard surface in the home except for dishes. In this chapter, the discussion concentrates on specialty cleaners that are formulated for specific cleaning problems, whereas all-purpose cleaners and their variants are covered in Chapter 2. This means that most of this chapter will be spent discussing cleaners used in the bathroom—such as soap scum cleaners, mildew removers, and toilet bowl cleaners. Additionally, there are cleaners that are used for extremely narrow use, such as oven and drain cleaners. Disinfectant cleaners as variants of all-purpose cleaning were covered in the previous chapter, but will also be covered here with the emphasis on the disinfectant action rather than on the cleaning function. 

Soap scum cleaners are by far the largest group of bathroom cleaners. Soap scum is a prevalent problem in almost any bathroom. Hard water deposits are more of a problem in very hard waters area such as Europe, but the precipitatiou of soap caused by hard water salts can become a problem even in areas with moderate hard water. This tends to be less of a problem in households that use shower gels or synthetic detergent (syndet) bars, because the detergents used in these products are... 

Hard Foaming Hard Surface Cleaner for Soap Scum Removal... 

Although grease is the main soil target, followed by particulate soil, for allpurpose cleaners they may also be tested against other nonkitchen problems such as soap scum. Soap scum testing is described in the section on bathroom cleaners. 

Acidic bathroom cleaners have some distinct advantages on common bathroom soils. First, the main matrix for the soil referred to as soap scum is soap that has been precipitated by water hardness ions. Imbedded in this matrix may be skin flakes, lint, dirt, etc. (see Figure 13.7), but the waxy precipitated soap serves to hold the mass together and make it adhere to surfaces. Acids can work to reverse this chemical reaction, turning some part of the soap fatty acids into liquid components (notably oleic acid). This serves to soften the soil overall and thereby make it more easily removed. Second, if there were any ion bridging of the soil to a receptive... 

Both kinds of bathroom cleaner also usually use solvents as part of the formulation. This also helps to soften and loosen the soil, particularly in the case of the alkaline cleaners that do not have the acid conversion of the calcium salts to the acid form. One unusual example in the patent literature uses a silicone surfactant and solvent to lift soap scum there are essentially no other examples of this type of formulation for this use [318],... 

These cleaners should not only be tested for their stain-removing ability, but also for their soap scum cleaning. Although such alkaline products generally show poor soap scum cleaning compared to the acid bathroom cleaners, many consumers use them for general bathroom/tile cleaning. 

The test methods for evaluating bathroom cleaners are very similar to those for evaluating all-purpose cleaners, and the ASTM published a soap scum cleaning... 

The high viscosity of certain micro emulsions is used for the adhesion of cleaner concentrates on vertical surfaces while on dilution mobile microemulsions are formed [96]. The need for this type of behaviour is especially evident when it comes to household cleaners like toilet bowl cleaners where the formulation needs to be acidic to cope with the special dirt met there, e.g. soap scum. An example of microemulsions with high viscosity for this purpose can be found in [97] which discloses acidic thickened sprayable microemulsion composition based on a balanced mixture of anionic and non-ionic surfactants,... 

When soap, which is sodium or potassium salt of various fatty acids, comes in contact with hard water, the fatty acids can be precipitated by the multivalent ions, which in high concentration forms soap scum. Of course, when soap was the only surfactant available, repeated heavy use of soap-only formulas without proper rinsing made soap scum buildup in hard water areas inevitable. The usual way to mitigate this effect is to formulate soap cleaners with chelants or builders to avoid the interaction with hardness ions. However, in practical use high amounts of builders can also leave mineral deposit on surfaces, visible as a dulling powdery residue if the cleaner is not thoroughly rinsed from the surface. 

Hard-surface cleaners are those products that are formulated to be used for household cleaning by consumers. For the purposes of this discussion, products used only in industrial and institutional cleaning of hard surfaces will not be included. (The topic of institutional and industrial cleaners is covered in a separate chapter of this book.) These I I cleaners can be quite similar to household cleaners, as they are often used on the same soil/surface combinations (e.g., soap scum on tile in a hotel shower), but the l l field is also larger than household cleaners, as it can also include dish sanitizers, metal cleaners, and malodor treatments. 

Specialty cleaners are largely a developed market phenomena. Less developed markets usually have consumers that are using all-purpose cleaners for truly all purposes. With more disposable income in developed markets, consumers can afford to have both all-purpose and specialty cleaners in their cabinets. The all-purpose cleaners are most used for greasy soil or dirt cleaning in the kitchen or household walls and floors, whereas the specialty cleaners are used for their target situations such as soap scum on bathroom surfaces. 

Most of the specialty cleaners that are formulated for household use are intended for the bathroom. Although hard water scale can occnr in any room with running water, soap scum and mildew tend to be concentrated in the bathroom. Bathroom cleaners mostly are claimed to have action against the big three of bathroom soils soap scnm, mildew (or mildew stain), and hard water buildup. These soils are best removed with specialized chemistry, and so the specialty cleaners are very successful in this area. 

As commented previously, these cleaners depend largely on the nonsurfactant ingredients. The chemistry of the cleaner is tailored more closely to the chemistry of the soil than the chemistry of all-purpose cleaners, which seek to remove the broadest variety of soils from the widest variety of surfaces. However, in practical fact, all-purpose cleaners are generally tailored to the removal of grease. This means that they can still remove soap scum or dirt or mildew from a surface, by virtue of their surfactancy, but not to the depth or with the efficiency or ease that the specialty cleaners do. This is the raison d etre of specialty cleaners—if all-purpose cleaners were really that efficient on all surfaces, then the specialty cleaners would not exist. 

Solvents, predominately the glycol ethers, are used somewhat in these specialty cleaners. In cases like soap scum, where it is an organic soil capable of softening, the glycol ethers are useful. They serve less use in removing inorganic soils like hard water deposit, where attack by acidity is far more effective. Alcohols are also sometimes used, especially in products like the shower sprays, where the soil load is light. Alcohols could also be used to adjust the viscosity of some cleaners. Solvents are also used in wipes formulas to help speed both the action of the cleaner on the surface (since it has to work essentially within the time of a swipe) and in the evaporation of the cleaner on the surface, since these are no-rinse products. 

Uses Raw material rust inhibitor wetting agent for pickling baths surfactant for acid and alkaline cleaners soap scum remover coupling agent lime soap remover... 

---