@TLAR, One of the automotive shops I print for swears by this stuff for cleaning up oil. Would you mind ordering some for the Auto Area? It is more effective than Simple green which tends to be the only cleaner stocked around DMS.
Edit, here is a link for half off.
Purple power is decent as a degreaser, but its acting ingredient is sodium hydroxide, which can have pretty nasty fumes, is caustic to skin, and causes significant corrosion of aluminum. Great for cutting grease from painted or iron parts, but the fumes overwhelm pretty quickly.
As an alternative, I recommend LA’s Totally Awesome, available in 32oz bottles at any dollar store for $1 each.
http://www.lastotallyawesome.com/shop/all-purpose/awesome-all-purpose-concentrated-cleaner-32oz/
It’s a really good AP cleaner, metal-safe, not too tough on skin, great for cutting grease. Turns purple on contact with motor oil, don’t know what that’s about but it’s pretty neat. Bunch of dilution ratios listed on the bottle for various stuff, but I typically go straight because it’s so cheap. The only thing I don’t recommend it on is windows- seems to leave a residue if it dries before it’s wiped or rinsed off, which is more common on sun-heated windows.
As for degreasing concrete, not too big on purple power. Haven’t had much success. Laundry powder seems to work better.
Side note on oil clean-up. I know we tend to use clay litter for spills, but has anyone looked into Zep absorber?
https://www.homedepot.com/p/ZEP-3-lbs-Instant-Spill-Absorber-ZUABS3/100670189
I’ve used it at home, it seems to do a better job than clay litter at a similar price per gallon of absorbed fluid. Plus 3lbs of the stuff gets you as far as about 40lbs of clay litter, which is a big sell if you’re like me and don’t like moving heavy amorphous objects like bags of litter. (Or sweeping up 60lbs of combined litter and “how’d that hole get in that oil pan?”)
I think the problem with using spill absorber is that people use gratuitous amounts (“more is better!”) and would probably have a higher waste factor than litter.
Purple power works well. I’ve never used it on concrete floors. Whatever degreaser is in the spray bottle has always seemed to work fine for my spilled oil in auto.
I would like to have a larger container of concentrate around rather than just the small bottles, because I helped clean up a large spill after a member dropped and broke one of the large containers of oil. Then the member tried to clean the mess with a bucket of water and a mop, only spreading it around an area about the size of 1/3 of the automotive area.
Spraying simple green over that area to break up the oil was a beast of a task. ended up taking 4 applications of simple green and moppings. Simple Green is just too weak of a oil cutter for larger spills like this. Yes purple power stinks a bit, but it cuts big messes of oil quickly. Also, the smell makes you use it a bit sparingly, because as you smell it you know it is working, unlike other cleaners that don’t have much smell which tend to be over applied and wasted.
Tried simple green extreme? Formerly simple green aircraft. (Was made so that it wouldn’t interact with AC paint…) It actually has a different chemical formula than the regular stuff.
Don’t know how effective it would be on large spills, but I used some today on old grease and it cut right through it. Got a whole range of suggested dilutions based on the application.
Probably a dumb suggstion - isn’t there a near-limitless supply of sawdust in the woodshop? I use it at home but then I don’t have to deal with fire marshal inspections, or quantities that DMS would, so maybe it’s not a good idea.
Sawdust is fine for a initial clean up, but you have to clean up the oil left behind on the surface of the concrete. In my situation, I followed the miss guided attempt of someone cleaning up the mess with a bucket of water and a mop, effectively spreading a thin layer of oil across 1/3 of the automotive area. Saw dust would of only made the mess worse at that point.
We are not talking about a large cost to anyone, $24.88 for 5 gallons of cleaner. I don’t see the risk of lost value worth this level of discussion. It is a cleaner, it will get used.
Not as a matter of cost, but as a matter of having 5 gallons of stuff around, maybe we should test the viability of the product for our application with a smaller sample? It’s available in spray bottles and a gallon size, which are both more manageable in the event that it turns out to be poorly suited for DMS use.
Not to mention, having an excess of the stuff around might inspire excessive use.
Don’t get me wrong, Purple Power is pretty good and it has its uses, but those uses all involve nitrile gloves and ventilation. And I don’t strictly trust the average user to take sufficient safety precautions for 5 gallons of “don’t get it in your eyes” until we’ve proven 40oz of “don’t breathe this” is a good option.
I don’t know what I would do around my shop without purple cleaner, as I find lots of degreasing and general cleaning uses for it. I normally use it diluted 50/50 or maybe just slight more water depending on what mood I am in when mixing, and yes, it will strip paint…
I personally never use gloves or get to worried about ventilation with it, as the smell really isn’t much and while it can dry your hands out a little when full strength, it really isn’t a big deal. My only concern with buying 5 gallons of it, is that there is an easy/clean way to dispense it, as people will manage to spill it everywhere if trying to pour directly out of a bucket.
Zep also makes a purple degreaser that works really well:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/ZEP-5-Gal-Industrial-Purple-Degreasers-ZU08565G/100619267
Maybe I’ve got thin skin or something, but every time I’ve used it, it burned whatever it came in contact with. Not to mention the coughing fits, but then the latter may have been more due to spraying a bunch of it on an engine that needed degreasing in a cramped garage. If that makes me the lowest common denominator, so be it, but that’s the kind of folk we’re dealing with.
I still say “trial run with a smaller sample”.