Just wanted to throw this out there. I was recently laid off from the oilfield and we use a product called bentonite that is a natural gel that is used to make the drilling fluid thicker. It is a natural product and increases many times in size when mixed with water. I'm wondering if there are any possibilities for this industry. Don'y know how it would react with the SH. A 50 lb bag can be purchased for $9.00 and I would imagine a cupful mixed with 50 gals would be plenty. Anyway, I'm a newbie and just getting my rig ready but when I get cracking I will test this product and see how it works. Could save $$$ on surfactants.
Before you test this make sure theres nothing in the thickner that will have a bad reaction with the sh infact why don't you post whats in it so we all can put our heads together , your doin your homework keep it up
Thanks. I will be careful and will try to read up on any adverse chemical reactions with other chemicals.
Chris T. of Apple and myself have discussed and researched Bentonite as a thickening agent as well.
I have personally tried a variety of ways to thicken up the mix to keep more cleaning agent on the roof, where it can do its job of cleaning instead of some amount invaraibly dripping on plants or on the ground where it is just wasteful and an unneeded expense when less chemical could be used.
At that kind of price per 50lb bag it could be a solution to longer dwell times and less runoff.
I've researched so much, there are many positives to this if proportioned properly in accordance to how much roof cleaning mix you are going to use.
We, in that I mean, Myself and Chris, recently had a long phone discussion on looking into this and other thickening agents again further .
Steve, please kindly continue to some MORE of your own research as well.
Look at chemical compatibility charts and look at interaction levels and MSDS sheets for Bentonite.
Chris and I post enough material on this board.
Steve, I put it to you to research patents, old files and records about test studies using thickening agents.
These are topics that you can post about and that help the roof cleaning community at large.
Help yourself and help others here as well by finding out more about this and other additives that can be used to increase hang time/dwell time and which are chemically compatable with SHC and then keep a journal of your discoveries and research , then you can begin revealing your findings here on the board?
Thanks Dave. I will continue to research this. I do think it has possibilities in this industry. I know you and Chris have contributed a vast amount of info to this board and I hope I can be at least 1/100th as valuable to this board as you guys have. I'll post more when I find out more.
Nick, That is a great article! It is pretty interesting to see the ability of products like this to increase dwell time and to help stabilize and prolong the shelf life of sodium hypochlorite.
I'm going to try to find a source for this and experiment with it. I have a roof coming up in a couple of weeks that would be a good test subject for this.
Everyone should read this article. It has a lot of really good information in it.
Brian
-- Edited by theroofcleaners on Tuesday 21st of July 2009 09:08:10 AM
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Brian Friel The Roof Cleaners llc Oxford PA 19363 610 842 2104