Thread: Self Neutralizing Presprays

Self neutralizing presprays mean one thing - THEY CONTAIN A LOT OF AMMONIA. In the liquid form, ammonia has high pH to speed up the emulsification of oils and grease. Works good on hair oils and body oils.

Ammonia evaporates rather rapidly. When you smell the strong odor, you know ammonia is becoming a gas and is in the air. When it evaporate into the air, the pH goes down drmatically. Thus a prespray where ammonia is the main alkaline builder (source of pH) will self neutralize as it dries. FInal pH will be clsoe to 7.

The down-side is the fragrance or odor.

Because ammonia evaporates so fast, it may not provide the necessary dwell time for a room a carpet. It evapaortaes before it has finished doing the job of dissolving (emulsifying) the grease. But on thinner upholstery fabrics it works faster and can be a good choice in some situations.

Using an alkaline presprya and rinsing would an acid accomplishes about the same thing. You have higher pH for grease-cutting and lower or near neutral pH when the rinsing is done.

There are some presprays (carpet and upholstery) that contain products that are chemically similar to ammonia (called amines). They have the pH and cut grease like ammonia. However, they evaporate very slowly. So they don't have the odor of ammonia. But since they don't evaporate quickly they are not self-neutralizing.

Scott,

Thank you so much for that FYI about SN Chemicals. I just recently made a thread in the chemical ratings section about Kleenrite's SN Upholstery pre spray and how it didn't do a good job and left my chest burning and my face felt like it was burning for HOURS after I finished the job. NOW I know why and it makes me really uncomfortable to know I left my customers couch the same way.