Internet Advice? It'll Kill You!!

[Chatter-box]

My mother's caregiver spilled part of a pizza in the over yesterday and it started smoking something aweful when I tried to use it this morning so I did a really stupid thing and looked on the internet for advice on how to make an oven cleaner from what I had around the house. Well, the site said to mix chlorx and vinigar and lemon juice and dish washing soap and rub it in and wait 45 minutes and wash it off. Sounds easy, tight? Well they didn't say that when you mix chlorx and vinigar you end up with chlorine gas! There I was with my head in that over wondering why I couldn't breathe and why my chest felt like it was a bad burn with your fingernails scraping over it and why I was getting worse and worse. I had to keep forcing my head inside to keep putting all that stuff on the walls and top and floor of that oven and finally I just couldn't do it anymore. I just couldn't breathe and my lungs burned so very badly I just couldn't take it anymore. I had to cough but I couldn't breathe in because of the pain and I just got out of the kitchen and when my mom, an elderly retired doctor, saw me she said to call poison control. Good idea. I had had quite an exposure they said and I did what they said to do to treat it here but they said I may get worse tonight with pulmanory edema because of the chemical burn to my lungs that keeps getting worse for several hours. Oh, great! Now I'll have to stay awake all night to try not to die. I may be being dramatic but I still feel aweful, and I'm suposed to work tomorrow. I don't have health insurance or I'd go to the ER but I did learn something from all this, DO NOT MIX CHEMICALS TO CLEAN YOUR OVEN!!

 

[Meetz1064]

Ohhhh, I

am sooooooo sorry you had this happen to you! That's just SOO not cool!

Please take care of yourself, and take it easy!!!

 

[batman]

Safety First!

Careful Chatter-box, what you did to that oven, might not be over.

Here's some questions I don't know the answers to just yet.

If a mixture of chlorx (bleach) and vinegar was used to clean an oven, then are there any steps that need to be taken in order to make that oven safe to cook in again? Or, would the safest step be just to get a new oven?

 

[Nakamova]

I hope you feel better soon, and thanks for the warning. I know chlorine is very tricky and mixing it is even trickier, even with water.

 

[drarvindr]

which doofus posted advice like this? you could have been killed !
anyway bleaching powder + ch3cooh (vinegar) = chlorine water and carbon dioxide.
the moron probably though along the lines of :
1)the acid alkali mixture of lemon juice and soap
2) chlorine gas
would wipe you stains off from the oven by sheer force of reaction
this is the kind of advice given by people who chuck a lit match at a can of gasoline "just to see what happens" . it'll bleach stains off but probably choke you too. I don't remember much of inorganic chem but i think you should be safe if you air out the oven well and clean it with water.

best to get a pro to look the oven over before you cook anything in it.

 

[Chatter-box]

I never thought cleaning an oven would turn out like that. I ended up needing to go to the ER because it got so hard to breathe and my chest was hurting so badly when I did. This gas makes you need to cough over and over and really conjested like a bad cold but with such a severe bruning pain you just can't do it. Trying to lie down just made it worse. I'm a lot better now. Coughing is still rather painful but I'm sure a lot better than while I was cleaning that poisonous oven. I guess I'd better take it easy for a day or so.

 

[brain]

And one more SERIOUS advice!

Just an additional advice

NEVER EVER mix Bleach and Ammonia!

I know some folks who have done just that,
and I will spare you all the details - but let's
say the area was evacuated.

I am sure glad you are okay and stick to oven
cleaners that are designed for ovens or read
your oven's manual, if you don't have one,
you can always go to the manufacturer's
website and look at it there. But whatever you
do - Stay away from homemade remedies for
ovens!

((((((((((((( hugs ))))))))))))))))

Glad you are not seriously injured and your
lungs weren't severely damaged by this!
You can always get another oven if this one
ends up being damaged, but your lungs
cannot be replaced!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For all you folks out there reading this:

WHENEVER IN DOUBT - READ THE MANUAL
OR CALL YOUR MANUFACTURER - DON'T
TAKE THE RISK - IT'S NOT WORTH IT!

 

[joan]

I learned the hard way. As a single woman I figured to be "extra" clean, I would bleach my sinks and use ammonia on my floors. Next thing I know is Im waking up in a hospital looking like a raccoon.. I learn quick!! lol and never did it agan. But I am sure many people dont know about many dangerous combinations*

I hope you all well*
joan*

Just an additional advice

NEVER EVER mix Bleach and Ammonia!

I know some folks who have done just that,
and I will spare you all the details - but let's
say the area was evacuated.

I am sure glad you are okay and stick to oven
cleaners that are designed for ovens or read
your oven's manual, if you don't have one,
you can always go to the manufacturer's
website and look at it there. But whatever you
do - Stay away from homemade remedies for
ovens!

((((((((((((( hugs ))))))))))))))))

Glad you are not seriously injured and your
lungs weren't severely damaged by this!
You can always get another oven if this one
ends up being damaged, but your lungs
cannot be replaced!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For all you folks out there reading this:

WHENEVER IN DOUBT - READ THE MANUAL
OR CALL YOUR MANUFACTURER - DON'T
TAKE THE RISK - IT'S NOT WORTH IT!

 

[Cint]

I am sure glad you are okay and stick to oven
cleaners that are designed for ovens or read
your oven's manual, if you don't have one,
you can always go to the manufacturer's
website and look at it there. But whatever you
do - Stay away from homemade remedies for
ovens!



[/B]

I use only those oven cleaners, but when I apply them, I need to make sure I have plenty of ventilation and I have to wear a surgical mask or shield my mouth and nose with a towel, and stay away for awhile, otherwise it hurts my lungs.

 

[Rae1889]

"Tell Me Why: Why Can't I Mix Bleach and Ammonia?

Because the giant warning on the bottle in bright red print with a skull and cross bones isn't enough, hundreds of people are wheeled into emergency rooms every year after mixing a deadly combination of ammonia and bleach- a corrosive concoction that can cause the lungs to fill with liquid.

Household bleach is 5% sodium hypochlorite. Mix it with ammonia and mono- and di-chloramines are formed. These nasty fellows will cause lovely symptoms such as respiratory tract irritation, tearing, and nausea. To make things better, add water to get hydrochloric acid and nascent oxygen- also known as chlorine gas, the chemical weapon of choice of Nazi Germany in World War II- for the added bonus of drowning in your own fluids!

Should a person misguidedly join these two in a most unholy matrimony, they may feel fine for a short period of time until they notice white spots in their peripheral vision. (That would be the lack of oxygen to the brain.) Then they may feel woozy. Then if they're lucky, they'll wake up on a gurney in the emergency room with a breathing tube down their throat and a totally hot doctor-- who probably thinks they are an idiot.

As a rule of thumb, never mix any household cleaners together, ever- as many of them have either a bleach or ammonia base. In the quest for a supercleaner, you'll have to use that good ol' fashioned never-fail product- elbow grease!"

 

[BuckeyeFan]

Glad to hear Chatter is still chattering. Whew!!!!


Add to the advice above - DO NOT add dish soap to clorox or ammonia. The reaction won't be as strong, but some dish soaps have similar compounds in them. The clorox/ammonia mistake is very common. My brother-in-law got a weak dose of it this summer. I probably saw it 3-4 times while an EMT.

Should be part of a high school class somehow.

 

[Chatter-box]

Gosh, I'm not the only one who made that stupid mistake. I wish I'd known how that experience would go down. I would certainly have made a safer choice. It's left me with a kind of silly clorox-phobia. I know it's silly, but in my job I go into stores and audit their displays of various products. Now when I go to the laundry soap aisle and see those clorox bottles lining those shelves my first impulse is to RUN!!

 

[joan]

I dont think Ive ever used ammonia again although my husband does call me the "Bleach Queen". lol

Im also not sure in 1979 they had warning on the bottles.

joan*