I have cats, and occasionally I have to clean up piss or spray, and I have found that bleach works great for taking out the smell. However ,I know it reacts with the ammonia and forms a toxic gas. So what other chemicals might be used that can breakdown or destroy ammonia?
Whatever is in Urine-Off works pretty well, I think its actually bacteria
Since ammonia is a base, I’d assume that a mild acid, such as vinegar would counteract it. I’m no expert on cat urine though, so no guarantees.
Hmm…what ratio of vinegar to ammonia would neutralize it?
1:1.
It’s true that vinegar will react with ammonium hydroxide to produce ammonium acetate, but the likelyhood of mixing the two in exactly 1:1 molar equivalents is not good. I don’t know if I would prefer an ammonia or vinager smell, they are both bad. When you are talking about urine, there are many compounds other than ammonia that account for the smell. Simply treating the ammonia will not be sufficient.
I personally wouldn’t worry too much about the gases emited when using bleach to clean up urine. The bleach will quickly overpower the ammonia to produce a small amount of nitrogen trichloride (and other chloramines). The nitrogen trichloride is so reactive that it will quickly be quenched by the other organic residues in the urine. Since the ratio of bleach to ammonia is so high, the release of chlorine gas is unlikely. I guess that depends on how you dilute your bleach though. Even so, you aren’t talking about large quantities of chlorine gas.
An alternative might be to use a peroxide based cleaner, though I am unfamiliar with the efficacy of these on urine. As mentioned above (Urine Off), there are numerous enzyme based cleaners that are specifically designed for urine. I personally use the enzyme based cleaners for pet stains and they work well.
I second what Christopher said, and will add that the best enzymatic cleaner I’ve come across is Nature’s Miracle. It got all the smell out of the carpeting in my car (long story). It’s also good for dog and human urine.
Like an episode of CSI long?
Christopher, I’m going to have to disagree, although all I have is anecdotal evidence.
My job last year was training dogs, and I had several pups who had some bladder control issues in crates. I tended to clean the crates with a 10% bleach in water solution. One day I used that bucket to wipe up a puddle a pup had left me - while I was on my hands and knees in the crate.
The vapor was terrifying - burning my eyes and lungs immediately. I flew out of that crate, and almost called 911, but I’m a cheapskate, and waited it out. I don’t know exactly what was caused, but it was WAY worse than bleach or ammonia.
My take - if you are going to do bleach + ammonia, be in a well ventilated area, no matter what.
I wanted to see if vinegar kills ammonia smell.
So I did an experiment…
Step 1: I took 1/4 cup ammonia and smelled it.
Results: Holy shit! My nose hairs are gone!
Step 2(control group): I mixed 1/4 cup ammonia with 1/4 cup water.
Results: Same as Step 1.
Step 3: Mixed 1/4 cup ammonia with 1/4 cup vinegar.
Results: Smells like watered down vinegar.
So vinegar seems to work, and the reduction in smell was not from dilution.
Since vinegar is a acid and ammonia a base, I wonder why there was no visible reaction (like when mixing baking soda and vinegar).
Did anything get warmer, or am I misremembering HS chem?
Do not mix bleach with anything. It’s just too damn dangerous.
Use vinegar on urine stains.
Not the greatest GQ post I’ve ever seen - care to elaborate?
It all depends on what is produced by the reaction. If it produces a gas, like CO2, then it’ll bubble up, if it produces a solid compound, then you’ll get flakes of stuff settling out, if it produces a water soluble liquid, you won’t see a thing, unless the liquid has a color. It will also release energy, but likely too little to make a noticeable difference, given how the reactants are pretty well diluted with water.
No, nothing that nefarious. No human soup in the trunk.
I picked my cat up from being neutered. He was asleep when I got there, and the assistant that got him out of the cage didn’t give him a chance to use the litter box (I’m assuming, based on what happened later)
I put him in the car but decided to be nice and not make him ride in his hated carrier, since it was clear that he was feeling a bit low. He curled up on the floor of the passenger side.
A few miles down the road he was fully awake and nature called. He answered on the floor of the passenger side.
It was hot out that day, and I had a 45 minute drive home in rush hour traffic.
Yuck.
In the weeks that followed, I tried everything to get the smell out. I scrubbed with detergent. That helped a little. I tried vinegar. That really didn’t seem to do much. I used Febreeze. Then I had a car that smelled like cat pee and flowers. I didn’t want to use bleach and trash the color of the carpet. Someone recommended Nature’s Miracle, and that completely did the trick. I’ve got a very sensitive nose, and there wasn’t a trace of cat pee left after a few days.
This also came in handy when we learned that the cat had an obsession with peeing on our waterbed.
The things I’ve put up with for that cat. . .
the product of mixing an acid and a base is a salt. You mixed acetic acid (vinegar) and ammonium hydroxide (ammonia dissolved in water). The products were the salt ammonium acetate and water. Neither of these are gases, therefore you do not see a gas being formed. When you mix sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) with acetic acid (vinegar) you get sodium acetate and carbonic acid. Neither of these are gases either, but the carbonic acid quickly undergoes a secondary reaction by decomposing to carbon dioxide and water.
Not all reactions are exothermic.
Contrary to what has been stated as fact in this thread, urine does not usually contain much ammonia. For the most part, nitrogen is excreted as urea which over time hydrolizes to ammonia. If the urine is acidic enough, then that could cause the release of chlorine gas.
My take - don’t ever mix bleach and ammonia.
I couldn’t have put it better myself.
That said, I used bleach to clean up cat urine in my bathroom for years without an issue, but the bathroom was well ventilated and I am a bit hardened towards the effects of chemicals. Don’t ever use bleach in an area that is not well ventilated. Even without generating chlorine gas, strong bleach solutions can overwhelm you.
The best thing for cleaning up urine, are the enzymatic based cleaners. Vinegar may help, but it will not eliminate all of the smell.