# Isopropyl and dissolving things

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isopropyl-and-dissolving-things/557006>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 13, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isopropyl-and-dissolving-things/557006 "2010-10-13T15:21:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isopropyl-and-dissolving-things/557006/1 "2010-10-13T15:21:28Z")

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Hello Dopers,

I keep hearing from people not to use rubbing alcohol on this or on that because it will damage the plastic, paint, finish, etc. I often use 99.953% anhydrous isopropyl for cleaning things and I am yet to see it dissolve any paint or finish on anything. Have I just been lucky? The only thing I know experimentally is that it weakens certain epoxies.

Are there or were there ever household items (electronics, furniture finishes, CDs, etc.) that can actually be dissolved or damaged by cleaning them with isopropyl? My gut feeling is that the folklore around it is due to people conflating acetone with isopropyl – is that the case?

Regards,

Groman

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**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isopropyl-and-dissolving-things/557006/2 "2010-10-13T15:48:10Z")

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I’ve seen various charts that list how different sorts of plastics can handle different chemicals. Off the top of my head I recall that there are a number of plastics that can be damaged by contact with alcohols. These charts will specify that isopropyl alcohol will not damage certain materials, will very slowly corrode or weaken other materials over time, and will quickly damage some materials.

[This vendor](http://www.coleparmer.com/techinfo/chemcomp.asp) has a compatibility lookup tool; they say that nylons and polyurethanes will be significantly damaged by isopropyl alcohol (without specifying how exactly).

In terms of what you’ll find around the house, polyurethane is used to finish furniture, and a lot of fiddly plastic mechanical bits (like gears in a toy) are nylon.

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**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isopropyl-and-dissolving-things/557006/3 "2010-10-13T16:24:20Z")

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I’d imagine it’s a problem with, say, shellac. But then so is spilling a glass of vodka.

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**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isopropyl-and-dissolving-things/557006/4 "2010-10-13T17:32:32Z")

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Isopropyl alcohol certainly dissolves a lot of inks and paints used for printing labels on electronics. I’ve never had it dissolve the plastic itself though.

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**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isopropyl-and-dissolving-things/557006/5 "2010-10-13T20:21:36Z")

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Many glues don’t do well with alcohols. We were trying to sneak vodka somewhere we probably shouldn’t have so we had it in paper coffee cups from the office, and that didn’t work too well.