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Polverone
Now celebrating 21 years of madness
Posts: 3186
Registered: 19-5-2002
Location: The Sunny Pacific Northwest
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Mood: Waiting for spring
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the end of Red Devil Lye
I have it on good authority that Red Devil lye, every American's favorite source of OTC NaOH, is no longer being distributed to retailers.
Somebody on a soapmaking forum was mentioning that grocery stores in her area didn't seem to have it anymore. They weren't getting
restocked. She called up the manufacturer and was told it was no longer being made or distributed as of September 1.
I wonder why it was discontinued. Liability? Lack of profitability? Negative association with those evil, house-exploding, baby-eating meth cooks?
I further wonder if anyone else will take up selling sodium hydroxide through retail outlets, or if it will go the way of the dodo and of nitric acid
from the corner drugstore.
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woelen
Super Administrator
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This sounds bad. As I mentioned in another thread, over here in The Netherlands concerned people also are discussing the banning of solid NaOH (and
also 97% H2SO4) for the general public. These chemicals are thought to be too corrosive and dangerous in the hands of untrained people, they are not
idiot-proof  . Another reason that concerned people mention for banning is that
in the last few months some young boys made NaOH/Al mixes in capped bottles and left these alone in shopping places  .
[Edited on 8-9-2005 by woelen]
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Magpie
lab constructor
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It looks like another US institution has been killed. I can't imagine that it wasn't profitable as I haven't seen any
competitor's product on the shelves. Also the soapmakers are missing it already and it is only September 7. So there is a healthy demand.
I wouldn't be surprised if liability concerns and/or government pressures aren't involved. As I reported earlier Simplot has opted out of
the ammonium nitrate fertilizer business recently due to those concerns.
Thanks for the warning. I'm going to pickup a couple lbs of Red Devil tommorrow.
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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ChemHack
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Can we have some independent confirmation of this rumor?
I am at two with nature.
- Woody Allen
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Blind Angel
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this kind of thing didn't help:
http://www.mamasite.net/catalog/booklets/red_devil_lye.shtml
and i'm pretty sure that you can confirm by yourself by calling. Meh, it's bad, but still NaOH is easily available, it's not necessarly
available in store but you can order it by the kg over eBay or any good chemical supplier w/o suspicion (yet).
Stil, let us mourn this other victim of the drug war.
/}/_//|//) /-\\/|//¬/=/_
My PGP Key Fingerprint: D4EA A609 55E4 7ADD 8529 359D D6E2 33F6 4C76 78ED |
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S.C. Wack
bibliomaster
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As far as grocery stores in this area (two different states, pop. >500,000), it is true. Some stopped selling it two years ago, the rest that
carried it in recent history stopped doing so a few months ago. Still to be found elsewhere for a higher price, but perhaps soon we could be talking
about boiling alkali carbonate and agricultural lime for OTC-ness. Well, we'll see.
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vulture
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Well, apparently, the EU is gonna send some disaster relief ships to Louisiania. You guys want me to throw in a few tons of NaOH?
Say for declogging the sewer system in New Orleans?
One shouldn't accept or resort to the mutilation of science to appease the mentally impaired.
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Polverone
Now celebrating 21 years of madness
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Location: The Sunny Pacific Northwest
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Here's the forum that had the announcement: http://www.soapdishforum.com/forum/
You'll see the administrator has posted a sticky notice at the top of each forum about the discontinuation. You can find a couple of threads
about it if you do a forum search for red devil lye.
Here's what one of the people on the site, a bulk reseller of sodium hydroxide for soap production, said:
| Quote: | Red Devil issued a statement a few weeks ago saying that they will no longer be selling to distributors as of Sept 1st. The reason is most of their
outlets no longer will carry it due to liability issues surrounding meth production. Their sales for this product have been steadily decreasing over
the last 18 months and it is no longer in their best interests to continue manufacturing it. They introduced a replacement product on the market that
contains no lye.
This will not affect our supply as we purchase from bulk manufacturers. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact us.
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Multiple soapers have apparently called the manufacturer to register their displeasure. <A
HREF="http://www.reckittbenckiser.com/">Reckitt Benckiser</A>, the manufacturer, no longer mentions the product on their site as
far as I can tell.
Someone in one of those soap forum threads said that Lowes carries another 100% sodium hydroxide product that isn't Red Devil, but didn't
mention a name.
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Fleaker
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Now not even soda lye! What is it coming to?
I mean sure, there are other sources for it, but it's just so convenient to run out to the hardware store and get some.
I heard tell that potassium permanganate at large home improvement stores may soon be removed/replaced.
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chloric1
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Although the Menard's in better areas always seems to have permanganate, the one closest to my house has not stocked for 1 year and they just now
got it back on there shelves. At $16.99 for 5 pounds I can hardly pass it up!
Fellow molecular manipulator
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((Blasta))
Harmless
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have no fear those chemicals are still here...
Well maybe not for general public use...but man, if you were to go to any major janitorial outfit you could easily buy both products! I can get both
pure NaOH and 93% H2SO4 for cheap prices.
use caution---explosives in transport
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cyclonite4
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Man, that is sad. I hope the same doesn't happen in Australia. I've noticed that oxalic acid is becoming less common, I wonder why?
Correct me if I'm wrong (I wouldn't know, I don't cook meth), but isn't water used at some stage in meth production? If so, stock
up on distilled water!
Anyways, I feel sorry for you guys (including soapmakers). 
\"It is dangerous to be right, when your government is wrong.\" - Voltaire
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chloric1
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Oxalic acid
Yes I happen to have 5lb that I purchased years back and I am discovering all kinds of cool round the house stuff and workshop related projects. I
made canary yellow ferrous oxalate yesterday and cleaned the 2 year old rust stains from my morter and pestle! No scrubbing absolutely brand new!! I
want to try other rust stained items in my home! It is very soluble at room temp but quite soluble at 70 or 80 C
[Edited on 9/13/2005 by chloric1]
Fellow molecular manipulator
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lacrima97
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i know of a gas station that has about 20 bottles or so of red devil lye, and bottles of pure ephedrine :-/ , it might be a crooked store though.
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daeron
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similar things have been happening all over the world-the victoms:
naoh,h2so4,fuckin hcl,KI,KBr,etc
the explenation-there was either a case where a wife poured some naoh in the soup,or someone tried to blind someone w h2so4,or simply cos it can be
used for boooo druug maaaakin
we are the last generations of alchemists
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quicksilver
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RED DEVIL may have opped for another venue but in the USA a company called ROEBIC makes a "heavy-duty drain opener" that their MSDS says is
technical grade Na Hydroxide and sells for $7 for one Kg in a small keg.
It is available in most lg hardware stores. This is not waste chems like some who sell H2SO4 as a black sludge but a fairly high quality chemical
product. There are MANY places to buy H2SO4 as a technical grade as well. Red Devil may have sold a clean product but there are so many, many others
who do as well. I actually have found almost everything as technical grade I could use in between 5 stores.
There was a thread awhile back on this subject and a fairly comete list was made but every so often it just needs to be updated. Perhaps that project
should continue.
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MadHatter
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Red Devil
Chloric1, that's a great price for KMnO4 ! As for Red Devil Lye, I bought 18 LBS some
years ago to strengthen my grease cutting solutions. I still have most of it. But
I may need stock in higher bulk if any is left on the shelves at local stores. Lye is still
the principal component in many liquid drain cleaners which could probably be crystallized
out of solution, although at a higher cost. Curiously, the price of Red Devil had almost
doubled in the last few years.
The meth makers won't be deterred - build a better mouse trap, build an even better
mouse ! The manufacturers of Red Devil are kissing the DEA's ass !
From opening of NCIS New Orleans - It goes a BOOM ! BOOM ! BOOM ! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !
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lordmagnus
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I'll have to check, but ZEP brand and Roebic brand shoudl be good
Both the ZEP drain opener crystals, and the ROEBIC drain opener should be technical grade NaOH. ROEBIC can be found at most LOEW'S HOME IMPROVEMENT,
and ZEP products can be found at HOME DEPOT. I have a whole bottle of ROEBIC ROOT KILLER (Copper sulphate penta hydrate).
I\'ll kill a man in a fair fight, or if I think he is gonna start a fair fight, or if he\'s bothrn me allot, or if I am getin payed good, or probably
over a good woman.
-Jayne Cobb (Serenity) |
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Magpie
lab constructor
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I've been watching the inventory of Red Devil Lye at my local Safeway grocery. It was holding steady at about 12 containers since Polverone's
announcement. For the last 2 days it has been zero.
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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MadHatter
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Lye
Lordmagnus, I'll check that out just out of plain curiosity. There are several Home Depots,
Lowes and Ace Hardwares where I live. If it came down to it I could physically separate Drano,
despite the green color and expense.
P.S. Check your U2U
From opening of NCIS New Orleans - It goes a BOOM ! BOOM ! BOOM ! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !
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mrjeffy321
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Since I confirmed this Red Devil Lye discontinuation for myself, I have been covertly buying up a lot of bottle of Lye before its too late.
Sure, you could substitute another brand, but the ones I see (Roebic inparticular) are much more expensive than Red Devil.
I have found that Albersons Grovery store still sells it (assuming they havent rub out of stock) and they sell it at a discount because it is a
discontinued item.
So goto your local Albertsons and stock up...just not my Albertsons [although it might be a tad suspicous to buy 10 bottles at once].
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Magpie
lab constructor
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My Albertson's is out also. I did find 8 containers at another large grocery store, and bought one. My inventory is now 3 ea 1lb containers.
Other than Red Devil fast becoming collectors' items tell me why I should buy up more.
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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vulture
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I just hope this isn´t another scheme to have the same product reappear later with a different name and a higher price...
One shouldn't accept or resort to the mutilation of science to appease the mentally impaired.
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DeAdFX
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| Quote: | Originally posted by vulture
I just hope this isn´t another scheme to have the same product reappear later with a different name and a higher price... |
I doubt this is of importance but one my lye bottles has measurement in grams and the other doesn't. The one that has the gram measurement 18oz
510grams was bought a few years back while the oz only was bought a few weeks ago.
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S.C. Wack
bibliomaster
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Location: Cornworld, Central USA
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Its official - the last bastion of RDL in this not small city that I live in - Ace - has recently stopped selling it at all of its many local stores.
Even though it is still listed on its site, and there are two local distributors given: http://www.reckittprofessional.com/find_a_product/products/r...
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