Cleaning Your Oven with Ammonia

"Easy Oven Cleaning Tip! No more harsh chemicals to clean your oven! Just use ammonia"

 Before I start, just to get this out of the way. YES, it does work. That's not what makes this a bad idea though. Ammonia is a household item that, as the decades pass, become rarely seen in most peoples houses. There's a very good reason for that actually. You see, as much as people assume a single ingredient cleaner is less harsh or scary than those modern cleaners that have a mile long ingredient list, that's not always the case. In fact, cleaning your oven with ammonia can be far more dangerous and harmful than the infamous spray-on oven cleaner most of us know.

 Let's look at this commonly touted pin/life hack.

1. Preheat to 200° then turn off. 
2. In a heat safe glass dish, fill with ammonia and set on middle rack (about 1 to 2 cups of ammonia). 
3. In another dish, fill with boiling water and set on bottom rack (2 cups). 
4. Leave overnight. 
5. The next morning, remove dishes and wipe down the inside with a hot wet sponge

There's a few problems right off the bat with this: there's no mention whatsoever of using gloves or proper ventilation. Ammonia is highly caustic and toxic and can be extremely harmful to your skin, eyes and lungs. In fact a woman in Denmark was sent into a coma from cleaning her oven this way. Which brings up another fact to keep in mind - ammonia is sold in varying strengths, from 2% to 10%, in different countries. This little life hack is meant to be used with the weaker variants found in countries like the US. When you heat up ammonia it stands a good chance of vaporizing, which is extremely dangerous. Vaporized ammonia not only can burn your eyes and lungs, it can kill you if you inhale enough (by, say, sticking your head in an oven trying to clean it).

The fact is, ammonia really isn't better for you or the environment from other forms of oven cleaners. You might look at the ingredients of such products as Easy Off and balk at what it contains, but when you read over just how bad ammonia actually is, you quickly realize that one isn't better than the other. In fact, modern day oven cleaners tend to have far fewer--if any--fumes, something ammonia surely can't claim. Not only that, if you use various other cleaners in your house, you have to be extremely careful to never EVER mix ammonia with anything that contains bleach. That can cause a reaction that produces fumes that can quite literally kill you.

In my opinion, there's a very good reason many housewives started ditching such cleaners like ammonia in favor of the modern cleaners that started appearing in the mid century and soon took over our homes. All in all, this is just not a good idea. There are many other, safer ways to clean your oven.

How To Obtain A Free Umbrella

No. No. Just no. Don't do this. Why? Because it's STEALING. Does this even need to be explained? 

Shattered Mirror Floor

"Broken glass floor - great for a bathroom floor or countertop. Just lay broken mirrors on the floor and top with polyurethane" 

I don't even know where to start with this one. That's not what this is an image of. The image quality makes me believe it came from a magazine of sorts, but I'm having a hard time finding the source. My first thought when seeing this image is that it was an artsy spread of some sort in a magazine, not some great DIY home design project.

I'd like to point out there is no sealant or polyurethane in that photo, it's just broken mirrors. Also, as someone who has done a lot of refinishing including the floors of my house, polyurethane is an extremely thin sealant - I think what the creator was the pin was thinking more of would be an epoxy resin, which on the floors wouldn't work easily, takes days to set up, and bubbles like crazy unless it's set just so or with a heat source. 

So yeah, this isn't even doable if you ask me, at least not as a DIY home project. 

Crayons As Makeshift Candles

"In an emergency, a crayon will burn for 30 minutes." 

Ok. I'm trying to get through this post without laughing. For some reason this image alone makes me laugh every single time I look at it. I also thought I would try something different and do a video post for this bad idea. Because honestly, this is a REALLY bad idea. 

UPDATE 1.24.15

We're working on a new format for the blog and are currently having problems getting the video to play properly on mobile devices.

Here is a direct link.

So lets get down to why you shouldn't do this. On youtube I found just a few videos of people attempting this. As I showed in the video, I did one crayon with your basic lighter, and another with my work torch. I actually seemed to have had better luck with my lighter than I had previously seen on other youtube videos, but the torch, due to its higher temperature and more focused flame, got the job done quicker. My theory on why this works is that it's like a reversed candle - the paper on the outside of the crayon acts as a wick, and the melting wax inside the crayon helps coat and protect the paper from just going straight up into flames. 

But they don't burn for 30 minutes. Maybe 10-15 if you're lucky. In my video I show how at the 5 minute mark it's already halfway burned though. Also, the image above has it sitting on someone's carpet. Which is just remarkable as far as "really bad ideas" go -- not only are you faced with dripping wax on your carpet, most carpets are made with synthetic fibers and when they catch fire, it's not good. The wax itself is just a simple paraffin wax, which is commonly used in candles and even foods, but this experiment caused a lot of smoke to form, leaving my studio smelling my melted crayons for quite some time. 

All in all, this is just not a good idea. The crayon itself isn't stable, making it very prone to tipping or falling over, it doesn't last long, and it puts off a lot of smoke. I can't think how this would ever be a good idea. In a pinch you're better off even making a homemade oil burning lamp with olive oil than you would this. But the majority of people generally keep candles, lanterns, and flashlights on hand in case of power outage. 

Egg Membranes to Stop Bleeding and Heal Wounds

"Who knew? If emergency occurs... While the blood is gushing - hold pressure and crack open an egg. Peel that membrane off and put it on the wound (continue holding pressure) The membrane will harden and keep the wound closed until you can get to the ER for stitches. My grandma taught my mom this and it works!" 

I don't even know where to start with this one. I guess I'll start with - gush? If you have a wound that is gushing, you need stitches, not an egg. But does it work? Well, yes apparently it DOES work; the membrane is so thin that when applied it will stick to your skin, and when dry it forms a tough glue-like barrier. But whether it works or doesn't isn't the problem -- Salmonella is. You see, most people think you can only get things like salmonella through eating contaminated foods, but you can in fact also get it via open skin and wounds. It's not a common form of contracting salmonella, but adding a possibly infected egg membrane to your cuts is just asking to gamble with statistics on this. Yes, you are more likely to get it from eating contaminated foods, but why risk being one of the few who get's it from an open cut because you couldn't bother to find a bandage?

There has actually been studies done on this (source: Pubmed), which is what a lot of people who swear by this bring out every time this idea is debated. It was used and compared to other forms of skin grafts for burn patients. However, the study only contained 18 patients and anyone who studies research will quickly point out that 18 is a VERY low number for a study. This study was also done in a controlled environment of a hospital with irradiated eggs with gamma radiation to kill off things like salmonella and other bacteria - not just your basic eggs from the supermarket. I know some people might think "What are the risks really?" But an estimated 142,000 Americans a year come down with salmonella - is it a risk you really want to take just to heal a wound?

All in all, unless it's the end of the world and zombies are rising up and there is a bizarre shortage of band-aids and medical professional arounds, you can do this, but something as simple as Super Glue would work JUST as fine, without the risk of introducing bacteria to the wound. In fact they even make skin glue for this purpose. It comes with it's own set of risks - as it can trap in dirt, foreign objects, and bacteria into the cut, causing infection - so use at your own risk. And if you have a wound that is "gushing" as the pin states, you're better off getting yourself to the nearest Urgent Care or ER then you would be sticking raw egg to your wounds. 

Home Made Glow Sticks

"Making a Glow Lantern - Materials needed: Matches, bleach, 3% hydrogen peroxide, and a jar. Cut about 20 matches at the top to get only the match heads. Throw them in the jar and mix in 3 cap-fulls of hydrogen peroxide. One more cap-full of bleach will do the trick. Put the top back on the jar and shake. This setup will stay lit of hours"

People. Please. Please. Don't start mixing chemicals together because you saw it work online. "But there's a youtube video!" you say. Yes, and with a simple trick of camera work I too can make it seem like this would work.

Unlike other hoax videos involving harmless items like Mountain Dew, this is potentially dangerous.  First off you need about 20 matches and you need to cut the heads off them then place in a jar. Mix in a dash of bleach and a pinch of peroxide and voila! you have a glow stick in a jar!

But it doesn't work that way. Technically so I've read, the bleach could act as a catalyst for the peroxide to oxidize the phosphorous that is in the match heads. But also from what I've read (because honestly, this isn't something I'm going to personally test) this would have been something that would have worked perhaps 100 years ago - the type of ingredients, mainly the phosphates, in matches today are NOT the same as what used to be and won't work with this experiment. A similar phosphate is used in more modern strike anywhere matches, but those are far more dangerous than regular matches.  Everything I've reading online of people having actually attempted this have said it's failed.

Strike anywhere matches come with a list of dangers themselves - mainly they can catch on a lot of different things and POOF! Fire! Not to mention that when you mix bleach with hydrogen peroxide you get apparently straight up oxygen - which sounds lovely but is actually not the best thing to be around. (not to mention the perfect food for fire.. which you've just introduced to about 20 strike anywhere matches) If the bleach doesn't mix right with the peroxide you also face dealing with chlorine gas, which is a nasty substance and not something you want to be around.

So all in all - chances are this isn't going to work. and if it does work, it's still dangerous. Don't believe everything you read online. And if you want to have some fun with glowing jars, you're better off just picking up some cheap glow sticks, crack them open, and dump them into the jar. (but as we all know from one of my experiment  it won't glow like a lantern) However your best bet is to just make sure your home is stocked with batteries for flashlights or lanterns in case of a power failure and save those matches for lighting candles or a fire in case of an emergency.

Unstoppable Bad Idea

This is one of those ideas that just had me confused as to who honestly thought it was OK, and more so that it seems a LOT of people don't question the safety of this.

What's that you ask? It's The new laundry product by Downy, called Unstopables, in an oil burner. Apparently if you do this, your house will have a 'just done fresh laundry' scent all day long. I've seen this all over Pinterest, and tried to find the blog that this image originated from but couldn't. I did however find a lot of people complaining that it didn't work, and just ended up smelling badly burnt.

Let's back up here. People are taking laundry products, and melting them. With out a care or thought in the world about what is IN this product. I'll give you a hint - it's not just lovely magical scent beads that are perfectly fine to melt. I can tell you right now this isn't a good idea. There is a big difference between adding something to your wash, and melting it and breathing in those heavenly scented fumes. But just to play it safe on my report, I emailed P&G directly about this. I have a feeling the woman who replied thought I had lost my ever loving mind, and gave me your pretty basic reply: 

Thanks for contacting Downy

Safety is our top priority and all our products are thoroughly evaluated to be safe when used properly. We cannot recommend using a product for a different purpose or in any way other than as explained in the instructions on the label.
Thanks again for writing

Megan - Downy Team

So there you go, direct from P&G, you really shouldn't be using something used in your wash in an oil burner. And because I'm curious enough, I looked up the actual safety data on Unstopables. Which is just full of interesting information. Not only do they recommend NOT using water if this stuff catches fire, they also directly say to avoid excessive heat and open flames. I haven't bothered to look up the ingredients to see how it could affect you if you inhale them, but I can take a guess and imagine it's probably not the best thing. (you can read the write up here (PDF) if you're interested)