I have a gut feeling a customer is going to ask if Snotmenade/Elemonator is a ‘soap’ with all this virus scare going around. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly won’t promote it as ‘antiviral’ or even mention it, but just need to know.
Scientific article pointed out the coronavirus shell is made of ‘fats’ that dissolve with soap, which is the most effective way to kill it on surfaces.
Surfactant isn’t a soap. It has no cleaning properties.
The ‘cleaning’ properties of Dawn, etc are ‘ionic and anionic surfactant’ so I figured ours would do the same, attach to oils and dirt.
Someone want to summon our resident chemist?
@CaCO3Girl hello Mary 
can we get some assistance if you have time? Thank you.
According to this, yes, depending on your brand of hw surfactant. One of the local brands I use has sodium hydroxide in it, so…
This is from Pressure Tek site below on the description on Elemonator- it does say a multipurpose cleaner, not sure if that qualifies as a soap?
Elemonator is a liquid house wash and multipurpose cleaner that not only is bleach stable but also boosts the alkalinity of bleach. It has great foaming and rinsing properties and the strong lemon scent does a great job of masking the smell of bleach. A little of Elemonator goes a long way, 1 oz per gallon when used in downstreaming is all you need.
Actually, usually it is. There are rare surfactants that aren’t made through saponification but most are. That’s why the majority of surfactants have a pH greater than 7…because they have been subjected to an alkaline process to saponify, or create the “soap”
Having said that, the CDC is recommending washing your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds…so in theory what you do with the Surfactant could count…HOWEVER…this virus isn’t airborne as of yet, as far as I know. It takes actual infected blobs to come into contact with your mouth and or nose. If these people have a blob 20 ft up that would be MOST impressive 
[quote=“Kentucky1234, post:7, topic:24399”]
boosts the alkalinity of bleach.
[/quote] it boosts the alkalinity because it’s also technically an alkaline 
I stand corrected. Thank you Mary.
Thanks, great asset to the forum! 
Thank you. Great resources on here.
Just remember I’m not on here much, you have to @CaCO3Girl to get me to chime in : - )
What a wonderful woman, you couldn’t buy this type of knowledge if you tried 
I’ll remember that, thanks again.
Aw shucks, you’re going to make me blush 
I miss talking about chemicals, I moved over to regulatory last April. It’s weird not being in a lab. Always happy to help on chemical questions, if I can 
Hi CaCO3Girl, I’m Steve, since you miss talking about chemicals… maybe you would like to help me ! I have a huge issue with a large pool deck, it was built in 1987 and never cleaned properly, over the years the tar ( I think its tar) coating from the straw umbrellas has dripped and dripped and dripped on to the deck, they have sealed and sealed and sealed over the problems and now after a fine from a travel firm have decided to clean properly, I have tried everything I can think on to get it done, the only thing that worked was Xylene, but very manual labour intensive process to get through the layers of whatever is on there. the total deck area is around 30,000 sq ft, I need to find a solution which wont take a year or cost a fortune for the customer… is there one ?
Hi there, not sure what chemicals you have access to but tar and asphalt remover chemicals are usually d-limonene based if you don’t want to get into the xylene type chemicals. D-limonene smells like oranges. Have you run across a cleaner/degreaser that is concentrated that smells strongly of oranges…not a fragrance added to it, the base is orange. Think goo-gone or gojo type smell. Perhaps some of the other people on here can recommend one. Good luck!
Thanks so much, I will try to source D-Limonene here and give it a try, its a small market and everything really needs cleaning ! so cleaning chems don’t seem to ever have been a priority. much appreciated !
I would look into a good sealer stripper. Sounds like you have to get that up before you can get to the dirt, tar, or whatever it is. It almost looks like it’s dirt and gunk that people tracked in and caused from sitting at the tables. I can’t remember the name of the stripper but @florida_condo_cleani always mentions it. I’m sure he’ll chime in. It might be difficult to get where you’re at though. Maybe try and find a brick or paver supplier, concrete or masonry store geared towards contractors, or even a good paint or coating store and see what kind of sealer stripper they have. @MDA1775 might be able to recommend something too.
Thanks MarineGrunt, you hit one of the nails on the head, difficult to get anything here, even paint / stain manufacturers will only sell to retailers so costs are very high. Semper Fi Marine, I was a Royal Marines Commando in my youth !
