Product liability insurance is available to anyone that wants to pay the price. And it isn’t that expensive if you are not selling much. The cost is based on the dollar amount sold/given away. I did look into this once. Can do it again. Also the SDS is a many colored animal. It is not as much of a difficulty as people think. If you guys would like a blog post on product development, marketing, and liability just ask.
Henry
For me if I did give it to the customer it would just be a give away in a small bottle unless some kind of demand came from it.
Since it would just be to customers in a small ammount it would be easy enough to just liat the ingredience as there would be no reason to conceal anything.
Agreed. Keeping things as simple as possible is always the best way. Or you could always find a commercial product that works good and rebottle. Then tell them what it is by making up a small label. Include your name and contact info. Kind of like giving away a pen with your contact info on it. You are not looking to sell pens. Just want the attention and give them something better than a business card. Cards get thrown away. Give them a four ouncer each time you come.
Henry
Ok, Regarding Sprayway. Here are the ingredients listed on their SDS.
2-Butoxyethanol 111-76-2 2.5 - 10
Ethyl Alcohol 64-17-5 2.5 - 10
Butane 106-97-8 1 - 2.5
Other components below reportable levels 90 - 100
Propane 74-98-6 1 - 2.5
*Designates that a specific chemical identity and/or percentage of composition has been withheld as a trade secret.
Check out in particular 2-Butoxyethanol 111-76-2, at 2.5% - 10%. This chem is affectionately known as EB. And does most of the cleaning work. Evaporates quick. The alcohol listed speeds up the evaporation rate too. Butane and propane are propellants to get it out of the can. You will notice there are no detergents. So little to no filming. That IS the secret. Great grease cutting and good evaporation but no filming. It should be very easy to duplicate. I would suggest developing a formula based on H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) and ethanol/methanol. Maybe with a smidge of a superwetting anionic such as Silicone Polyether Phosphate. At least a formula like this is much more eco and health friendly. And should work just as well.
Chandeliers however would need another formula. One similar to Jet-Dry. It is a cleaner with a twist. There are chems in it that break down the surface tension of the liquid such that it acts like the glass crystals were hydrophylic. The water “drains” off leaving gleaming glass. No residue. Of course I have done this with nonionic (not anionic) superwetters that left an invisible film. Which left a dry shmear when touched. The idea is exactly the same as for washing drinking glasses in your dishwasher. The water drains off the glass. No spotting cuz there are no drops left. We are attempting to do the same thing for WFP work. Same kind of water tech. Anyhow it can be duplicated. And think of this. If we had a miniature pressure washer we could blast those little crystals crystal clean. 3200 psi should be perfect. Just thinking out loud. Or better yet. What about using ultrasound cavitation technology? Check out some youtube vids on this. It will totally blow you away!
Henry
On a slightly different train of thought: I would like to find or engineer a softwashing (low pressure power washing) detergent aimed at cleaning neglected curtain glass.
I come across some commercial jobs where the glass is pretty bad with bird poo, spider eggs and webs, and some inorganic contaminants, as well. I want something that can cut through and break the surface tension of all that stuff, with only a little bit of manual agitation with my wfp. It also needs to be safe on the anodized aluminum frames.
Then (most importantly) I want it to rinse off beatifully by feeding my pressure washer with pure water. Do you think something like that could be possible?
I think it can be done Alex. But not by just using chems. The key to doing it would include using the right blend of different abrasives along with the correct chemical/cleaning solution. Abrasives and chems can make the glass hydrophylic. Such as bronze wool which rubs. I would not use acid based etchants. Solvents and certain alkalies are another matter. A three micron superabrasive particle will make glass hydrophylic. Also different things on glass take different abrasives to remove. Like shotgun fungi takes a 100 micron compositional particle. It would help to have different products with you on the job and be able to put together exactly what you need by testing. Whenever we cannot just soap and squeegee the job becomes very special. Not a simple basic window cleaning job anymore.
Henry
Why not just use a strio washer with steel or bronze wool over the sleeve to srub the glass then pressure rinse with pure water. I use this method on commercial glass but I dont rinse I just squeegee it off but it works great and renoves contaminants from the glass.
Thats what I would try first. Maybe with a powerful alkalie. Most stuff on glass is acid based. So alkalie solutions netralize.
Henry
Just a quick word on the Silicone Polyether Phosphate. I am thinking more about marketing this pure ingredient as a window cleaning additive. The formula listed at the beginning of this thread is for a custom product I have developed which uses this ingredient. However. The ingredient if sold separate could be used in already existing commercial window cleaning soaps. It is essentially a superwetting anionic surfactant which provides more slip, perfect sudz, and makes the glass glow. It only takes the very least amount in your bucket to get these results. I have used it down to a quarter teaspoon per gallon with excellent results. So if you like GG3 for example, but would like to boost it, this additive would be your ticket for trad work.
Henry
The Silicone Polyether Phosphate gives a different type of sudz. It is kind of a thick sudz. Leaves just a little more of a film than Dawn which is based on the first two organic surfs. That being the sodium laurel and sodium laureth sulfates. It provides maybe just a very little less slip. But the organic surfs help with that and especially the sodium hydroxide which I would add directly to your water. Not the Hybrid Soap because it will do damage to the Silicone Polyether Phosphate. Too dilute in the bucket to do that however. The extra film is what gives the glass a real special shine. I should be able to get some people free samples from Siltech. Just email me your shipping address and I will see what I can do about this. But here again the big guys are already mining the Glass Smart FB Group, my Glass Smart blog, the articles I have written for our industry mags like the AWC, and almost every post I write here. So if any of this info is ultimately used you will be paying big bux for the products, or they won’t even come out because of cost, or the simple fact that the info/formulas have become public knowledge. So just know that I am swimming upriver here.
Henry
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