What do soda crystals actually do?

Sodium carbonate has been sold in British shops for over a century and is one of the cheapest cleaning products available. It is a strong alkali, which makes it a genuine degreaser rather than a mild one, and it precipitates the calcium and magnesium that make water hard, which is why it improves washing results in hard water areas.

Safety

What you'll need

• Soda crystals
• Hot water
• Gloves
• A bucket

Step by step

1. Know the difference from bicarbonate.Bicarbonate of soda is mild and food-safe. Soda crystals are considerably more alkaline, are not food-safe, and are a genuine degreaser. They are not interchangeable.
2. Dissolve them in hot water.They work in solution, not as a powder. Hot water dissolves them quickly and increases the degreasing action.
3. Use them on greasy drains.A generous handful followed by a kettle of hot water down a kitchen sink, weekly. It saponifies fat in the pipe, and it is far cheaper and gentler on pipes than caustic drain cleaners.
4. Use them for heavy kitchen grease.A strong solution on extractor filters, greasy cupboard doors, hobs and oven shelves. Soak filters in a sink of hot soda crystal solution rather than scrubbing.
5. Use them as a laundry booster in hard water.A tablespoon in the drum softens the water so detergent works properly. It is why washing often looks greyer in hard water areas without them.
6. Wear gloves.A strong solution degreases skin as effectively as it degreases a hob, and prolonged contact causes irritation and cracking.
7. Keep them off aluminium.Alkali attacks aluminium, blackening and pitting it. Aluminium pans, some extractor filters and some window frames must not be soaked in it.
8. Keep them off wood, paint and lacquer.Strong alkali strips wax and oil finishes, dulls paint and lifts lacquer. Test first on any finished surface.
9. Never combine with anything else.Not with bleach, not with an acid. Use one product, rinse thoroughly with plain water, then use another if you need to.
10. Rinse the surface afterwards.Alkaline residue keeps working on the surface and attracts dirt. Plain water and a dry cloth to finish.

Tips

• A weekly handful down the kitchen sink with hot water is the single most effective preventative measure against a fat-blocked waste pipe.
• Extractor hood filters that look beyond saving usually come clean in twenty minutes soaking in hot soda crystal solution, provided they are not aluminium.
• They are sold in large bags for a small price. Anything marketed as a specialist degreaser is often the same chemistry at ten times the cost.

Common mistakes

• Soaking aluminium in a soda crystal solution — The alkali reacts with the metal, blackening and pitting it permanently. Many extractor filters and older pans are aluminium and are ruined in a single soak.
• Using them dry as a scouring powder — They only work dissolved, the crystals scratch surfaces, and dry alkali on skin is more irritant than the solution. Always dissolve first.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask