Acetic acid question

[Garry R]

Was just about to buy a knapsack sprayer, to make use of my abundant acetic acid as a sort of organic weedkiller before realising the sprayer has a stainless steel end part - is that likely to corrode almost immediately or is there some other method of applying to weeds that doesn't involve metals? Cheers

Acetic acid does not corrode stainless steel in foundation unlike the old stuff. I would not be too concerned about a sprayer - make sure when finished you give it several flushes of water before storage.

As an aside. our parish bought a grit spreader for salting and gritting the road near my house and the salt destroyed it in no time. For my sins (and having lived in Scotland for 30 years) they thought I should be appointed as snow warden. The spreader was bought before I arrived and it is the most useless thing for spreading grit. The mechanism relies on the wheels turning but of course in snow and ice the wheels don't grip and nothing happens. In 13 years in Somerset we have had about 1 inch of snow which set up a panic when I did nothing. It went away in an hour and I really didn't think anything of it. People just don't know how to drive in it. Foot flat to the floor and wheels spinning. It was hilarious. Choose 2nd gear and go slow. The grit spreader has almost rusted away and I would now resort to a shovel!

 

[Rory Fields]

Acetic acid does not corrode stainless steel in foundation unlike the old stuff. I would not be too concerned about a sprayer - make sure when finished you give it several flushes of water before storage.

As an aside. our parish bought a grit spreader for salting and gritting the road near my house and the salt destroyed it in no time. For my sins (and having lived in Scotland for 30 years) they thought I should be appointed as snow warden. The spreader was bought before I arrived and it is the most useless thing for spreading grit. The mechanism relies on the wheels turning but of course in snow and ice the wheels don't grip and nothing happens. In 13 years in Somerset we have had about 1 inch of snow which set up a panic when I did nothing. It went away in an hour and I really didn't think anything of it. People just don't know how to drive in it. Foot flat to the floor and wheels spinning. It was hilarious. Choose 2nd gear and go slow. The grit spreader has almost rusted away and I would now resort to a shovel!

Awesome, thanks, really solves a headache about how to kill off some grass for more wildflowers without breaking my back. 30yrs in Scotland is too short a time, God's own country!

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Was just about to buy a knapsack sprayer, to make use of my abundant acetic acid as a sort of organic weedkiller before realising the sprayer has a stainless steel end part - is that likely to corrode almost immediately or is there some other method of applying to weeds that doesn't involve metals? Cheers

A lot depends on the grade of stainless steel. We used to have an orifice plate at the entrance to a flash cooler where acidified starch slurry at 140 degrees C was blown into a partial vacuum where the temperature dropped immediately to 50 degrees. When new it was made from 316L but erosion was a regular problem. I had one made from Hasteloy C which outlasted the refinery.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Acetic acid does not corrode stainless steel in foundation unlike the old stuff. I would not be too concerned about a sprayer - make sure when finished you give it several flushes of water before storage.

As an aside. our parish bought a grit spreader for salting and gritting the road near my house and the salt destroyed it in no time. For my sins (and having lived in Scotland for 30 years) they thought I should be appointed as snow warden. The spreader was bought before I arrived and it is the most useless thing for spreading grit. The mechanism relies on the wheels turning but of course in snow and ice the wheels don't grip and nothing happens. In 13 years in Somerset we have had about 1 inch of snow which set up a panic when I did nothing. It went away in an hour and I really didn't think anything of it. People just don't know how to drive in it. Foot flat to the floor and wheels spinning. It was hilarious. Choose 2nd gear and go slow. The grit spreader has almost rusted away and I would now resort to a shovel!

I've got a spreader for the farmyard. It's pretty useless for the reason you mention but it's made from plastic si corrosion isn't amongst its failings. I think it's probably been designed to spread grass seed or similar and someone thought it might work with grit salt.