Difference Between Ammonia and Bleach
Ammonia
Ammonia vs Bleach
To most people, Ammonia and bleach are known as effective cleansers. They are considered to be the most effective and inexpensive cleansers available in the market. Though these two are arguably the most widely used, and one might be tempted to consider them interchangeable, there are differences between them.
Ammonia is known as a weak base, while bleach is said to be a strong oxidizing agent. One important thing that has to be kept in mind while using Ammonia and bleach as cleansers is that they should not be mixed together, as combining the two is toxic and even deadly.
Ammonia mainly consists of one nitrogen atom and three hydrogen atoms. Bleach is made from water, caustic soda and chlorine. When comparing the disinfectant quality of bleach and ammonia, the former is considered to be a stronger disinfectant than the latter.
Bleach is generally used in fabrics, especially white clothes and in washing dishes and kitchen utensils. Ammonia is better on hard surfaces than bleach, it also works better in cleansing tiles, glass and jewellery. In removing stains, ammonia is generally preferred. Ammonia can also be used as a degreaser unlike bleach.
Bleach can lead to discolouring because of its strong contents, Ammonia however is not known to discolour objects. So when washing coloured clothes with bleach, one should bear this in mind.
Apart from ammonia being used as a cleanser, it is used for the manufacture of fertilizers, nitric acid, soda ash, pharmaceuticals, dyes, cosmetics, sulfa drugs, nylon, acrylics and rayon.
Summary
- Ammonia is known as a weak base, while bleach is said to be a strong oxidizing agent.
- Ammonia consists of one nitrogen atom and three hydrogen atoms. Bleach is made from water, caustic soda and chlorine.
- In disinfectant quality, bleach is considered to be a stronger disinfectant than ammonia.
- Ammonia is better on hard surfaces than bleach.
- Bleach is generally used in fabrics, especially white clothes and in washing dishes and kitchen utensils. Ammonia works better in cleansing tiles, glass and jewellery.
- Bleach can lead to discolouring because of its strong contents. Ammonia, unlike bleach, is not to known to discolour objects.
- Apart from ammonia being used as a cleanser, it is used in the manufacture of fertilizers, nitric acid, soda ash, pharmaceuticals, dyes, cosmetics, sulfa drugs, nylon, acrylics and rayon.
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Mixing bleach and ammonia can be done in controlled environment with excellent ventilation. Together these agents can do an excellent cleaning job.
Never!
Mr. Robert Houston,
Mixing bleach and ammonia is how mustard gas is created, very dangerous. I do not recommend mixing these two agents together.
A comment on parallelism:
Ammonia mainly consists of one nitrogen atom and three hydrogen atoms. Bleach is made from water, caustic soda and chlorine. When comparing the disinfectant quality of bleach and ammonia, the former is considered to be a stronger disinfectant than the latter.
The first two sentences have the order “ammonia” and then “bleach”. In the third sentence, however, it reverses the order: “bleach and ammonia.” When skimming this paragraph, I initially missed that the order had changed, and when it said “the former,” my mind immediately jumped to the first of the two items being discussed: ammonia. Thus, I misread the paragraph, believing that “ammonia is considered to be a stronger disinfectant than bleach.” Fortunately, in your summary, you spelled this out explicitly, so I noticed my error.
However, I would please ask that the authors consider parallelism when authoring articles. If introducing topics A, B and C, continue to discuss those topics in that order in subsequent discussions.
If you don’t post this and just fix the parallelism, that’s fine with me…
Yes, I totally agree, very unwise to publish anything without thoroughly and thoughtfully being proof read by an expert! Very good in identifying this possible dreadful outcome!