I have a clogged pipe in my bathroom so I went to the store to get something to unclog it. Basically there are two types that you can find in my area:
- Sodium hydroxide pellets
- "Liquid plumber" mixtures. The components for those are mainly surfactants, sodium hydroxide and sodium hypochlorite.
As far as I recall from the water treatment courses I took in college, hypochlorite's oxidizing activity is heavily dependent on pH, as the active form is hypochlorous acid, not the hypochlorite ion. At high pH values the oxidizing activity becomes really low whereas low pH will make it stronger.
Does it make sense to buy a product that mixes a strong base, such as sodium hydroxide, with sodium hypochlorite? Wouldn't it be a waste of money?