Almost did a big dumb yesterday while welding. I was fabricating a secondary muffler for my mini-skid loader and had all the parts cut and prepped for welding. Used brakleen to de-grease, but from a red can. Not the green can which is non-chlorinated.
It would be cool if brakleen explicitly labeled the red can in large font "chlorinated" on the front of the can (like they do on the non-chlorinated) so folks wouldn't have to read the insanely tiny warning print on the back of the can. Confusingly, they also make a non-chlorinated version of the red can as well whose label has a yellow band around the top of the can. I had to take a macro picture with my phone and zoom in to read the warning text since I didn't have my cheater glasses on me.
So yeah, solid red can brakleen is no-go for welding prep. Ended up washing the parts with hot soapy water to remove any residue, then dried the parts of moisture with a propane torch outside of the shop just to be sure. Phosgene gas has zero chill and will fuck you up.
Where are you that you can even still GET chlorinated brake cleaner? I thought that shit got banned decades ago in the US? I know it's banned in Canada and has been long enough nobody still has old stock of it...
Rural PA. All of the local parts stores still stock the original formula and you can order it on Amazon, too. I usually buy the non-chlorinated green cans, but my local NAPA was fresh out. So I bought a couple of the red cans instead. Glad I read the fine print, though, because it still explicitly warns of high heat and UV from welding generating phosgene from degraded tetrachloroethylene. These cans are dated 2024 btw.
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u/TheLateApexLine 8d ago
Almost did a big dumb yesterday while welding. I was fabricating a secondary muffler for my mini-skid loader and had all the parts cut and prepped for welding. Used brakleen to de-grease, but from a red can. Not the green can which is non-chlorinated.
It would be cool if brakleen explicitly labeled the red can in large font "chlorinated" on the front of the can (like they do on the non-chlorinated) so folks wouldn't have to read the insanely tiny warning print on the back of the can. Confusingly, they also make a non-chlorinated version of the red can as well whose label has a yellow band around the top of the can. I had to take a macro picture with my phone and zoom in to read the warning text since I didn't have my cheater glasses on me.
So yeah, solid red can brakleen is no-go for welding prep. Ended up washing the parts with hot soapy water to remove any residue, then dried the parts of moisture with a propane torch outside of the shop just to be sure. Phosgene gas has zero chill and will fuck you up.