Freon TF spray cleaner

[turbo!]

Contains trichlorotrifluoroethane and tetrafluoroethane. It removes a thin layer of oil, particles and such and a rather weak solvent and doesn't dissolve ink or plastics. The stuff evaporates extremely fast like contact cleaner, but doesn't ignite.  Remember this stuff? 

[SL4P]

We used to splash Freon around like Slurpees i the TV industry.   Used for cleaning video heads & tape paths.
Can't remember why it was removed - whether it was carcinogenic or just a nasty hydrocarbon for the atmosphere (or both!)

[David_AVD]

It evaporates quickly if you leave the lid off the bottle too.  Got rapped over the knuckles for that when I was a teen helping a TV repair guy.   

[PedroDaGr8]

We used to splash Freon around like Slurpees i the TV industry.   Used for cleaning video heads & tape paths.
Can't remember why it was removed - whether it was carcinogenic or just a nasty hydrocarbon for the atmosphere (or both!)

 Fluoridated organic compounds tend to be reasonably health neutral due to the relative nobility of the carbon fluorine bond. Of course, as with all generalizations, there are quickly found exceptions to the rule but it's a generalization. On the other hand UV light can break this bond and the generated free fluorine radical catalyzes the break down of ozone. This makes it horrible for the ozone layer. That's the main reason why it's banned.

[SeanB]

Still used for delivering inhaler drugs, be a bit difficult to use a flammable solvent and the person coughs next to a gas stove and blows up their lungs.

Still have a half can of R141B, great cleaner for anything not plastic, as it pretty much removes it completely. Must see about getting some more though.

[Tac Eht Xilef]

The breakdown products when it's inhaled through a cigarette are also considered both toxic and carcinogenic. This came as a big surprise to the guys I knew back in the mid-80's who spent whole days in closed rooms smoking while cleaning crossbar switches with microscrub dipped in 20L drums of the stuff...

Strange but true: "Polymer Fume Fever", due to Freon from a broken A/C unit being breathed in through cigarettes, was initially suspected in the case of 26 men who died after attending an American Legion convention in Philadelphia in July 1976.

[turbo!]

My aerosol can must be quite new (relatively speaking), because it has the warning "contains trichlorotrifluoroethane, a substance which harms public health and environment by destroying ozone in the upper atmosphere"

[zmetzing]

Strange but true: "Polymer Fume Fever", due to Freon from a broken A/C unit being breathed in through cigarettes, was initially suspected in the case of 26 men who died after attending an American Legion convention in Philadelphia in July 1976.

... and was proven to be an incorrect suspicion. Instead, Legionella pneumophila was discovered as the cause. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Philadelphia_Legionnaires%27_disease_outbreak#Discovery_of_Legionella_pneumophila

[helius]

It was a very good electronics cleaner and had the advantage of being plastic-safe. It was also used for cleaning photographic films.
After it was phased out, the replacement for many years was AK225 (dichloropentafluoropropane), which was last available in 2015.
Today the comparable products are HFEs (Novec) and HFOs (Solstice). They are heavier molecules so evaporation is slower.

[texaspyro]

Freon compounds can decompose into really nasty stuff (like phosgene and really nasty fluorine / chlorine compounds) when exposed to a flame (or heated to high temps).  There was a rumor that the real reason Freon was banned was that it made it trivial for any schmo to make what amounted to nerve gas.

There used to be a freon leak detector that used a butane flame...  several people got really sick using them in tight spaces.

[Deepak]

Freon compounds can decompose into really nasty stuff (like phosgene and really nasty fluorine / chlorine compounds) when exposed to a flame (or heated to high temps).  There was a rumor that the real reason Freon was banned was that it made it trivial for any schmo to make what amounted to nerve gas.

There used to be a freon leak detector that used a butane flame...  several people got really sick using them in tight spaces.

Considering any monkey is allowed to buy chlorinated brake cleaner and a welder, I'm pretty sure the ozone layer thing was the real reason.

[David Hess]

Freon compounds can decompose into really nasty stuff (like phosgene and really nasty fluorine / chlorine compounds) when exposed to a flame (or heated to high temps).  There was a rumor that the real reason Freon was banned was that it made it trivial for any schmo to make what amounted to nerve gas.

There used to be a freon leak detector that used a butane flame...  several people got really sick using them in tight spaces.

I accidentally dumped a small bowl of it into the carburetor of my car with the engine running and gassed myself.  It took months for my throat and voice to recover.

[N2IXK]

 Freon TF (1,1,2-Trichloro-1,2,2-trifluoroethane) was phased out for Ozone Depletion issues.
The other widely used solvent in electronics was 1,1,1 trichloroethane, which was phased out because it was a potent greenhouse gas.

[Conrad Hoffman]

Decades ago we used Freon TE-35 in plastic squirt bottles for cleaning small instrumentation parts. Best cleaner ever. We also used the bottles to shoot down wasps that were common in the production area. No idea why it was so effective, but they dropped like stones when hit.

[David Hess]

Decades ago we used Freon TE-35 in plastic squirt bottles for cleaning small instrumentation parts. Best cleaner ever. We also used the bottles to shoot down wasps that were common in the production area. No idea why it was so effective, but they dropped like stones when hit.

1,1,1 trichloroethane is the most potent bug killer I ever used.  I do not know the mechanism of action though.

[Deepak]

Decades ago we used Freon TE-35 in plastic squirt bottles for cleaning small instrumentation parts. Best cleaner ever. We also used the bottles to shoot down wasps that were common in the production area. No idea why it was so effective, but they dropped like stones when hit.

1,1,1 trichloroethane is the most potent bug killer I ever used.  I do not know the mechanism of action though.

Most likely a similar mechanism to dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane

[IDEngineer]

The other widely used solvent in electronics was 1,1,1 trichloroethane, which was phased out because it was a potent greenhouse gas.

Man, I miss that stuff. They sold it in highly pressurized cans as brake cleaner at every auto parts store. Like a pressure washer in your hand. Incredibly useful for cleaning anything from electronics to carbs to you-name-it. Because it was used on brakes it specifically left zero residue on the item being cleaned, which is useful for a whole lot more than just brakes!

I may still have a can or two around with actual 1,1,1 trichlor in them. Otherwise now it's whatever (likely less effective) thing they sell as non-residue brake cleaner.

Sometimes I think they ban stuff a bit too aggressively. Like DDT - very effective and very inexpensive. Yes, it definitely had bad side effects but from what I've read those appear to result from gross overuse by neophytes. Properly applied it's amazingly effective. There are some who are now advocating for its use against malaria-bearing mosquitoes because nothing invented before or since has such a great bang/buck ratio. But the anti-DDT crowd won't be satisfied. Nuclear energy shares the same bad reputation... improperly used it can be terrible, but properly used it has a lot of advantages. What were we talking about again? 

[SeanB]

Trike worked so well because it is an incredibly good solvent, and dissolved the internal lipid membranes of the insect cells, meaning they turned into bags of goop inside a hard chitin shell. This also means it is really good at dissolving your skin if you use it, and at a minimum it is a very good way to strip the underlying fat from under your skin as well, leading to some really bad side effects. Plus the whole dissociation into assorted hydrogen chlorides when heated up, and the contaminants in dirty solvent also turning into cyclic aromatics and other nasty organic short chain compounds when hot.

DDT however is still very popular here in Africa, where the biggest killer of people is still the mosquito, and coming in second and third is TB and HIV, followed by war.  Using it correctly, in directed spraying where they will stop in the house eaves and room corners, and using coated nets, is a very effective control method, and also uses very little DDT, not like the USA where they were applying it in ratios of tons per hectare over swampy ground, killing entire ecosystems as a result.

[texaspyro]

One place where I lived as a kid used to send the DDT fogger trick around at night.  Kids used to run / drive bikes behind it to play in the fog.  Even as a kid, this did not seem like a good idea to me.   The DDT cloud was HUGE!

[Circlotron]

Decades ago we used Freon TE-35 in plastic squirt bottles for cleaning small instrumentation parts. Best cleaner ever. We also used the bottles to shoot down wasps that were common in the production area. No idea why it was so effective, but they dropped like stones when hit.

I think it has very low surface tension, enabling it to get into tiny cracks and crevices. Probably blocks the wasp’s breathing passages.