Alternative for Tetenal Chem Cleaner

Hello Fellow analog enthusiasts!

Does anybody know an alternative to the now discontinued Tetenal Chem Cleaner. There is one from Bellini called What-a-Cleaner, but its quite hard to come by. I'm thinking is there an "industrial" alternative to Tetenal. There must be. Something that just magically dissolves the RA4 DEV tar.

Thank you!
h

Sali Heikkik,
gibts da nicht was von Adox? Sorry for the german, there was an ancient ad
Have a look, was this you are searching for?

Meinrad said:

Sali Heikkik,
gibts da nicht was von Adox? Sorry for the german, there was an ancient ad
Have a look, was this you are searching for?

NEW: ADOX Film Cleaner

When a company is bankrupt a curator tries to make as much money as possible to pay debts by selling the leftovers. That can be desks and office chairs, finished stock or in this case knowledge. If a liquidator has realistic price expectations about the Knowledge thats a way to go. It happens...

www.photrio.com

Click to expand...

Nope sorry!
This is a film cleaner like Pec10 or something. What I'm looking for is tetenal chem cleaner alternative. It is used to clean up Developing/printing machines.

The last product that I bought and still have, is Photofinish by Photographic Solutions Inc in Buzzards Bay Massachusetts.

It is a paste and I used it to clean RA4 tar deposits from the rollers of my Durst Printo paper processor. It worked well.

What I have is marked 22 OZ, but to give a better size idea, I would suggest it is about the size of a normal 500gms plastic screw top container.

I have no idea if this is still manufactured, but this did work and was incredibly cheap when I last purchased it, which was around 8 years ago. My first purchase was probably around 25 years ago.

Edit:

I just read the list of what it can do, one of them is to "Removes colour developer tar without chemical contamination."

I don´t know the availability, but there is a product by Fuji called Fujifilm EnviroChem Photolab Cleaner. Maybe Fotofabrikas (UAB Addmore) in Klaipėda could help. They seff Fuji Hunt stuff and should deliver also to Latvia. You could contact Fuji in Vilnius too, as they have no representation in Latvia.

Thank you for replies so far!

Fuji envirochem seems the best chance at the moment, but weird when googling it, it only shows USA results. Have to ask fuji.

I wish there was a savvy home chemist that could figure out an industrial solution... I have heard about methanol, but not sure about that. The tetenal chem cleaner kind of smells like methanol. And it says it contains: Benzensulfonic acid, C10-13-Alkyl Derivatives, Sodium salts. And says NOT to use on aluminum.


any ideassss appreciated!

heikkik said:

Thank you for replies so far!

Fuji envirochem seems the best chance at the moment, but weird when googling it, it only shows USA results. Have to ask fuji.

I wish there was a savvy home chemist that could figure out an industrial solution... I have heard about methanol, but not sure about that. The tetenal chem cleaner kind of smells like methanol. And it says it contains: Benzensulfonic acid, C10-13-Alkyl Derivatives, Sodium salts. And says NOT to use on aluminum.


any ideassss appreciated!

Click to expand...

Sounds like there is methanol in it, if the instructions warn against using it on aluminum. Methanol would corroda aluminum.
That said, any mixture of an acid with some alcohol could work. Acetic acid with isopropanol is one I have heard of, but never tried myself. Kodak suggested formulas like TC-1, which is sulfuric acid, potassium dichromate and water. These ngrediends are hard to come by. Sulfuric acid is heavily regulated, and at least in Lithuania, you need a government license for handling toxic chemicals in order to buy potassium dichromate.

Actually now that I think about it, I realize what the smell reminds me of: Methanol-containing car glass washing fluid. Would this be the perfect budget solution??

I got a Durst Pronto in a darkroom lot years ago. The last owner left the RA4 chems in it until they evaporated- it was a mess, all the gearing completely jammed with the tar like residue. I used toilet bowl cleaner and a stiff brush. Did the job, saved the processor.

I've used the PhotoFinish cleaning paste that Mick mentioned. It may be quite good for cleaning RA4 tars but in my experience it was overkill for anything basic like tanks, bottles, trays, etc. It also had a tendency to leave a strange, waxy residue on everything it touched, which required you to meticulously wipe everything down with a dry towel after washing (i.e., a simple water rinse wouldn't cut it). For that reason, I switched to using an aqueous solution of washing soda (sodium carbonate) for basic darkroom cleaning.

Clayton makes a liquid darkroom cleaner that sounds like it might fit the bill, but I've not used it and can't say whether it's available in Latvia (https://www.freestylephoto.com/998417-Clayton-Titan-Blue-Photo-System-Cleaner-1-Gallon).

There are reports on Photrio and elsewhere of people successfully using Kodak Indicator stop bath (basically, a highly concentrated solution of acetic acid in water) to remove RA4 tars, so that might be an easy-to-test option if you have some lying around.

heikkik said:

And says NOT to use on aluminum.

Click to expand...

Aluminum is corroded very easily in alkaline/basic enviroments, even anodized, and Tetenal Chem Cleaner is alkaline.

There is nothing special in this cleaner. It is a LAS type tensioactive(Llinear Alkylbenzene Sulphonate) in a degrease solution made of with a phosphate (tripotassium) and an organic solvent. I would try any general industrial degreaser you can find a hardware shop or similar.

halfaman said:

Aluminum is corroded very easily in alkaline/basic enviroments, even anodized, and Tetenal Chem Cleaner is alkaline.

There is nothing special in this cleaner. It is a LAS type tensioactive(Llinear Alkylbenzene Sulphonate) in a degrease solution made of with a phosphate (tripotassium) and an organic solvent. I would try any general industrial degreaser you can find a hardware shop or similar.

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Thank you! Good tip!

The main thing is to check with those that they don't leave some kind of residue I guess.

What is your thoughts on the concentrated car window wash?

The thing about the tetenal chem cleaner is that it burns the nose in a similar way, more than just regular soap. But it does really dissolve RA4 tar magically. Don't need to brush or anything, it just dissolves it.

Thank you!

Nova Tar Buster.

I have never used it myself, but I think it was made for cleaning Nova Slot Tanks.
I have heard that it is designed for removing RA4 Tar deposits in the bottom of the slots.

Availability may be a problem in Latvia though.

See the following link.

heikkik said:

Thank you! Good tip!

The main thing is to check with those that they don't leave some kind of residue I guess.

What is your thoughts on the concentrated car window wash?

The thing about the tetenal chem cleaner is that it burns the nose in a similar way, more than just regular soap. But it does really dissolve RA4 tar magically. Don't need to brush or anything, it just dissolves it.

Thank you!

Click to expand...

I would try first degreasers for auto or industrial parts before car window wash. Their composition could be more similar to Tetenal's.

Acording to msds file, Tetenal used Butyl Glycol (degreaser and what irritates your nose) along with tripotassium fosfate (degreaser) and a LAS type tensioactive (detergent).