White Spirit – Explain

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Over here in France I have noticed a metric price rise in White spirit.

For comparison:-

White spirit  £28 / 5 litre      £7.25/lt

Acetone       £18.75 / 5lt      £6.25/lt

Petrol EN 95 £8.75 / 5 lt       £1.56      (all prices converted at current euro / £ rate)

Any comment as to why so expensive suddenly

Bob

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Must be a French thing. For White Spirit.

Screwfix current web price £2.74/lts.

Old 2017 Screwfix paper cat £1.60/lts

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

Where are you paying that?  In my local supermarket (Super-U):

White spirit 5 litre 17.99 Euro

Acetone 1 litre 5.49 Euro

Petrole 20 litre 24.99 Euro

and a nice everyday 5 litre carton of red wine at 14.30 Euro 🙂

Russell

[JasonB]

On JasonB Said:

Must be a French thing. For White Spirit.

Screwfix current web price £2.74/lts.

Old 2017 Screwfix paper cat £1.60/lts

Could the white spirit price difference be because all white spirit sold in France now seems to be de-odourised, whatever that entails.  Most petrole (paraffin) seems to be de-odorised as well and costs about twice as much as the normal stuff.

Russell

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Russell

SW France -Lot    Bricorama, Brico etc.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

In similar vein, paraffin at B&Q is £2.97/ltr, no road fuel duty but over twice the price of petrol. Can anyone explain?

[Sonic EscapeParticipant @sonicescape38234]

Romania:

Acetone 3 Euro 0.5l

White Spirit 4 Euro 0.9l

 

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

I wish you could buy Acetone in a supermarket in the UK. You can’t even get it at the usual trade outlets.
It’s a “reportable” chemical under the Explosive Precusors and Poisons regulations.

White Sprit is £5:49 for 2l at Screwfix. 0.75l is much more expensive £4.10.
For cleanig I’ve moved to “Clean Sprit” which is a specialised detergent.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

On French supermarket shelves:-

Sulphuric acid

Hydrochloric

Acetone

Lighter fuel by the litre  and all sorts of other liquids.  I sometimes wonder what would happen if the shelf fell down and the reaction which may ensue.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi I think it was in the early 90’s when in my old day job, they stopped using Acetone, because of the health concerns about its usage.

Regards Nick.

[Speedy Builder5]

On Speedy Builder5 Said:

On French supermarket shelves:-

I didn’t realise that Gauloises were so hard to ignite 😀

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Possibly “Market Place Pricing”, or What the market will bear!

I changed from White Sporit to a “Cleaner”.  Not quite as good, but cheaper, for what i need.

Howard

[Robert Atkinson 2]

On Robert Atkinson 2 Said:

I wish you could buy Acetone in a supermarket in the UK. You can’t even get it at the usual trade outlets.
It’s a “reportable” chemical under the Explosive Precusors and Poisons regulations.

I buy Acetone from Home Bargains in the form of nail varnish remover. It used to be 100% acetone, but now has Bitrex added so is listed as 99%. I use it quite a bit for PCB cleaning. I’ve just about run out so need to re-stock next time I call.

https://home.bargains/product/40f84867-0217-4a2d-88a4-4510fe79bcf6/xnc-super-strength-nail-and-tip-remover-150ml

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

Even 1% of impurities will affect a lot of uses. Most nail varnish removers have oil in them so useless for pre-adhesive or optical cleaning. Bitrex is used at much lower concentrations than 1% in Acetone and similar materials.

 

[Mick BaileyParticipant @mickbailey28509]

I haven’t encountered any oil in the product I linked to. I use it for pre-adhesive cleaning and for prepping PCBs prior to applying etch resist. Any oily deposit would cause it to fail. Acetone can contain water so this may account for some of the 1%.

I only mentioned the product as it suits my own needs and may be of interest to others. I don’t think anyone performing optical cleaning would use anything other than a lab grade product.

 

 

[Graham ButcherParticipant @grahambutcher80356]

I buy my Acetone from Canvey Fibreglass in Essex. Its used for cleaning unhardened fibreglass.

They sell 1litre for £5.08 inc VAT.

https://www.cybglassfibre.co.uk/shop/products/acetone

[Martin Johnson 1Participant @martinjohnson1]

I get the prize.  £28 divided by 5 = £5.60.  Not £7.25.  The remaining £1.65 per litre can be forwarded to my Paypal account.  Please pm me to let me know when you are sending it.

Martin

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Martin, the £7.25 is the price of a 1lt bottle (Not the price per litre of a 5lt bottle) – No prize today!

Bob

[Mick Bailey]

On Mick Bailey Said:
 […] I only mentioned the product as it suits my own needs and may be of interest to others. […]

 

 

I’m another fan of the Home Bargains product

Very convenient size of bottle, the cap seals well, and I have yet to find any problem with it.

MichaelG.

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

I buy acetone on ebay around 18GBP for 5 litres. Same goes for bioethanol, (which i use alot for dissolving shellac and burning in an alcohol lamp) much better than the nasty purple meths. For general chemicals Apc pure is good for things like acids and other harder to get chemicals.. I do have an account with a chemical supplier but tend to use the above unless its something like chloroform which i occasionally use.

[Speedy Builder5]

On Speedy Builder5 Said:

Martin, the £7.25 is the price of a 1lt bottle (Not the price per litre of a 5lt bottle) – No prize today!

Bob

My maths being extremely error prone led me to suspect a numeric problem such as the euro to pound conversion being applied the wrong way round.  What’s the price of these items in Euros?

Assuming the maths is correct, my next suspect is human error in the French supply chain!  All it takes is for someone to type the wrong price into the wholesaler’s computer and it will ripple down to customers until someone notices the mistake.

We can enjoy guessing who blundered!  Oldsters can cheerfully imagine a dim spotty yoof did it; sign of the times, whole world going to pot etc. etc.   Youngsters will suspect grandad.  He staggers back from an alcoholic lunch every day desperately in need of a nap.  Grandad doesn’t understand computers and never admits his mistakes.   Actually, they’re both wrong: after noticing the men had left the keyboard in a disgusting state a cleaning lady sprayed it with bleach…

🙂

Dave

 

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Not sure why everyone is in a flap about buying pure Acetone?   In the UK, following a number of terrorist bombings, it’s been declared to be a reportable explosive precursor.   Reportable means purchasers have their names and addresses recorded, making it much easier for the authorities to find the bad guys.  Buying Acetone doesn’t require a licence.

Unfortunately super-markets and other outlets who take cash don’t have the wherewithal to take names and addresses, so they choose not to sell it, which mildly inconveniences the customer.   No problem buying it on-line because purchasers have to provide all the necessary details as part of normal business.  Ditto buying it over the counter from a business that normally takes names and addresses.   The end result is a peculiar mix:  buying 10ml of Acetone from my local pharmacy is an enormous fuss, whilst ordering 25litres on the web is no problem at all!

For ordinary purposes I buy Nail Varnish remover of the strong unperfumed variety because it contains fewer additives.   Nail Varnish remover is an acceptable workshop substitute most of the time unless absolute cleanliness is needed.  Bit unpredictable because unhelpful additives include water, oils, perfumes and perhaps organic solvents other than Acetone.

As I don’t have a nearby over-the-counter source, I order pure Acetone online, and only use it for the final wipe down.  A litre lasts me a long time. because Nail Varnish remover does most of the work!

Dave

[SillyOldDuffer]

On SillyOldDuffer Said:

Not sure why everyone is in a flap about buying pure Acetone?   In the UK, following a number of terrorist bombings, it’s been declared to be a reportable explosive precursor.   […]

Noting that phrase, Dave … I had a quick look and found this handy [and recent] listing:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supplying-explosives-precursors/list-of-chemicals

MichaelG.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, I see in MichaelG’s link, Phenols are mentioned in the reportable poisons list, and in my old maintenance job, in the R&D department, they started using phenolic resins in one of the lab rooms, which were always locked away, which was also always locked when not in use, turned out these were pretty nasty resins, and if any large amount of it was spilt on onto anyone, even with the clothes on, it could be life threatening in a very sort space of time, so I got the job of installing a shower tray and a cold shower with a curtain, inside the lab room, which was no more than two steps away from the point where these would be used, the cold water was turned on by a lever push valve. Luckily, no one had to ever use it as far as I was aware, all the labs’ water was supplied by a huge water tank on top of the building, so there was no real danger of the shower never working.

Regards Nick.

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan Said:

I’m another fan of the Home Bargains product

Very convenient size of bottle, the cap seals well, and I have yet to find any problem with it.

[ UPDATE ]

Bought some today … The new stuff, with Bitrex … Bottle cap is now a white flip-top instead of the black screw-top.

MichaelG.

[Author]

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