retr0brite not so right?

----- Original Message ----- From: "Fred Cisin" <cisin at xenosoft.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 4:09 PM Subject: Re: retr0brite not so right? Depends on what you are talking about. If the concentrations are enough to cause visible damage in 2 hours then I would think that 1 hours use would cause some damage that might take a while to show up. You also have to assume that the chemicals are being used up as the process is going meaning the concentration is slowly dropping while it is sitting, so damage can be going on the second the plastic is being dropped in. Plastic soaks up chemicals that stay even when you rinse them out (I can smell pineapple in a plastic container long after it has been washed and dried), which is why you never store water in anything that seen chemicals. So I can see some reactions still going on inside the plastic (depending on its density) even after you have cleaned it off. If you mean X concentration will cause damage then .5X concentration will cause half that damage, then no. Long term damage could be as simple as the plastic decaying from UV light after you leached the UV inhibitor from the surface using retro-bright. Since everyone mixes up a slightly different batch of chemicals/concentrations, does different prep work, and uses it for varying lengths of time in different sunlight and heat conditions on all kinds of plastics (which might have UV inhibitors or none at all depending on the age and manufacturer) who knows if there will be damage or not either short term or long term. Personally if the item is rare and would be worth more "whiter" for a quick sell, then clean it up. If you are going to keep that same item as a permanent part of the collection then you might as well wait a few years and see how this all pans out.