lopek77

Cleaned a lot of things with gasoline for most of my life...It's only dangerous if ignite, as many other cleaners and lubes can Life is also extremely dangerous...you die at the end...
Luckily I can manage way more dangerous things without hurting myself.

Al1943

Hurting yourself is one thing, but what about the other people around you? And what kind of example are you setting?
What you do is none of my business. But we need to remember that what we print here is read by a lot of people looking for good advice.

lopek77

Not sure why all this hate about gasoline...I would rather keep using gasoline, than really nasty brake cleaner which is my second choice. I also don't see how I can hurt myself using gasoline more than any other cleaner I use, that is also very flammable. I also can't hurt myself or anyone else using it, and I'm not the only one who is using gasoline as a cleaner. Some people use also kerosene, which is also flammable.
If you so worry about anyone hurting themselves using gasoline - do some test... It's really hard to ignite it. Fumes will ignite first, but you need an open flame for that, and it needs to be contained somehow. As I said before, there is no way that I will burn myself, unless in hell if it exist
I believe that very fine powder in the air would be more dangerous than gasoline...Almost everything can ignite that way.

Oh...will add that I don't clean my chains in 200 gallon barrels in a small room without any ventilation, and next to the fire source. I bet I will read more "gasoline hate mail" for a long time. I wonder how many folks will stop using their gasoline lawn mowers, trimmers and chainsaws this season, after reading about that terrible fluid.

HillRider

It's not hate, it's just a reasonable warning that the stuff is dangerous

Apparently the concept of "Flash Point" hasn't gotten to you. Gasoline has a flash point of -45°F according to the MSDS while Kerosene has a flash point of +100 °F. That's an enormous difference and makes gasoline one of the most easily ignited material in common usage and, yes, a spark will indeed ignite the vapors.

As previously noted what you do to yourself is your business but the warnings should not be ignored by others.

lopek77

I know, that's why I moved from Antarctica to MI . It's not fun to be burned there on a nice "warm" day

lectraplayer

Actually, yes it does once I get that chainsaw motor built onto my utility/mountain bike.

Really, 87 Octane does make a viable cleaner when precautions are taken, as with everything. If you read the labels, you should be very afraid of our purpose-made products.

Al1943

I'm curious. Why would 87 octane gasoline be better than higher octane? The safety aspect is all about flash point. Lower octane gasoline actually burns quicker than higher octane. But I doubt that there is a degree of difference in flash point between lower and higher octane. There is, of course, a huge difference in gasoline and other petroleum products. See post #29 . And that is the main reason it should not be used as a cleaner or solvent.

FBinNY 

Probably because there's no benefit to paying more for premium gasoline if using it as a solvent.

I'm ambivalent about using gasoline as a solvent. I think it can be used safely, but it does call for extra care, and awareness of the risks. Also, there are safer alternatives that work just as well for most solvent applications, so the added risk simply isn't worth it.

531Aussie

Benzene fumes from petrol is carcinogenic, so that's one way of harming yourself

I once had some silicon lube that left a very hard-to-remove residue on the plates, which looked fugly. I can't remember the brand of the lube

Al1943

With the right lawyer I think you'd have a case.

lectraplayer

Really, "gas" does not have benzene to the point it used to have. We have regs on that now.

Have you seen some of these purpose made products? Some I see are basically carbeurator cleaner, which is every bit as flammable as gasoline.

FBinNY 

Motor fuel can legally have up to about 5% benzene, though the realistic cancer risk from cleaning a chain once in a aren't that high. I agree that people often jump from the frying pan to the fire, and find even worse thing to use than gasoline. Yes, there are products with far higher fire hazards than gasoline, and many with higher toxicity.

I'm not a fan of blanket warnings, except that people should understand the hazards of chemicals they're working with, and use them in ways consistent with those hazards.

lectraplayer

That's me. People should know what their stuff will and won't do and use the "superpower" of common sense liberally. For example, some cleaners "do burst into flames and burn invisibly if a flint sparks nearby (such as when the bike falls on gravel sometimes). Gas does too but you can see it flame.