Where can I buy 99% isopropyl alcohol?

[David Hess]

If you can find 91% IPA for a good price, then you could remove the water with a desiccant before you use it.

[retro_gamer]

I really like these aerosol cans from MG chemicals https://www.tequipment.net/MG-Chemicals/824-450G/Cleaning-Fluids,-Degreasers/?v=0

[antenna]

I typically use 91% IPA, then blast the moisture out from under components with a can of carburetor cleaner followed by distilled acetone then evaporating that off with compressed air.  I think the white residue from IPA is the bittering agent added to deter consumption and hardware store acetone has additives too, probably to interfere with TATP synthesis.

I don't know what everyone else uses for electronics flux, but the only thing I've ever used was the plumbing isle paste flux with zinc chloride, ammonium chloride and petrolatum. Getting that stuff out from under SMD's is a pain! I can't count all the projects I tossed out that would have worked fine had I cleaned them better. I definitely need to be using something else for flux.

I've heard isoamyl or isopropyl nitrite removes almost everything including teflon grease, not good for blood pressure though

[Kleinstein]

There is same danger to damage parts with aceton. Unless really needed for some greasy stuff, I would avoid it. Even if no damage visible it can make quite some plastics swell and over time this leads to drift when the aceton slowly escapes the plastics.

For the white residue, there is an interesting link, just a few answers back https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/where-can-i-buy-99-isopropyl-alcohol/msg3731062/#msg3731062.
It is definitely not a question of cleanness of the IPA - additives for denaturation are also liquid and hard to remove. So they don't leave behind. The trouble some parts are more grease / way like parts from the flux and some salts (e.g. PbC03) with low solubility. For the salty parts IPA would not help - the lower the purity the better (e.g. look for 1 % concentration  ). Here it is more like lots of hot water and maybe some mild acid (to convert carbonates). If at alle the purity matters for the very last rinse, when it already looks clean. Clean solvents don't come in a plastic bottle, but in glass or metal cans.

The plumbers flux is often hard to remove and the residue can be corrosive. For very easy cleaning one can use glycerin as a flux, cleans off with water easy, just give quite some fumes.

[David Hess]

There is same danger to damage parts with acetone. Unless really needed for some greasy stuff, I would avoid it. Even if no damage visible it can make quite some plastics swell and over time this leads to drift when the acetone slowly escapes the plastics.

Lacquer thinner works better than acetone, but has the same issue with damaging some plastics.  Toluene works, but will also damage some plastics, which is a shame because 50/50 IPA and toluene is an excellent solvent for flux.  I have some boards built in the 70s which I cleaned with just water and dish-soap in my ultrasonic cleaner and it removed the markings from the ICs.

We used to clean the boards with an aggressive solvent before mounting more sensitive parts which would be damaged by the flux cleaner, especially DIP switches.  Boards with precision circuits, microvolts and picoamps and high impedance circuits, need to have special cleaning procedures.

Naphtha is very safe for plastics but perhaps not for dissolving flux residue, and it isn't miscible with water.  I knew one place that used amyl acetate for cleaning.

After rework, I clean boards with cotton swabs and lacquer thinner.

[Psi]

Anyone with a SLA 3D printer buys lots of isopropyl alcohol, maybe ask around with any local places that sell SLA printers where they recommend getting it from.

[beanflying]

Does anyone know what the reason is for the lack of availability of 99% in so many places? Pretty much any drug store here carries it for cheap (like < $5 for 500ml) and it's easy to find. Even the local grocery store (which does not have a pharmacy) was carrying it at the beginning of the pandemic alongside the 70%, though not sure if they've kept that up. Is there some sort of regulation or what?

COVID in a large part was to blame at least here in Oz. The assclowns wiped out any and all availability of Toilet Paper and Alcohol in the hope of making a $. The were buying up all store and online supplies of 'pure' and diluting it to 70% then loading it up to resell. None of the local Chemists in most cases stocked anything better than 70%. While all this dumbassery was going on if you wanted a 200L drum then all the manufacturers of IPA still had some with minimal issues.

We have been back to normal (whatever that is) and I have gone back to buying my Acetone and 99% IPA from a Hair Care / Beauty supplier I have used for years. For me cheap postage to where I live is important and 1L at a time is plenty.

[jonpaul]

Amazon sells gallons for $80-100 with shipping incl.

We found that ordering the gallon in pint bottles is much more convenient to reduce rebottling and evaporation/dilution.

The 99% leaves virtually no residue.

A gallon is a lifetime supply.

Jon

[JDubU]

This:

https://www.amazon.com/MG-Chemicals-824-1L-Isopropyl-Alcohol/dp/B005DNQX3C/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=0779008824139&qid=1633761400&sr=8-1

[retro_gamer]

I've been able to get gallons of 99.9% technical grade alcohol from hydroponics shops for ~$20.  They sell it there for people to clean their watering systems and scissors, etc.  Worth checking out before spending $100 on Amazon.

[Nusa]

If you can get it local retail, usually that's cheaper. A good chunk of the mail-order price is the cost of shipping highly-flammable hazardous liquids.

[Maniac303]

If you can't find it at your local hardware store or beauty supply outlet, try a store that specializes in fibre-glass / epoxy, resins and the like. They sell it in 4 litre (1 gallon) jugs and 18 litre (5 gallon) barrels at a fraction of the price of your electronics store.

If they sell 'Smooth-On' products, they will sell solvents. Some more exotic than IPA.

[BBBbbb]

...or beauty supply outlet...

This^
Unless your local electronic shop has it, try the cosmetic shops (but those selling to salons), for some reason they sell 99.9%, and these days they are more common than local electronic shops.

And as few already mentioned, take care about capturing atmospheric water and lowering that %, i.e. don't keep it open while working.
Still 99% seems like a purity overkill for PCB cleaning. I use it for optics and there you can see small water stains once it "captured" too much water.

[edfarrington93]

https://www.amazon.com/MAXTITE-MaxTite-Isopropyl-Alcohol-99-9/dp/B08CGJV5FR?th=1

This is what we buy at work.

[WaynesWorld]

In Australia - Radio Parts or Altronics.

[Renate]

I just use the 91% IPA that you can buy at any dollar store int the US.
I find it more important to let the IPA dissolve stuff, then blot it with paper towels to remove the contaminated solvent than to let it dry and re-deposit itself.

Of course, in many places you can just buy "Everclear", 95% ethanol which is dual-prupose when work is over.

[IanB]

Of course, in many places you can just buy "Everclear", 95% ethanol which is dual-prupose when work is over.

Except California      

[lunacyworks]

Try microcenter, this is the brand I use to buy from them in California before they closed, And frys carried it before they also closed.
https://www.microcenter.com/product/451968/puretronics-technical-grade-isopropyl-alcohol-999-32oz

I will be ordering some soon as mine is about gone.

[David Hess]

Of course, in many places you can just buy "Everclear", 95% ethanol which is dual-prupose when work is over.

Except California      

Really?  I would not have guessed that California had restricted Everclear.  It is pretty expensive but even I have a couple bottles, for medicinal purposes of course.

[IanB]

Really?  I would not have guess that California had restricted Everclear.  It is pretty expensive but even I have a couple bottles, for medicinal purposes of course.

California tends to go for regulatory overkill. The Everclear sold here is diluted to 60%.

California has also banned various kinds of solvents due to air pollution (VoCs), and has just enacted a law that will ban the sale of small internal combustion engines as found in lawn mowers, leaf blowers, chain saws, portable generators, and the like.

[David Hess]

Really?  I would not have guess that California had restricted Everclear.  It is pretty expensive but even I have a couple bottles, for medicinal purposes of course.

California tends to go for regulatory overkill. The Everclear sold here is diluted to 60%.

California has also banned various kinds of solvents due to air pollution (VoCs), and has just enacted a law that will ban the sale of small internal combustion engines as found in lawn mowers, leaf blowers, chain saws, portable generators, and the like.

I am aware of California's zealous regulatory and prohibitive legal culture.  I used to live there.  Not long before I left, they were regulating the smell of rising bread from bakeries.  I used to work about 2 blocks from a Laura Scudder potato chip factory, and it was the smell of heaven.

I would really like to know what they expect portable generators to be replaced with.  I guess it is more egalitarian if everybody suffers in the dark during rolling blackouts, or at least poor people.

[Bud]

Can you fart in California?

[metertech58761]

When I worked as a meter tech, all the vans had one or two bottles of DLX brand fuel line de-icer, which was actually 99% isopropyl.

Dunno if it's still produced or if other fuel de-icers are also 99% isopropyl, but thought I'd just put that out there.

[dirtcooker]

I have purchased IPA from here: http://www.dudadiesel.com/choose_item.php?id=isoprop