I'm wondering, the Eclipse cleaning fluid bottle describes only that it "contains methanol". Do any of you know if it's the only thing it contains, or are there other chemicals involved also?

The reason I'm asking this is that I would have access to medical grade undetanurated ethanol (96% ethanol, 4% water, filtered out of any excess particles) which would be much less expensive; 15€ for 59ml of Ecplise compared to 5€ for half a liter of ethanol.

Would using this 'raw' ethanol instead of Eclipse be a dangerous idea?

[quote=Henrik Paul,Sep 29 2006, 05:05 PM]
I'm wondering, the Eclipse cleaning fluid bottle describes only that it "contains methanol". Do any of you know if it's the only thing it contains, or are there other chemicals involved also?

The reason I'm asking this is that I would have access to medical grade undetanurated ethanol (96% ethanol, 4% water, filtered out of any excess particles) which would be much less expensive; 15€ for 59ml of Ecplise compared to 5€ for half a liter of ethanol.

Would using this 'raw' ethanol instead of Eclipse be a dangerous idea?

[/quote

I am not sure the filtered medical grade ethanol that you want to use with the sensor has no particles.
the amount you use for cleaning is so small that there is no reason for making savings and expriments on the expence of your sensor

My understanding is that eclipse is just a very pure grade of methanol. If you want a medical-grade substitute, make sure you get methanol not ethanol. Methanol evaporates much faster than ethanol or isopropanol. The medical grade is not as pure as eclipse, but I have heard no complaints from people who have used it.



I'd go with eclipse, unless I could get something else for free. I just don't need enough to make the savings matter.


Phillip

Thanks for the replies.

I doubt I will be running out of Eclipse any day soon. I'm just the kind of person who wonders about everything and anything. I thought also that it would be best to just stick with proven liquids.

I am also using the Eclips with the swabs, but I am still not to happy with it, but this can also be caused by my limitted experience.

Eclips contains Methanol but it's not indicated how pure it is.

On several websites it's claimed that Canon would use 90% Isopropyl Alcohol. Usualy Isopropyl alcohol 60-70% is used for medical desinfection purposes, but you should use at least 90%. This kind of Isopropyl alcohol (>90%)is usualy sold as technical alcohol, because its used to clean electronics.

Also Eclips has residues, while it leaves streaks when using to much.