Okay, here it is, the reason why you need to add water to ethanol for it to kill viruses, and the fact it gets rid of water in your petrol tank is actually part of it.

Water and oil/grease don't mix. Soap has this useful property that part the soap molecule attracts water, the other side of the molecule attracts grease. So, add some soap or detergent and you can get oil or grease to dissolve in water.

Similarly, with alcohol, you can use it to get water to dissolve in petrol. Most of you probably know the trick to add some metho to your petrol tank if you suspect it may have some water in it.

So, the way soap destroys the coronavirus is similar to how it dissolves grease in water. Your not just washing it off your hands, you are actually destroying the virus by pulling it apart in the presence of water. And it doesn't need anti-bacterial soap to do it, just any plain old soap or detergent is stripping the virus apart in water.

Alcohol does a similar thing. You would have read you need at least 60% alcohol....but here's the real kicker...100% alcohol is no good. You actually need the water present for the alcohol to strip the virus apart, so once you start going over 70% alcohol concentration, it becomes less effective. Being mixed with water also reduces the rate of evaporation, so it is in contact with the virus on your hands for longer too.

How do I know this? I read it on the internet of course.

Here's one source, but there are a heap of similar stories if you search.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/12/science-soap-kills-coronavirus-alcohol-based-disinfectants

Why would some one write one thousand one hundred and eleven 1111 on the sh..t h o use wall ...?

bazz61 said..
Why would some one write one thousand one hundred and eleven 1111 on the sh..t h o use wall ...?

Was it 1112 when you left?

japie said..
I did a brief search for isopropyl alcohol last night. I've not used it as it is so expensive. Roughly $25 / 500ml in Bunnings from memory which is why I've always used metho.

I found some on EBay at $56/litre but they'd run out of stock. I'll take another gander today.

I paid $30 for 5 litres, including delivery to my door.

Don't ever buy it from Jaycar or bunnings, they'll rob you blind. Instead, whenever you want one of those things that is expensive in the hardware or hobby store, find an industry that uses it by the truck load, and buy it from their suppliers. In this case, the beauticians use it to do nails.