Shout it OUT!

        Triple Acting Formula:

1. Clings
2. Penetrates
3. Lifts away stains... and paint!

Having good brushes makes the world of difference for both production rates and quality of work. But the best brush in the world is useless if not cleaned up properly from one job to the next. There are a barage of cleaning chemicals out there that claim to be the best. This post will shed light on the chemical I use for the final and critical last cleaning step. 

To better understand why shout works for brush cleaning here is a brief explanation of the key chemical composition in Shout. below is the MSDS sheet from Johnson and Johnson. As you can see from the msds sheet the majority of the Shout is water. This really should not be a surprise because water is abundant and cheap. Ethoxyalted Alcohol is the main cleaning chemical found in shout. Ethoxylation is an industrial process in which ethylene oxide is added to alcohols and phenols to give surfactants. Surfactants are compounds that lower the surface tension of a liquid, allowing easier spreading, and lowering of the interfacial tension between two liquids, or between a liquid and a solid. Sufactants may act as detergents, wetting agents, emulsifiers, foaming agents, and dispersants. 

That may be slightly confusing. This is how I have come to understand it. The Shout makes the water "wetter" reducing surface tension allowing the water to penetrate deeply into the bristles, and the detergent's help to remove any oils and residues leaving your brush clean and conditioned for the next use. 

After following the usual brush cleaning regiment for latex paint I usually soak the brush in a small amount of water and eight to ten sprays of shout for one to five minutes. Then take the brush out of the shout mix, spin it with a brush spinner, and hang the brush to dry. The brush will dry in a matter of minutes because the Shout has reduced the tension of the water and you have spun 99% of the water out of the brush. Also the small amount of Shout left in the bristles will prevent any left over paint residue from gluing your bristles together and leave the brush as soft as the day you bought it. 

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