Our world is full of remarkable innovations.
And Magic Eraser is one of them.
Yes, we've sent humans to walk on the moon and we have robots rolling around Mars, but
Magic Eraser can get permanent marker off your walls!
Here's the untold truth of Magic Eraser.
While it looks like some kind of sponge, and disintegrates long before you're really willing
to part with it, Magic Eraser isn't a sponge at all.
It's a kind of foam, and one of its base ingredients is melamine, the same stuff in your first
full set of dinner plates in college.
And although it's true that most people never saw a piece of melamine foam until the day
Procter & Gamble blessed the world with the Magic Eraser, the concoction isn't actually
new.
According to How Stuff Works, it's been around for a couple decades and is still used today
as sound and temperature insulation.
So the only real problem with the world's most remarkable invention is the cost.
Magic Erasers go for about $1 each, which doesn't sound bad until you discover that
one eraser's total lifespan is just a matter of minutes.
Magic Erasers tend to disintegrate as they're being applied to those stubborn stains, so
when you're done, you have a spot-free wall and a pile of melamine crumbs on the carpet.
So really, that dollar doesn't go very far.
"What is this nonsense?"
What Procter & Gamble probably doesn't want you to know is that you don't have to buy
melamine foam that says "Magic Eraser" to get the same cleaning power.
According to CNet, you can buy generic melamine foam squares in bulk for around 8 cents each.
Then, just mix up a simple solution of borax, baking soda, and water, and you're on your
way to Scrubbsville.
The real difference is you won't have to put in extra hours at the office to pay for the
25 packs of Magic Erasers you would have bought.
So just how does this miracle of miracles perform its miraculous task?
Is it blessed with magical unicorn dust?
Or is it something more sinister, like maybe Mr. Clean got his rugged good looks and supernatural
cleaning power when he made a deal with the Dirt Devil?
"Sarah?
Sarah?
Clean enough?"
It turns out that despite its name, there is no real magic behind Magic Eraser.
According to How Stuff Works, Magic Eraser's secret is that it's abrasive, but not too
abrasive, like very fine-grit sandpaper, or Russell Crowe.
So when you're cleaning the stains off your wal, you're not actually dissolving the stain
the way some other cleaning products might, you're exfoliating it.
Which means your eraser doesn't discriminate between the stain and the surface the stain
is sitting on, and it could be too harsh of a cleaning solution.
"What?
What was that?"
So go nuts on your walls, but think twice before Magic Erasing those family heirlooms.
Remember how people said your dog would die if you sprayed him with Febreze, or how your
cat would also die if you cleaned your floors with a Swiffer?
People love to start rumors about cleaning products, and back in 2006, someone started
an email-based rumor that Magic Eraser contains formaldehyde.
The implication was that Magic Eraser leaves embalming fluids all over your house.
Gross, right?
"You're drinking embalming fluid."
"Ooo, yes."
Unsurprisingly, it was Snopes who busted the rumor, republishing Procter & Gamble's rebuttal
not long after the email made its appearance.
According to the statement, the misunderstanding comes from the product's chemical name: melamine-formaldehyde-sodium
bisulfite copolymer, not actual formaldehyde.
In the early days, the media was full of praise for this wonder of modern stain removal.
Time named Magic Eraser one of the "best inventions of 2004," though they did also caution against
overusing it on certain surfaces, so it's not like Magic Eraser ever had a reputation
as a do-everything cleaning product.
But new products are often met with suspicion, and early on there were people who claimed
to have negative physical reactions to the product.
There also seems to have been at least one, uh, concerned user, worried that Magic Erasers
might not be gluten-free.
"Yeah, well, no I'm gluten sensitive.
One time I had a large Dominos pasta stuffed pizza, and I was so bloated."
Evidently, though, Magic Erasers don't contain any gluten or dairy, but still, don't go chewing
on them.
We also have it on very good authority that Magic Erasers are not edible, with Snopes
reporting they "may block the gastrointestinal tract."
Magic Erasers are great for removing stains from a wall or a coffee cup, but word to the
wise: don't ever use it to get Sharpie off your child's face.
According to Business Insider, parents filed a lawsuit against a daycare center after viewing
a surveillance video in which one of the teachers was seen quote, "handling the boys roughly
while using a Magic Eraser to remove the marker."
While ThoughtCo.
noted that the boys' apparent facial "burns" were more likely surface abrasions, the story
dropped out of the news cycle in mid 2018, so we might never really know what the injuries
truly were.
But one thing we do know is that Magic Erasers aren't meant to clean skin.
So please, use their magic as intended.
"I get it…
I get it."
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.