Why is Vinegar Peroxide so popular and why so much misinfo on TikTok about it?

[N P]

I know many of the demographic here are older and may not browse TikTok, but there is an epidemic of creators promoting vinegar/peroxide for e-waste gold recovery and spreading misinformation like…

1. It’s safe and non toxic
2. You don’t need PPE
3. It’s cheap

Vinegar Peroxide method is one of the weakest ways to recover gold that I know of, and the crazy thing is these people are only recommending the 5% vinegar! Not even recommending to their audience 40% + Vinegar you can get in most stores. When asked if they read Hoke, nope never heard of him. When asked why not any other solution, you get the misinfo above. It’s barely cheaper than some of the other methods so I don’t understand why they’re using it? The cost of entry between some solutions and the vinegar solutions is something like a $2 difference according to my calculations. I just don’t get it? Why do people continue to use this inefficient and ineffective method? Or am I wrong thinking that’s its inefficient and ineffective? Why so much misinformation? Why mainly Tiktok? Would love to hear the thoughts of others.
-N

 

[eaglekeeper]

I know many of the demographic here are older and may not browse TikTok, but there is an epidemic of creators promoting vinegar/peroxide for e-waste gold recovery and spreading misinformation like…

1. It’s safe and non toxic
2. You don’t need PPE
3. It’s cheap

Vinegar Peroxide method is one of the weakest ways to recover gold that I know of, and the crazy thing is these people are only recommending the 5% vinegar! Not even recommending to their audience 40% + Vinegar you can get in most stores. When asked if they read Hoke, nope never heard of him. When asked why not any other solution, you get the misinfo above. It’s barely cheaper than some of the other methods so I don’t understand why they’re using it? The cost of entry between some solutions and the vinegar solutions is something like a $2 difference according to my calculations. I just don’t get it? Why do people continue to use this inefficient and ineffective method? Or am I wrong thinking that’s its inefficient and ineffective? Why so much misinformation? Why mainly Tiktok? Would love to hear the thoughts of others.
-N

The vinegar and peroxide isn't necessarily toxic.......it's the dissolved metals in solution that makes it toxic.

I don't deal with acetates, so I don't know the chemistry of them.

 

[GoIdman]

I know many of the demographic here are older and may not browse TikTok, but there is an epidemic of creators promoting vinegar/peroxide for e-waste gold recovery and spreading misinformation like…

1. It’s safe and non toxic
2. You don’t need PPE
3. It’s cheap

Vinegar Peroxide method is one of the weakest ways to recover gold that I know of, and the crazy thing is these people are only recommending the 5% vinegar! Not even recommending to their audience 40% + Vinegar you can get in most stores. When asked if they read Hoke, nope never heard of him. When asked why not any other solution, you get the misinfo above. It’s barely cheaper than some of the other methods so I don’t understand why they’re using it? The cost of entry between some solutions and the vinegar solutions is something like a $2 difference according to my calculations. I just don’t get it? Why do people continue to use this inefficient and ineffective method? Or am I wrong thinking that’s its inefficient and ineffective? Why so much misinformation? Why mainly Tiktok? Would love to hear the thoughts of others.
-N

You can find replies in another thread for the same (similar) question. The entire discussion can be found here .

There are no cutting corners in recovery and refining if you want to do a quality and safe job.

Pete

 

[Yggdrasil]

You can find replies in another thread for the same (similar) question. The entire discussion can be found here .

There are no cutting corners in recovery and refining if you want to do a quality and safe job.

Pete

The OP wishes us (This Forum) to engage in TikTok to counter the misinformation there.
We are currently discussing amongst the moderators how or whether to deal with this.

 

[goldshark]

Sell the forum to Tic Tac for beau coup, then buy it back for pennies on the dollar after everybody leaves it.

 

[Martijn]

I know many of the demographic here are older and may not browse TikTok, but there is an epidemic of creators promoting vinegar/peroxide for e-waste gold recovery and spreading misinformation like…

1. It’s safe and non toxic
2. You don’t need PPE
3. It’s cheap

Vinegar Peroxide method is one of the weakest ways to recover gold that I know of, and the crazy thing is these people are only recommending the 5% vinegar! Not even recommending to their audience 40% + Vinegar you can get in most stores. When asked if they read Hoke, nope never heard of him. When asked why not any other solution, you get the misinfo above. It’s barely cheaper than some of the other methods so I don’t understand why they’re using it? The cost of entry between some solutions and the vinegar solutions is something like a $2 difference according to my calculations. I just don’t get it? Why do people continue to use this inefficient and ineffective method? Or am I wrong thinking that’s its inefficient and ineffective? Why so much misinformation? Why mainly Tiktok? Would love to hear the thoughts of others.
-N

1: because youtube, tictoc and such sites are about making money, not informing people. clickbait and adds, money money money
2: because most people are naïve and believe what they are told without fact checking. look at the likes and views on painted rock "gold" video's.
3: because most acids are harder to get because of being labeled drug and explosive precurors by legislators
4: shiny things are attractive and gold fever is a real disease switching off parts of the brain.

You will not ever have heard of Mr Hoke's book, because she was a lady.

This is the first time I heard tictoc was doing this, but hey, It's a market that is full of young gullible kids. And someone needs fish for more people from other online platforms to create more views...

 

[Shark]

It works so well. Just look at the influx of new users looking for cures to their mess that someone else convinced them was so easy. Ever wonder why they come here looking for answers and not asking those who convinced them it was so easy doing it with vinegar and salt or peroxide. Because the person they learned to create the mess from will not or cannot answer their questions. Many of those who push this method are only mimicking what others have posted. Many even wait until such people ask questions then create another post or video pretending to answer their question just to get more clicks, which equals more money to them. And again they still won’t answer additional questions.

Social media is not social, it is anti-social. It is solely about money.

 

[Ultrax]

I started using the Internet in 1998, on a new Pentium-233, and the first fiber-optic line from a provider in Ukraine (with a 33K modem).

At that time, the amount of commercial information was minimal, and Alta Vista (Google had not yet appeared) provided more or less relevant scientific information in response to requests.

After the commercialization of the Internet by corporations since about 2004, it is impossible to trust “pseudo-scientific” information from the network in most cases without careful verification.

Neural networks and Google usually produce a mixture of outright and dangerous nonsense with misunderstood facts and misconceptions (especially if such facts are quoted by many untrained people), so the only source of verifiable scientific information is books(!), especially when it comes to chemistry.

 

[nickvc]

I started using the Internet in 1998, on a new Pentium-233, and the first fiber-optic line from a provider in Ukraine (with a 33K modem).

At that time, the amount of commercial information was minimal, and Alta Vista (Google had not yet appeared) provided more or less relevant scientific information in response to requests.

After the commercialization of the Internet by corporations since about 2004, it is impossible to trust “pseudo-scientific” information from the network in most cases without careful verification.

Neural networks and Google usually produce a mixture of outright and dangerous nonsense with misunderstood facts and misconceptions (especially if such facts are quoted by many untrained people), so the only source of verifiable scientific information is books(!), especially when it comes to chemistry.

When it comes to recovery and refining of precious metals the one place you can trust is the forum, any misinformation or dangerous practices are very very quickly taken apart and corrected .

 

[Shark]

started using the Internet in 1998, on a new Pentium-233, and the first fiber-optic line from a provider in Ukraine (with a 33K modem).

I didn’t get to use fiber optic but that computer sounds about like my first one in 1999. Same processor and modem, and I think it was 2 gig hard drive. Looking back it seemed totally amazing technology for the times. Until those mass pops came on the scene, .

 

[Ultrax]

When it comes to recovery and refining of precious metals the one place you can trust is the forum, any misinformation or dangerous practices are very very quickly taken apart and corrected .

When people use the words "vinegar/peroxide" and "gold recovery" in the same sentence, it doesn't sound like they bothered to read the forum or any other source...

 

[nickvc]

When people use the words "vinegar/peroxide" and "gold recovery" in the same sentence, it doesn't sound like they bothered to read the forum or any other source...

Thankfully the use of those words in the same sentence is restricted to tic tok for the most part although they probably appear on the internet in dodgy videos.

 

[Shark]

Thankfully the use of those words in the same sentence is restricted to tic tok for the most part although they probably appear on the internet in dodgy videos.

Yep, YouTube is full of them. Half finished, low recoveries, even a few at the very end that just gave up. The ones that look good always seem to be missing a few steps. It is amazing what good video editing software can do these days.

 

[goohuz]

Most tik tok users seem to have about a three minute attention span, max. Anyone serious about refining, and actually having the intelligence and patience to accomplish it, either has already found this forum, or will when they actually research refining once something piques their interest in it (such as a one minute tik tok video).

If any moderators wish to engage with the typical tik tok user and their focus on instant gratification; well then you’re far braver and have way more patience than I ever will.

 

[Shark]

I would’t mind it so much if they would just use a disclaimer that warned people that it was not a quality method and that losses are likely to occur. I know in some countries certain chemicals are heavily restricted and it may be the only available method. But then why dive head first into something you don’t have access to the proper materials, chemicals or safety equipment. The worst part is the fact that so many claim it is safe and non toxic. That claim should be a major warning to everyone who is researching into refining. It is right up there with those who want to learn to refine and then ask “where do I find material to work with?”

Enough rant, back to relaxing.

 

[kurtak]

so the only source of verifiable scientific information is books(!), especially when it comes to chemistry.

And this forum

Kurt

 

[orvi]

Social media is all about fame and viral generating revenue. That´s it. That is why internet is completely flooded with "crafty" type of videos which are outright dangerous, completely non-sense or simply not working...

My "favourite" one is one where guy take credit card, cut only the part with chip, place it into some kind of pendant and pretend how ground-breaking thing he made - contactless payments with your pendant !
One could think - "Such a great idea, I´ll make one myself from my own debit card" Yeah. Seems logical, but truth is, you will ruin your card and it simply won´t work. In a regular card, there is thin wire run around the edges of the card, acting as RF antenna, which simultaneously power the chip while communicating with reader, and also then transmitting information to the reader. If you cut the card in nearly any place, you will cut through it and ruin whole "antenna" thing. But Facebook and TikTok are flooded with these kind of videos. I wonder how many people fell for it

Same situation with vinegar and salt as some miraculous "next-gen AP"... In this case, they got the point, it kinda works. But at what cost... Acetates of heavy metals have much better properties regarding for example penetrating your skin We certainly want that... And also, why not create dozens of liters of toxic waste, why only few like with use of regular AP...

 

[GoIdman]

I would’t mind it so much if they would just use a disclaimer that warned people that it was not a quality method and that losses are likely to occur. I know in some countries certain chemicals are heavily restricted and it may be the only available method. But then why dive head first into something you don’t have access to the proper materials, chemicals or safety equipment. The worst part is the fact that so many claim it is safe and non toxic. That claim should be a major warning to everyone who is researching into refining. It is right up there with those who want to learn to refine and then ask “where do I find material to work with?”

Enough rant, back to relaxing.

In my country there are restrictions for acids, since those are precursors for making explosives and use for making drugs, so there are special laws that forbid the holding of these materials.

However, some plain household products contain the required acids, of cours lesser concentration, but available and legal to hold, that is what i am using, it works well (much more time to dissolve things , but it works), limescale remover 20-25% HCl, battery electrolite 34% H2SO4, concrete cleaner 6% HNO3 (this product is way too weak to use and has some contaminants, not quite the best quality to work with, I dont use it).

The point is, if someone wants to do a research in his own area for materials that are suitable for recovery, it is just the time invested that is required, no money no nothing. Just pick some products from the shelf and read the label, if it doesnt contain what you need, put it back and take the next one.. Reading and educating yourself is free. This is what most TIkTok or social media adventurers don`t understand.

Pete

 

[Darkthirty]

In my country there are restrictions for acids, since those are precursors for making explosives and use for making drugs, so there are special laws that forbid the holding of these materials.

However, some plain household products contain the required acids, of cours lesser concentration, but available and legal to hold, that is what i am using, it works well (much more time to dissolve things , but it works), limescale remover 20-25% HCl, battery electrolite 34% H2SO4, concrete cleaner 6% HNO3 (this product is way too weak to use and has some contaminants, not quite the best quality to work with, I dont use it).

The point is, if someone wants to do a research in his own area for materials that are suitable for recovery, it is just the time invested that is required, no money no nothing. Just pick some products from the shelf and read the label, if it doesnt contain what you need, put it back and take the next one.. Reading and educating yourself is free. This is what most TIkTok or social media adventurers don`t understand.

Pete

But, Tik tok IS education! Sarc
Edit to add sarc tag,obvious, but just in case ...

 

[N P]

The OP wishes us (This Forum) to engage in TikTok to counter the misinformation there.
We are currently discussing amongst the moderators how or whether to deal with this.

Yes, my goal was to open a discussion, though not really a call to arms.

My personal issue is where people want to start gold recovery and want to "practice" or start with a "safer" solution than AR, but have not done their proper study and due diligence. They do not know what chemicals they are mixing together and how they might react. Bringing harm on themselves, family and even neighbors. Dangerous example like a dude doing AR in his basement without any PPE(and not vent), a woman refining in the middle of her living room with children present, and just in general, people being so comfortable with recovering inside their homes.

I don't think it's my or yours duty to message these people but heck sometimes I feel bad not saying something. It has been fun reading everyone's perspective and insight