Sodium chlorate has been removed from sale to the public for some years now. Because - Ka-booom!

I hate to say it but a proprietary Pathclear type product is your best bet.

Sodium chlorate is very good as a total weedkiller. The last time I bought any it had a fire inhibitor added so that it could no longer be used in terrorist explosives, but that was a good number of years ago.

Pathclear or Ground Clear, tho the latter in particular should not be used where there's a risk it'll run into planted areas.

It wasn't banned because of its use as a homemade explosive, there are better and more readily available chemicals for that, like ammonium nitrate, used as a fertiliser. The EU has banned it, and susequently high powered vacuum cleaners because apparently they are bad for the environment. I find this quite laughable because I bought some drain unblocker the other day and it stated on the label that it contained 98% sulphuric acid. A car battery only contains 6% sulphuric acid but you would get a big fine if you were caught emptying it down a drain.

I have about half a sachet of sodium chlorate left which I got years ago and it still is the best weedkiller and was cheap. I can't really see how glyphosphate can be less damaging. Maybe these unelected MEP's have their hands in the pockets of the makers of overpriced weedkillers at the same time as they have their snouts in the gravy troughs?

There's a move to ban Glyphosate now...

... And restrict the power of hair driers, air conditioners and ban heated car seats.

Myron: Well I agree that power levels should be restricted - it should be easily possible to produce a hair drier that works well using less power, the same way a vacuum cleaner doesn't need a powerful motor - having a power hungry motor does not mean it works better, because the air watts on a vacuum are not related to power of the motor. Why would I want to pay more in electricity using a vacuum that doesn't do a better job than one using less power, but with better air watts? Makes perfect sense to me. I just wish the manufacturers would get on with it and create air cons, hair dryers and so on that aren't power hungry.

Reducing the power of hair driers could just mean you had to run them for longer so there would be very little saving.
What are air watts bamboo?

Bamboo, watts are indeed related to power, watts are a measurement of power. The laws of science says it will take the same amount of watt hours to do a certain job. if it takes an hour to move something using 2 watts, it will take two hours consuming 1 watt, so the total power consumption will always be 2wh. An alalogy of this is that it takes a man twice as long to dig a hole as two men.

Having said that, quite a lot of the power is used up on other things rather than the actual task and it's not neccersarily proportional, so sometimes more power is more economical. For example, I changed my car recently from a 2 litre diesel to a 1.6 litre diesel and the 1.6 does less MPH.

I think that manufacturers of hair driers and vacuum cleaners are doing all they can to make them more economical. They have to to stay competittive.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to saving energy, we all should do our bit. The thing that gets gets my goat and was my original gripe, is that the unelected MEP's, our own government and local authorities either ban things, tax them to discourage us, or put things in place to inhibit us. They are either hipocrits, have not thought it through, or they are using us all as cash cows.

The EU are very good at banning or restricting the power of things like vacumm cleaners to protect the environment, but they spend £130 million a month on a travelling circus. Once a month they move everything, including thousands of workers from Brussels to Strasbourg, then back again. Ask yourself what all those flights and road journeys for the trucks is doing to the environment.

Our own government brought in a smoking ban, not a bad thing I hear you say. But our MP's voted it in on one condition. That the ban wouldn't apply to two places. Number one... Prisons. Why, I can't understand. The second one... THE BAR IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. A smoking ban! Oh! Not in our bar.

Local authorities have put speed humps on just about every residential street in the country. This causes cars to use more fuel, inconveniences drivers and causes damage. Why do they do it? Because it looks like they are tackling a problem and it also makes them feel better. Before you say, well, that can only be a good thing because it slows down drivers and prevents accidents, there are at least two local councils that have removed the humps and they have seen a decline in road accidents.

I understand your logic, but its faulty - and here's the proof. If you can explain this, then feel free - when I replaced my vacuum a year ago, I was going to get an Electrolux - my previous, ten years old one was an 1800 watt motor and the air watts were 350. I didn't buy an Electrolux this time, because the lowest motor wattage was 2,000, yet the air watts were now 200. I bought, instead, a Bosch, with a 1300 watt motor and 320 air watts. Just because its got a powerful motor, it does not mean its going to have a powerful suction - the two should be related in some way, but apparently they are not necessarily, poor technology/engineering have something to do with it. Manufacturers have been getting away with this sort of nonsense for years, and its time they were told to sort it out. I now vacuum with a smile on my face - yes the air watts are a little lower, but they're good enough, and its not costing me as much in electricity because the motor's only 1300 watts. Great job, clearly proving that you don't need a massive motor to generate better air wattage...

Thank you Goy - always learning something new on here!

I looked up air watts and found
http://www.sust-it.net/blog/air-watts-or-motor-watts-what-does-this-mean-when-buying-a-vacuum/

Very interesting. We have a system built into the house, that collects the dust in the garage. (It was here when we came)The suction isn't as strong as you get with an upright so its probably because it has such a long hose.

You're totally right Bamboo, what you said is the point I'm trying to make.

As you rightly said, air watts are a measure of efficiency. the higher the air watt per electrical watt, the more efficient the vacumm cleaner is.

When I said that the time it takes for a machine to do a job is inversely proportional to the wattage, I meant all things being equal, i.e. the same air watts.

I understand what you mean about some makes of vacuum cleaners being more efficient than others, this will always be the case, as it is with lots of other things... Cars, fridges, central heating boilers, etc.

When you said electrical watts are not necessarily related to air watts, or suction power, this enforces my point. Why put a cap on or ban something over a certain electrical watt output? It doesn't make sense. It's like banning all cars with engines over 2 litres that were doing 40 mpg and you find that the majority of cars that you can still buy don't do more than 35 mph.

You have done the right thing in researching which is the more economical vacuum cleaner and that's what the EU should be encouraging us all to do instead of blanket bans. They have gone someway to help us do this because as from September last year all vacumm cleaners sold have to show there A-G energy efficiency rating like most other domestic appliances manufacturers have had to show for years.

I'm never in favour of banning something outright except if it's for a very good reason because we seem to be getting closer to a total nanny state. When the EU decided it wanted to sort out the the problem with vacuum cleaners they should have given incentives to the manufacturers to produce more efficient machines instead of banning them. If they were still hungry to enforce some kind of ban, then they should have banned machines that don't meet a certain air watt criteria.

Banning vacuum cleaners, and any other electrical appliance solely because they consume a lot of amps doesn't make any sense. As you pointed out, it depends on how much suction you get per watt.