Make no mistake -- using disposable foods gloves to change your Jeep's rear differential fluid is a great idea if you'd enjoy licking your fingers afterwards.
I received a box of disposable food gloves for one Christmas -- I know, practical, right? Seriously, they were! Instead of going out and purchasing 6 mil nitrile gloves to protect my hands from the work I'd be performing on my Jeep, I decided to be resourceful and use the disposable food gloves.
To my surprise, the disposable food gloves worked great for changing the Jeep's oil, ccv valves, etc, but when it came time for the differential fluid, my hands were in over their head? Finger nails?
In my excitement of removing my Jeep's rear differential cap for the first time to change the rear differential fluid, I forgot to place the oil drain pan directly underneath the rear differential as I removed the last bolt.
To make a long story longer, the disposable food gloves already had serious tears in the finger tips from removing the rear differential bolts -- my skin was completely exposed. So when I removed that last differential bolt and cracked the silicone seal with a flat screw driver, I was quickly reminded that gravity exists.
The rear differential fluid came pouring out onto the driveway, no more than a couple inches from the oil drip pan. As you might have guessed, my excitement quickly turned to sheer panic. But faster than I could identify my panic, my logic kicked in, as I quickly grabbed the oil drip pan and finally place it under the rear differential, but not before differential fluid made its way onto my hands due to the rears in my disposable food gloves.
Of the many jobs words have, one of those jobs is to help identify the world around us. That day, I was reminded of this specific job when a non-edible fluid breached my disposable "food" gloves. My hands were marinaded in rear differential fluid.
If you know what rear differential fluid smells like, it stinks, unlike regular engine oil. No worries though, because I'll just wash my hands with some Dawn afterwards and they'll be ready to rotate my potatoes for dinner. Nope, that didn't work, because even after scrubbing my hands with hot water and dawn, my hands still reeked of rear differential fluid, once the lavender silk evaporated - lovely scent.
So I headed to Tractor Supply Company to pick up Oil Eater's Cleaner Degreaser for the rear differential fluid on the driveway, other miscellaneous stuff, and a good hand cleaner. As I browsed the hand cleaning products, GOJO's Cherry Gel Pumice Hand Cleaner stuck out at me for some reason -- probably because it was the only hand cleaner on the barren shelf.
I quickly checked its reviews on Amazon, it had almost 5 stars for some 15 or so reviews, and I was sold!
Once I got home, I grabbed the GOJO Cherry Gel Pumice Hand Cleaner, headed to the sink, and squirted some on my hands. As the word "gel" on the bottle indicated, it was a gel and smelled of a lovely ice cream truck cherry. I let the water run to get hot while I lathered my hands with the gel. The gel quickly turned into a soap-like consistency and I could feel the grittiness of the pumice as I scrubbed my hands.
After about a minute or so of scrubbing my hands, I simply rinsed them under the water, dried them, and both my cherry flavored hands and I sat and waited to see if I'd be able to smell differential fluid as the ice cream truck drove away. Also, my hands were super smooth!
As the hours went on after washing my hands with the GOJO Cherry Gel Pumice Hand Cleaner, there wasn't a trace of smelly differential fluid to be found on my hands. The cherry scent had long since faded and I had my old hands back again!
Additional review
A couple weeks later, I would call on the amazing hand cleaning ability of GOJO's Cherry Gel Pumice Hand Cleaner after giving my two boxers a bath on a humid 90°F day.
In an effort to use less harsh products around the house, to clean the dogs, we used a natural product called Flea Free Pet Scents Herbal Shampoo. After scrubbing down and rinsing off the dogs really good, the product seemed to make their coats squeaky clean, but damn did my hand smell to high heaven of eucalyptus oil.
So, just as I did at first with the differential fluid, I went to the sink and washed my hands with Dawn. To my surprise, my hands were still incredibly pungent of eucalyptus oil. No worries though -- it was a natural product and the smell would fade as the hours went on in the same way that skunk smell was a natural product.
The smell didn't fade. In fact, the smell was so strong that my eyes and nose started to become itchy and my sinuses began to clog. With this new knowledge, I might as well have washed the dogs with a skunk, had I enjoyed a skunk's lovely scent.
Then, just like realizing the oil drip pan was not under the rear differential as I removed the last bolt, I realized that what was on my hands was an oil. Once this connection was made, I immediately grabbed the GOJO Cherry Gel Pumice Hander Cleaner from my tool bag, headed to the sink, and scrubbed my hands just as I did before.
As the ice cream truck left once again, the smell of the eucalyptus oil was no where to be found on my hands. I was blown away again!
Conclusion
GOJO's Cherry Gel Pumice Hand Cleaner was effectively able to remove both rear differential fluid and eucalyptus oil from hands in one scrub. All that remained was a light, but likely artificial, cherry scent that faded as the hours went on. The bonus from this product is that it doesn't dry out your hands, as it leaves them incredibly moist and smooth.
7/9/2017