Abstract The ability of bicarbonate and carbonate salts to inhibit pitting in ferrous materials was studied in aerated alkaline solutions at 60°C. These conditions were used in order that the systems would be representative of typical aqueous metal cleaning systems. Even though ferrous materials generally have been regarded as exhibiting a low susceptibility to corrosion atpH values > 10, it was shown that for C4140 (UNS G41400), increasing the temperature to 60°C atpH 10 increased the overall corrosion rate (as measured by linear polarization) by about 20 times to 100 times compared with the rate at room temperature. Addition of potassium bicarbonate/potassium carbonate (KHCO3/K2CO3) to the solution significantly reduced the corrosion rate. The influence of temperature at pH values of 11 to 13 on overall corrosion rate was very minor. To investigate the influence of alloy type, electrochemical experiments were performed at pH 11 at 60°C on gray cast iron type G-2 class 40 (UNS F12801), C4140 carbon steel...