While household vinegar has countless applications in home cleaning, using this versatile substance is not appropriate in many different situations. Because vinegar is acidic, it can corrode wood and stone, it can destroy wax, kill plants, and cause other damage.
The acid etches and dulls natural stone such as marble and limestone. It can slowly dissolve them, according to Beckman. With other durable stones, such as granite, vinegar can break down any sealers that have been applied.
Small Appliances
The plastic and glass surfaces on most small kitchen appliances, such as blenders, coffee makers, and toasters, are safe to clean with vinegar, but you want to avoid any rubber parts or metal that vinegar can corrode.
Vinegar is a solid workhorse when it comes to cleaning. However, it is acidic and can cause damage to some surfaces, including when it's used for cleaning floors. Avoid using vinegar on these 12 surfaces and items in the home.
As a general rule, wherever you find rubber, keep the vinegar away. The vinegar's acid can eat away at rubber just as it does natural stone. Soap and water or a solution of soap and baking soda are the best grime busters for rubber parts.
However, it's important to remember that vinegar is an acid. This means there are a few things you should not clean with vinegar. White vinegar isn't suitable for cleaning natural stone, granite, marble, quartz, or similar. This is because vinegar can be corrosive to these materials.
Make sure to use a 1:1 solution of distilled white vinegar and water. Spray it onto the sink, leave for a minute or two, then wipe and rinse. The solution shouldn't be left on the sink for longer because it can damage the stainless steel in the long term.
Can vinegar ruin clothes? Vinegar is safe to use to clean your clothes and will not ruin them. However, it's a good idea to measure the right amount of vinegar to use and spot test your clothes before washing them. Vinegar is a great cleaner used to remove stains and odors out of clothes and shoes.
Rinsing is not necessary! If you're simply using a vinegar and water solution to wipe and disinfect, you won't need to rinse. However, if there's also plenty of dirt and grime you're wiping away, you may also want to rinse with some extra water.
It's white vinegar that can help keep everything hygienically clean – the key is to dilute it with water and any other natural extracts or essential oils to add a lovely scent. 'Vinegar is made from acetic acid,' says Lucy Searle, Global Editor in Chief for Homes & Gardens.
The only difference between cleaning vinegar and the distilled white vinegar is their levels of acidity. White vinegar is usually 95 percent water and 5 percent acid. By contrast, cleaning vinegar contains up to six percent acid and is around 20 percent stronger than regular white vinegar.
Furthermore, there can be side effects of taking too much vinegar at once in concentrated form, including stomach upset and irritation of the esophagus. Its high acid content can erode tooth enamel.
Short-term Exposure: Acetic acid vapors cause irrita- tion of the eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. Inhalation of concentrated vapors may cause serious damage to the lining of the nose, throat, and lungs. Delayed breathing difficulties can occur. Contact with concentrated acetic acid may cause severe damage to the skin.
Breathing vapours with high levels of acetic acid can cause irritation of eyes, nose and throat, cough, chest tightness, headache, fever and confusion. In serious cases damage to the airways, a fast heart rate and eye damage can occur. An accumulation of fluid in the lungs may occur and may take up 36 hours to develop.
Since it's important to use non-corrosive products, many online cleaning tips suggest the best way to clean chrome fixtures is with a mixture of white vinegar and water. Vinegar can eat away at metal and cause it to corrode quickly if even the tiniest amount gets left on the surface.
Vinegar does contain acetic acid so in theory yes, vinegar can dissolve aluminum if used in large amounts or for over extended periods of time. In many cases, if you do this, your aluminum ends up with a tarnished finished, possible corrosion and other problems with surface flaking.
Mixing baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and vinegar (acetic acid) causes a chemical reaction that produces a salt (sodium acetate) and water, as well as carbon dioxide gas. In this demonstration, baking soda is placed in a balloon that is attached to a flask holding vinegar. This creates a closed system.
It's important to note that some metals, like aluminium, react differently with vinegar than others, like steel or iron. Aluminium objects should be scrubbed with baking soda instead of vinegar for best results; otherwise, they may discolour due to long exposure times in an acidic environment.
Baking soda + vinegar
If you mix acidic vinegar with basic baking soda and stow them away in a closed container, the mixture can be quite explosive—literally. That's because vinegar causes baking soda to foam up and explode.
Using vinegar in your washing machine can cause serious damage. Vinegar is acidic and can corrode the internal parts. It can also dissolve the protective coating on many materials, including the rubber seals and gaskets found inside the washer.
However, this doesn't mean that combining the two will create a super-cleaner — in fact, it actually puts your health at serious risk. Mixing vinegar and bleach together releases a poisonous chlorine gas, which can be fatal if inhaled at high enough concentrations.
Spray the vinegar mixture or glass cleaner directly on the cloth, not on the mirror directly. This way, the cleaner doesn't seep behind the silver coating, which can create black tarnish marks or rust.