It's a brilliant product to have in the store cupboard and avoids using store-bought abrasive cleaners. A word of warning, though – undiluted vinegar can damage natural stone and wood, so always check – or dilute really well – before using vinegar for cleaning. '
(Spot test a small area first, as vinegar is too strong for some delicate fabrics.) Undiluted, it can irritate your skin or nails, though, so be sure to wear gloves. For everyday jobs, diluted cleaning vinegar will get the job done.
But don't start swigging undiluted vinegar! It's still acetic acid. Especially undiluted, vinegar may harm mouth and digestive-system tissues; a tablespoon of vinegar is enough for salad dressing or to flavor a quart of drinking water.
General bathroom cleaning: Use straight vinegar or a diluted vinegar solution to scrub away bacteria, especially around the toilet, where it can curb urine stains and odor. Toilet: Cleaning with vinegar and baking soda in the bathroom can work wonders.
Inhalation exposure to high concentrations of acetic acid vapors causes irritation of eyes, nose, and throat. People with high occupational exposure can develop conjunctivitis, bronchitis and pharyngitis, and erosion of exposed teeth (incisors and canines).
If you use a light hand with the vinegar, the aroma will go away on its own in 30 to 60 minutes, particularly on solid surfaces. If it's on a soft surface, it may take a day or so. Air circulation can make the vinegar aroma dissipate more quickly. The vinegar aroma will go away when it's dry.
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. That means it can help you power through some tough household chores with a lot less hassle — and less muscle!
For safety reasons, never mix vinegar with hydrogen peroxide or bleach. When you combine them with vinegar, these cleaning chemicals create dangerous gasses that irritate the eyes, skin, and respiratory system. Your trusty vinegar cleaning solution can also be harmful to certain materials around the home.
A word of warning, though – undiluted vinegar can damage natural stone and wood, so always check – or dilute really well – before using vinegar for cleaning. ' Here are our top cleaning tips for using vinegar to get a sparkle back in your home.
Just like alcohol, chloride, and ammonia, vinegar is a very strong chemical that's typically diluted with water for household use. The difference between so-called cleaning vinegar and “regular” vinegar, Varela says, is the dilution.
By not stirring the vinegar into the dish just yet, the vinegar is not distributed throughout the dish, making it more difficult to cook the vinegar. After all, you're specifically cooking the vinegar, and it's easier (and faster!) to cook off its sharpness if it's at a concentrated spot instead of throughout the dish.
Air dry. There's no need to rinse your vinegar-mopping solution from your floors.
“Vinegar is a good cleaner because it's acidic, but when you add dishwashing liquid/dish soap to it (which is a base or neutral) - you neutralise the vinegar. You take away the very thing that makes it work well. “The dishwashing liquid works that well on its own. Adding the vinegar is a pointless step.”
In contrast, cleaning vinegar is 94 percent water and 6 percent acetic acid. While a 1 percent difference doesn't seem like a big deal, it actually is. That extra 1 percent of acid in undiluted cleaning vinegar amplifies its power and makes it 20 percent stronger than white vinegar.
Cleaning vinegar or white vinegar – not apple cider vinegar or wine vinegar – is most commonly chosen for cleaning. However, it's important to remember that while vinegar does work as a disinfectant to some degree, it is not as effective as bleach or commercial cleansers when it comes to killing germs.
Grout that hasn't been sealed, needs to be resealed, or is in poor shape should not be cleaned with vinegar. The vinegar penetrates into the pores of the grout, further weakening the material. Over time, vinegar will deteriorate the condition of the grout by etching or wearing it away.
"White vinegar is an acid that can break down the rubber gaskets and hoses in your washing machine, leading to costly damage," says Jennifer Kaminski, a product and brand manager for Affresh appliance care. This is especially true of front-loading washers with thick rubber gaskets around the door.
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.
If you're worried that cleaning with vinegar will make your home smell like pickles, don't worry – the smell disappears pretty quickly, especially if you air out your space properly. Open windows and doors to encourage air flow. Once dry, you'll find that vinegar leaves a fresh scent.
Cleaning with vinegar can leave your space smelling like a pickle factory. Recently, in pursuit of a DIY all-purpose spray I could truly use for almost anything, I grabbed my bottle of white vinegar and a measuring cup of water and poured both into a glass spray bottle.
But there's one thing we're a little less crazy about: that smell. Yeah, vinegar can be seriously pungent, and even if the smell does dissipate over time (which it totally, totally does), we very much understand that you might not have the time to wait, or might just not want to.