6 Items You Should Never Clean with Vinegar

Posted on 10/06/2016

Things You Should Know About Cleaning with Vinegar

Vinegar is one of the universal home cleaners you have in your home. It can practically be used on anything and will produce results when scrubbing the area. Its acidic properties allow it to eat through quite a few stains, and it is also a great disinfectant that makes sure your surfaces are germ-free. Vinegar is also used to make one of the most useful things you can have in the house – an all-purpose cleaner which takes care of most standard stains at home. Sadly, it cannot be used on absolutely everything. When it comes to house cleaning, even vinegar has its limitations.

Here are six things that you should avoid using vinegar on:

#1 – Hardwood Floors
There is a division in home cleaners about whether vinegar is useful or not when used on hardwood floors. It seems that it all depends on the type of wood and type of polish used to keep it together. But, reportedly, sometimes the vinegar gets aggressive on the finish and damages it. It is probably better to stick to floor cleaning agents that will have a 100% effect rather than risking with vinegar.

#2 – Egg Stains
Vinegar gas acidic properties, remember? Well, when you combine them with a raw egg, the egg immediately begins to coagulate and cook in the acid, since acid is hot and eggs cook in hot temperatures. That makes for even more time scrubbing the remains from the cleaning attempt. Just use a moist cloth for that one.

#3 – Marble and Granite Surfaces and Items
Vinegar’s acid also works on the harder surfaces. It can be about strong enough to etch granite and marble surfaces. So unless you want your items disfigured, better use a simple dishwashing detergent and wipe carefully. Sometimes that can be avoided, but the only way to be sure is to test the vinegar on a small part of the surface before rubbing it all over.

#4 – The Iron
Sometimes people use vinegar to clean both the inside and the outside of an iron. And that would be smart, if the iron was a coffee machine. But the iron’s parts are much more complicated and they don’t allow something as strong as vinegar. It could outright destroy the iron if the acidic liquid reaches any of the iron’s inner parts. You’d be smarter to use just water for the inside and something more creative – like panadol! – for the flat side of the iron.

#5 – Stone Tiles
The mosaic in the living room looks nice, but you can’t always clean it with vinegar to keep it in that shape. Vinegar will disfigure, etch, soften, and overall ruin the state of the tiles and make them much more fragile than they should be. You can clean the grout between them, though! Simply take an old toothbrush, apply the all-purpose cleaner of vinegar and water and scrub away.

#6 – Specific Tough Stains
Ink, blood, grass stains, and ice cream will not go away with vinegar. They are too stubborn and vinegar could only eat the surface they are on and dig them a deeper hole to set in. You are better off avoiding the use of vinegar on such stains and instead use the appropriate upholstery or carpet cleaning solutions on the surface in danger of the stain.

Vinegar is an amazing house cleaner, yes. And it does clean like about 90% of the things in your house. But try as you might, there are still things which vinegar simply cannot conquer. Don’t try too hard with that. Simply change the strategy and use a more appropriate agent.