DIY Cleaning Products: Vinegar’s Surprising Drawbacks
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DIY Cleaning Products: Vinegar’s Surprising Drawbacks
Grandma was right – vinegar is a pretty amazing multi-tasker! What else can remove grass stains and dissolve glue, as well as make meringue fluffier and prevent cheese from molding? Lots of parents are using vinegar to make DIY cleaning products too, because they’re so concerned about toxic chemicals around their children and pets. However, for cleaning around the home, vinegar does have some surprising drawbacks to keep in mind.
DIY Cleaning Products With Vinegar: The Drawbacks
1. Vinegar doesn’t sanitize or disinfect
When you’re cleaning to eliminate the germs that cause colds, flus & viruses, you’ll want to shelve your vinegar mix. The reason is that vinegar is not an EPA registered disinfectant or sanitizer, which means you can’t count on vinegar to kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses. Some limitations are that vinegar doesn’t disinfect MRSA, STAPH and other nasty germs that can make your family sick. Vinegar DIY cleaners can leave behind as much as 20% of the germs that make families sick because it’s not potent enough to kill all of them. A great example is rhinovirus, a group viruses responsible for more than half of all colds. If you’re trying to reduce the chances your family gets taken down by a nasty cold or flu, opt for a sanitizer and disinfectant that can kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses.
2. You have to be careful about concentrations
Yes it’s absolutely safer than bleach or ammonia or typical all-purpose cleaners, but vinegar contains acetic acid, so you have to be cautious about concentrations. It can burn the esophagus, stomach, eyes and damage eye tissue, so you want to be careful with it around your little ones.
3. Always, always rinse
DIY cleaning products with vinegar can corrode some surfaces over time, for example window seals, dishwasher gaskets and unsealed grout, so you have to take the extra step of rinsing those surfaces with water.
4. Vinegar can damage some of the surfaces in your home
Vinegar shouldn’t be used on many of the surfaces in your home. For example, you should never use vinegar on stone surfaces like granite, marble, limestone, onyx or travertine because it will dull & etch the surface. A better option is a natural cleaner like Force of Nature, which can be used to clean any sealed stone surfaces without the risk of dulling their shine.
5. It can be harmful to plants
Vinegar has a very low pH level which means it’s very acidic. If it’s used on or near certain plants, it can cause them to grow slower or even kill them. Force of Nature, however, is safe to use on or around plants without any worries. In fact, you can even add it to your vase of fresh-cut flowers to make them last longer.
6. It smells like vinegar
Most people who turn to DIY cleaning products with vinegar complain about the awful smell that seems to linger. Force of Nature has no added fragrances, just a light clean smell that means you can keep those windows closed when you clean if you want to! With no added fragrances, you can use even it around children with asthma and allergies.
The Bottom Line
Even though it has some limitations, we do love vinegar – after all, it’s a key ingredient in our own product! The main difference is that we supercharge it by using electricity to convert it, along with salt and water, into a natural cleaner & sanitizer EPA registered for hospital & ICU use. Force of Nature can be used on just about any surface, kills 99.9% of germs when used as directed, and replaces kitchen, bathroom, glass & rug cleaners, deodorizers & disinfectants.
More questions? With all the talk around viruses and germs lately, you might be wondering the answer to this question: does vinegar kill viruses or get the answer to does vinegar disinfect? Or, you might want the scoop on how Force of Nature kills viruses or to learn more about electrolyzed water (the Force of Nature technology). And if you want to dig in even more, we’ve also got the scoop on how Force of Nature is safe to use on virtually any surface in your home, and about how Force of Nature actually works.