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Mix baking soda and white vinegar?

Our readers often ask us whether this mixture is really effective.

It is true that on comment-economiser.fr, we often tell you about grandmother's things where you have to mix baking soda and white vinegar.

If you have ever mixed these 2 natural products, then you know that it produces an effervescent reaction, visible to the naked eye.

It foams, it sparkles and it overflows in all directions! Look :

Awesome, isn't it? But above all, don't panic! Because this chemical reaction is completely harmless.

The main interest of the vinegar-bicarbonate mixture is precisely this famous frothy reaction because she takes off the dirt !

Indeed, the chemical reaction between vinegar and bicarbonate is renowned for its degreasing and cleaning power.

This multitude of small bubbles has mechanical properties on dirt.

But after this scrubbing, what remains?

Yes, once these little bubbles are gone, know that you only have ... of the water salty.

I say "salt water" because in chemistry, salt is not just a cooking product! In fact, it's sodium acetate.

This "salt" is the very one that gives salt and vinegar crisps their particularly delicious taste.

This mixture also helps dissolve lime in hard water.

Scientifically speaking, the vinegar-bicarbonate mixture is effective because it suspends lime deposits from hard water.

But this is not really useful only if you have hard water, and if you are using it with another cleaning product.

The simple explanation

In short, vinegar has an acidic pH and bicarbonate has a basic pH.

So mixing the two makes the solution ... neutral.

But it is not because we obtain a neutral solution that the mixture is ineffective!

Why ? The explanation is simple: the bicarbonate + white vinegar mixture produces a chemical reaction.

This effervescent reaction has mechanical properties, which are very useful for:

- the scrub (for example, to deodorize, sanitize or unclog pipes)

- descaling (for example, for descaling WCs)

- and cleaning very greasy surfaces (for example to clean the inside of the dishwasher)

After this chemical reaction, the mixture essentially becomes salt water (sodium acetate).

Add baking soda to white vinegar neutralizes its cleaning power.

Conversely, adding white vinegar to a soda-based cleanser (i.e., baking soda or soda crystals) is helpful. only if your water is hard.

Thus, the baking soda / white vinegar mixture is useful for doing laundry, because it suspends limestone particles.

And now, for the curious, we will go into the details of the explanations. So here are 3 things to know before mixing baking soda and white vinegar :

1. Bicarbonate neutralizes the effectiveness of white vinegar

White vinegar is a cleanser at acidic pH which has the power to dissolve limestone particles.

But white vinegar doesn't need baking soda to be effective!

In fact, to put the limestone particles in suspension, white vinegar alone is more effective than the salt obtained with the bicarbonate-vinegar mixture.

This means that the bicarbonate lowers the acidity of the white vinegar, and therefore its effectiveness.

So, no need to add baking soda to your bottle of white vinegar to make it more effective!

On the contrary, this will neutralize its cleaning power… and you will therefore have to rub harder!

So if you want to clean with an acidic solution (like white vinegar), use it pure and without adding baking soda.

2. White vinegar increases the effectiveness of baking soda

Baking soda, soda crystals, and other soda-based cleaners have a basic pH.

But unlike white vinegar, used alone, they don't have the power to dissolve lime particles in hard water.

So by adding a little white vinegar, you keep the cleaning power of soda as well as the suspending power of sodium acetate.

Everything is therefore a question of proportion!

It makes sense: if the water in your home is hard (or hard), it is important that the lime particles are suspended during cleaning.

To remove limescale, you can therefore use the power of the vinegar-baking soda mixture.

Just add the vinegar-bicarbonate mixture to a spray bottle. You can also use it in your washing machine or dishwasher.

But if your water is not hard, adding white vinegar is not very useful!

Why ? Because the vinegar-bicarbonate mixture has no cleaning power. But be careful, that does not mean that it is ineffective!

Indeed, its main advantage is that it prevents lime from settling again.

If your water is not too hard, know that a rinse with pure white vinegar after your cleaning is even more efficient.

But in some homes, the water is so hard that a white vinegar rinse is not enough to remove lime deposits.

For this scenario, the addition of white vinegar to the bicarbonate is necessary to put the particles in suspension during the cleaning.

And don't forget, this blend has a limited "life"! Indeed, the vinegar-bicarbonate mixture loses its effectiveness over time.

3. A mixture that does not necessarily work in the washing machine

Normally, baking soda and white vinegar have nothing to do with each other in your washing machine.

Indeed, washing with soda crystals will be much more powerful and effective.

However, the chemical reaction of the vinegar-bicarbonate mixture is similar.

As we have already mentioned, cleaners with a basic pH become more effective if a solution with an acidic pH is added.

However, detergent is precisely a cleanser with a strongly basic pH.

Thus, adding white vinegar to the washing machine helps to suspend lime particles during washing.

To keep the particles in suspension of the washing water in your washing machine, you need about 500 ml of white vinegar for 10 ppm of calcium carbonate (i.e. 10 mg / L, the water hardness index) .

For example, my water hardness index is 17.9 ppm.

In principle, this means that I have to add 1 liter of vinegar for each machine.

Even though it's still a cheap product, that's a lot of white vinegar!

For comparison, the exact same effect can be achieved with just 1 teaspoon of citric acid powder.

It is for this reason that I prefer to use citric acid in my machine because mine I pay 12.57 € for a box of 1 kg.

It's up to you to see which of these two products is the most profitable.

Note: remember that if you use white vinegar or citric acid in your washing machine, you will also need to adjust the amount of soda ash. Otherwise, the mixture of the two pHs will be neutralized, and it will no longer have any cleaning effect on your dirty laundry. Of course, the mixture will put the limestone particles in suspension, but it will be too neutral to loosen the dirt.

Here is the formula for adjusting the amount of soda crystals: 250 ml of white vinegar (or 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid) in the laundry tub = 1 extra teaspoon of soda crystals.

And if your machine allows you to add white vinegar during the rinse cycle (thus avoiding mixing between the basic pH of the soda and the acidic pH of the vinegar), then no need to adjust the amount of soda crystals.

Conclusion

- Mixing the white vinegar and the bicarbonate produces a sparkling foam which loosens the dirt and which is very useful in certain cases such as to unblock a pipe, for example.

- If you want to clean with white vinegar (which has an acidic pH), you don't need to add baking soda.

- If you want to clean with bicarbonate (which has a basic pH), rinsing with white vinegar helps remove lime deposits.

- If you want to clean with baking soda, soda crystals or some other soda-based product (which has a basic pH) and you have super hard water, add white vinegar or citric acid (which has also an acidic pH) during the washing cycle, but also by increasing the amount of soda crystals.

Bonus: the lime cleanser recipe

- 250 ml of white vinegar with 5% acidity (the percentage indicates the level of acetic acid and not the degree of alcohol)

- 1 tablespoon of baking soda

- 250 ml of hot water

Put the white vinegar and the baking soda in a spray bottle and let it foam.

Once the mixture no longer foams, you will see a layer of baking soda at the bottom of the container that has not yet gone through a chemical reaction.

Add hot water to the spray and shake.

Spray this product on surfaces to combat limescale.

Remember that you cannot keep this mixture for very long because it loses effectiveness quickly.

Your turn...

And you, are you used to using the mixture of white vinegar and baking soda? Let us know in the comments if it works for you. We can't wait to hear from you!

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Also to discover:

White Vinegar + Baking Soda: 10 Uses Of This Magic Mix.

Bicarbonate + White Vinegar: Dangerous Reaction Or Useful Mixture?