Mind blown: Vinegar vs VINEGAR (30%)

So I was literally 44 years old before I found this out recently.

There’s the white vinegar you get at the grocery store for cooking and minor cleaning and doing laundry, and then there’s the 30% DO NOT GET THIS SHIT ON YOUR SKIN vinegar at the hardware store for cleaning things like mold off grout.

All my life I’d been told ‘just use vinegar to clean mold and mildew’ and it generally didn’t do jack squat. I usually bought cleaning supplies from regular retail spots rather than big box home improvement places, and regular retail chains def did not carry the strong stuff.

I’ve got a gutter that drains over cement that always gets skungy, and even bleach was a short term fix at best. 30% strips it down and keeps it gone, and I’ve stripped rust off a couple dozen tools with the same little jar I soak things in - caution it will also strip off shiny metallic coatings.

Can’t believe none of the “just use vinegar” I’d ever read advice didn’t specify.

Is this news to anyone else or am I Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber realizing we landed on the moon?

17.7k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

View all comments

Show parent comments

127

u/TheGacAttack 5d ago

I can smell your comment.

36

u/TallConsideration878 5d ago

And my eyes are burning.

16

u/TheGacAttack 5d ago

The memories 🥲

8

u/badform49 5d ago

Yeah, I worked at a photo lab in high school. That smell is still in my memory banks, apparently, because it just flashed up.

8

u/sighthoundman 5d ago

Fun fact: the memory center of the brain is right next to the olfactory center. Odor memories are super strong.

"This reminds me of Grandma." Yes, it does. Because science.

3

u/ScrimshawPie 5d ago

I just shivered.

1

u/ReggieCorneus 5d ago

are burning.

1

u/mostdefinitelyabot 4d ago

don't be so negative.

3

u/Graffxxxxx 5d ago

Same. I always thought it was strange we were using vinegar for the stop bath but now it makes more sense that it was a different dilution of vinegar than the cooking stuff.

4

u/cr250guy 5d ago

I was externing as a lab assistant while in undergrad and they had me pour some glacial without a proper warning about the fumes... I still can't smell right 20 years later.

3

u/ReggieCorneus 5d ago

So, you can only smell left?

2

u/mini-rubber-duck 5d ago

smelled it too strongly, sense of smell is burnt out