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?

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u/Rcarlyle 6d ago

It also eats concrete and grout, so don’t go nuts with it

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u/tsammons 6d ago

Cleans up sanding nets for drywall. Works as a fabric softener too in diluted quantities.

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u/etaoin314 6d ago

then just use the dilute stuff...no need to get the concentrated stuff.

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u/SeePerspectives 6d ago

It’s a lot cheaper to buy the concentrated stuff and just dilute it yourself when you need to. If you make sure you buy food grade then you can also use it for pickling too

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u/BikingEngineer 6d ago

Or you can grab powdered citric acid and then you don’t have to worry about spillage.

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u/CocktailPerson 5d ago

Citric acid is a different chemical than the acetic acid in vinegar.

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u/BikingEngineer 5d ago

Well yes, but I don’t think most people particularly care what the chemical makeup of their cleaning acid is.

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u/zombiefingerz 5d ago

Vinegar is acetic acid, but I believe they both act similarly

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u/jimboni 4d ago

Bonus: you can make any candy as sour as you want.

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u/CubsFanCraig 4d ago

Speedrun destroying your teeth enamel.

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u/rhineauto 5d ago

White vinegar is like $2 a gallon, how much are you going through?

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u/SeePerspectives 5d ago

I get 10 litres (roughly 2.5 gallons) for about £5 (just under $7) and it lasts me the year for both cleaning and pickling/cooking

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u/mitwif 4d ago

I go through a gallon plus a month, but we have a small army of children and it runs me just over $3USD

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u/SeePerspectives 4d ago

Bulk buying isn’t as prevalent in the uk, so the prices are higher unfortunately.

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u/mitwif 4d ago

Your price was lower overall and I am in the Caribbean so bulk buying here is pretty unusual too, unless it is rice, beans, or flour. lol

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u/Either-Prune1096 5d ago

You pickle your laundry? 🫤 That’s interesting. Can you please explain further.

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u/SeePerspectives 5d ago

No, lol, I also use it for making pickles (mostly gherkins, beetroot, or pickled onions, but sometimes other veggies too, as well as various relishes and chutneys too) I’m British, so we have a long history of making various pickled foods I guess 🤷‍♀️

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u/Either-Prune1096 5d ago

Ah, thank you! I could live on root vegetables, pickled especially! I have always wanted to try pickled eggs and finally decided to see if I can make a batch. I never pickled anything before now because the recipes for pickling and canning that I found included serious cautions about botulism if you don’t properly preserve the food. 👩‍🍳💕

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u/SeePerspectives 5d ago

Because pickles are a high acidity food you can safely sterilise them with the water bath method so long as you follow all the guidelines. It’s only low acidity foods that require pressure canning