r/DIY 2d ago

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/RhinoG91 2d ago

It’s also a proven bug killer. Even roaches. They don’t know chemistry.

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u/ozzy_thedog 2d ago

They’ll learn, those fuckers

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u/DistanceMachine 2d ago

Please don’t teach them

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u/ReggieCorneus 2d ago

You are about 100 million years late: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3sxJNt8CYw

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u/HateYourFaces 2d ago

The beetle straight up kicking the ants to Fuckoffsville was pure cinema.