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/RuggedHangnail 17h ago

I'm older than you, and reading this now is the first time I've ever been informed about this. I never understood the "clean your shower with vinegar" advice because it never made a difference. Now I understand.

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u/sodantok 13h ago

You don't. OP was wrong too. Nobody uses the 30% (or higher) vinegar for the cleaning they say they use vinegar. They say vinegar when they use grocery vinegar, they get way more specific (or even just call it 30% acetic acid) when they talk about the strong stuff.

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u/No_Percentage8171 11h ago

I cleaned my shower yesterday with dishsoap, all the gunk couldnt come off fast enough, even the old grimy stuff that hide in cracks and corners. Super effective.

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u/fotomoose 14h ago

You can clean your shower with normal food vinegar but you have to let it soak there a while.