Overview
Vinegar is a liquid that can be extracted from a variety of different sources, and is composed mostly of acetic acid. There are many different varieties like cider vinegar which comes from apples or Balsamic vinegar which is sometimes derived from white grapes as one example. Plain white vinegar is often the one that is utilized as a cleaning replacement instead of commercial cleaners.
The Claim
Those that advocate the use of natural cleaning products like vinegar believe that because of its acidic qualities that it has the ability to kill many different forms of bacteria. They opt to using this type of home product because they feel it is safer for both the user and the environment. After all before commercial cleaners were so readily available its what our great grandmothers used to use right?
The Hype
The hype is really based around the opinions of “going green” type advocates and when you listen to them their points are really quite valid. Most of us want to be able to enjoy a clean living atmosphere from a visual point of view but also have some comfort in knowing that we aren’t live with unseen threats like bacteria that isn’t visible with the naked eye.
The Cost
For a mere few dollars you can purchase a bottle of white vinegar and usually this would be diluted with water for cleaning purposes. When you compare it to the costs of many of the commercial grade cleaners there is a big difference in costs in favor of the vinegar.
The Commitment
Whether you use vinegar or any other type of cleaner you are going to have to make the same commitment which is cleaning with it. Now chances are if you are really focusing on cleaning to produce a healthy environment, you may have to up your cleaning regime because there haven’t been enough studies to validate whether vinegar cleaning is going to ward off the return of bacteria for any length of time, but then the same can be said about most commercial cleaners too.
Evaluation
Just using vinegar as a cleaning agent just because it was used years ago really isn’t enough of a reason for doing so. You want to be sure that it really has some value to it otherwise you are wasting your time and effort with your cleaning. When it comes to its ability to get the job done, its going to be trial and error. You can definitely try cleaning a chosen area with a vinegar and water solution and then visually inspect it to see if its to your liking. That isn’t going to tell you what effect it has had on ridding the area of any bacteria. You need to determine what supporting scientific evidence there is to support this, or at the very least a valued opinion of someone that would have this type of knowledge.
We have decided to give the vinegar as a bacteria killer a try/buy rating, but only if you have done your research as to what the experts have discovered. You will find that there is some supporting
evidence that cleaning with vinegar may very well be able to kill the flu bug but it won’t kill bacteria like salmonella. What it comes down to is each cleaning job you are going to tackle you need to think about what you might be up against. For example, the door knobs in your house may be subjected to germs like those that cause the flu, but your kitchen counter could be laden with bacteria as a result of food preparation that could cause salmonella.Our Recommendation
Aside from cleaners there are various types of equipment that are marketed as being real bacterial busters like the steam cleaners for example. Just as you have to focus on the capabilities and limitations that vinegar may produce you need to do the same with these types of cleaning equipment.
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View Comments
The biggest advantage to vinegar is that it cuts soap. It makes a wonderful after shower spray (half vinegar, half water) to keep soap scum from building up.
It's also the best stuff for cleaning/shining laminate floors without streaks.
I never really thought about it for killing bacteria. The problem with anything that "kills 99% of germs and/or bacteria!" is that the stuff it *doesn't* kill is the most dangerous.