Vinegar as a Cleaning agent

By Kathryn Washburn Breighner


At any given time, there are 5-10 different types of vinegar in my pantry. Cider, white, rice, wine, sherry, balsamic and more. They each have very different flavors and can be used in many ways.

But this post is about using it for cleaning as I did yesterday. The soap dispenser built into my sink was clogged with soap and would no longer work. I Googled a solution and came up with soaking it in water, soaking it in boiling water and if those didn't work, tossing it. I did the first 2 and without success. So before tossing, I tried my standby: vinegar.

I put the dispenser in a glass of cider vinegar and within an hour, pieces of soap were floating in the water. 3-4 hours later, the dispenser was as good as new. So on I went to the sink's attached spray hose. It was discolored from water deposits and not spraying well. I put the hose head in a glass of vinegar and several hours later, it was white again and sprayed so hard that I'd forgotten it could spray that well.

Next came our slow-to-brew coffeemaker. This happens every few months and I can tell by the (struggling) sounds the coffeemaker makes, that is clogged with water deposits. I poured 2 cups of white vinegar in the coffeemaker's water compartment and turned the coffee pot on.  When it had finished, I could see pieces of calcium deposits in the vinegar. I took the coffee filter, held it over the water compartment and poured the vinegar back in it. The filter kept the deposits from going back into the coffeemaker. I ran the vinegar through the coffeemaker again. One more time, I poured the vinegar back into the coffeemaker but this time I left the vinegar in the maker to sit for several hours.  This let the vinegar work on any calcium deposits.

After running the vinegar through the coffeemaker again, I then ran 3 pots of water through the coffeemaker and each time, the water brewed through with sediment. By the third time, the water was clearer. Today, the coffeemaker is back to full steam!

Three tasks in one day aided by vinegar.