You may have heard it’s a magical cleaning concoction. Cover a surface with baking soda, then pour on some vinegar to trigger a chemical reaction that will scour even the toughest stains. But science doesn’t back up the allegedly amazing baking soda and vinegar combo.
“I understand why people do this. I do,” says Chem Thug, a PhD candidate in synthetic organic chemistry who runs popular social media pages. Their TikTok video on the topic has been liked more than 199,000 times. “If you mix vinegar with baking soda it’s not any different from just adding the same amount of table salt to some water and then using that to clean. And that’s to say it doesn’t actually do anything.”
To back up a minute, there’s a reason that baking soda and vinegar are each popular cleaning tools, says Ruojie Vanessa Zhang, assistant research professor in food science at the University of Missouri and chair of the food chemistry division for the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT).
“Baking soda, scientifically known as sodium bicarbonate, acts as a base with a pH of 9, making it highly effective at neutralizing and cutting grease stains. In contrast, vinegar, a solution of diluted acetic acid, functions as an acid with a pH of 2, proficiently breaking down mineral deposits, such as calcium and magnesium, found in hard water,” Zhang says. “Their natural properties, affordability, and relatively mild impact on the environment make baking soda and vinegar popular choices for eco-friendly and non-toxic cleaning solutions in households.”
But when you combine those materials, the results aren’t good—at least for very long. Baking soda reacts with vinegar, acquiring one of its hydrogen protons. The result is a carbonic acid which is unstable and decomposes into water and carbon dioxide.
“It just kind of turns into carbon dioxide, the gas, and that’s what you see bubbling out of the liquid when you mix the two,” explains Chem Thug. “If you wanted more of that, you could’ve just breathed heavy on whatever you’re cleaning before you started cleaning it.”
When to Use Baking Soda and Vinegar
You don’t need to give up completely on baking soda and vinegar, Zhang suggests.
“Technically, mixing baking soda and vinegar remains functional for household cleaning, as the bubbles produced can lift stains and unclog drains,” she says. “Specifically, while the mixture is still bubbling, it is slightly alkaline and can dissolve grease, though not as effectively as using baking soda alone. Indeed, vinegar diminishes the effectiveness of baking soda in cutting through grease, and baking soda lessens the potency of vinegar in breaking down mineral deposits.”
She says the best plan is to use baking soda and vinegar separately, taking advantage of their chemical strengths. “Mix them together only when you require the mechanical action generated by the resulting bubbles to lift stains or unclog drains.”
What to Mix Your Vinegar with Instead
The reason why people likely use baking soda and vinegar is that vinegar does work well in conjunction with another kitchen staple—cream of tartar or potassium bitartrate.
“When you take cream of tartar and you mix that with vinegar, or even lemon juice, you get what’s called tartaric acid and that actually can be used to clean porcelain, aluminum, and copper and brass as well,” says Chem Thug. “Baking powder is baking soda plus cream of tartar mixed together so maybe people thought that, you know, if the one worked, they could use the other. But they were wrong.”
