· By Dee Holloway · 1 min read
Where vinegar does harm
Vinegar is cheap and cleans a lot. It also etches stone, dulls wood and eats the rubber in your dishwasher. What to use instead.
We love vinegar on glass and on limescale. It is an acid, though, and acids don’t stop at dirt.
Marble, limestone and travertine
Vinegar etches them: a dull, pale mark that no cleaning removes. Use a pH-neutral stone cleaner, or warm water and a drop of dish soap.
Granite and quartz
Most are sealed, and vinegar slowly wears the seal. The same neutral cleaner is safer.
Waxed and oiled wood
Vinegar strips the finish and leaves wood dry and grey. A barely damp cloth, then a dry one.
Never mix it with bleach
Vinegar and bleach together give off chlorine gas. Use one, rinse, and only then the other, or better, don’t use both on the same day.