Vinegar

Everyone praises the wonders of vinegar, but is it really that good? Vinegar's many reported uses include cleaning, disinfecting, killing odor, and melting ice on your windshield.  Distilled vinegar isn't actually distilled. What the name means is that the vinegar came from the fermentation of distilled alcohol. The resulting vinegar typically has a pH of around 2.6 and consists of 5-8% acetic acid.  Before the introduction of detergents in the 1950's, we did all of our cleaning with soap. Unfortunately, soap leaves a residue and so every cleaning task involved washing and rinsing.  However, if the rinse water was acidic it did a better job of getting rid of the soapy residue and left the surface "squeaky clean".  The most common acid available in the home is vinegar, thus, it became normal practice to add vinegar to the rinse water. This Vinegar clears away the soap residue making floors and counters feel cleaner.  It is also common to add vinegar to dishwashers and laundry machines. Acetic acid can kill odors like cigarette smoke and sweat. Be careful, however.  When vinegar is used with an alkaline detergent as a "disinfectant" in a washing machine, it is neutralized.  Your detergent is also neutralized making it less effective at removing soil.  When run in an empty washing machine with hot water, it can reduce soap scum and mineral deposits. Vinegar can help melt ice, but it is not an effective deicer. In reality, all you have to do to make ice melt faster is lower the freezing point of water by adding particles to it. Sugar, salt or vinegar will all do the trick.