How To Clean Faucets With Vinegar [Easy Solution]

how-to-clean-faucets

It’s uncommon to find someone unfamiliar with the vinegar baggie cleaning hack. This well-known tip is particularly useful for routine bathroom cleaning. If you happen to be in the minority who hasn’t heard of it, now is the time to pay attention. This hands-free method for cleaning bathroom faucets requires just an overnight treatment. Regardless of the type of faucet – be it in the kitchen or bathroom – this hack is a time and cost-effective solution.

So, what’s the foolproof cleaning method? Here’s a complete tutorial on how to clean faucets with vinegar and get a shiny look.

Why Use Vinegar to Clean Faucets?

Adding flavor to your delicious recipe is not the only thing vinegar can do. It’s super powerful and also a great natural cleaning agent. White vinegar will do wonders to achieve that clean and sparkling look for your faucets. The ingredient is full of acetic acid, that’s the reason it’s such a great disinfectant.

It also gives a surprising effect when used as grease remover or deodorizer, so you can be sure there will be no harmful traces of salmonella or E. coli. At the same time, it will also take care of stains and grease buildup in your kitchen or bathroom. Great, isn’t it?

Before Clean-Up

Hard water build-up is very visible on faucets, this is even more noticeable when you are focusing on bathroom sinks. It’s time to get rid of the build-up.

First, begin with unscrewing the end of the faucet. Most kitchen and bathroom sinks will have some detachable small or big filter at the end. Eliminate any rubber gaskets and make sure to keep the pieces carefully, you do not want to lose them. Give extra attention to the order of assembly in this unit.

Cleaning the Filter

Now, start with giving a good scrub with any used toothbrush to achieve a deep clean inside the faucet. This step will help you to eliminate any deposits on the surface. Now to quickly remove rust and calcium using the power of vinegar.

We all know that calcium is basically an alkaline earth metal, which means it consists of two valence electrons in its last shells, so definitely it is highly reactive to any acidic stuff. Vinegar being a decent acid will easily create a reaction.

Now sharpening some kitchen chemistry let me tell you one more thing, the chemical reaction usually requires energy, so if you heat up the vinegar, the results will be more effective. I’m talking about white vinegar of course.

Get it and heat up a volume that is enough to fully soak the faucet filter. The temperature should be high enough so you can’t stick your finger in it, but certainly not boiling hot. Now simply let the faucet filter sit within hot vinegar.

You will be able to see the magic now! Lots and lots of bubbles. It means the cleanup job is taking place. Let it soak there until the bubbling stops, it took me fifty minutes. I simply did my other home tasks while the filter was soaking.

To finish it off, simply give a good rinse and use a toothbrush to scrub gently. You will find a completely new-looking filter. The water will flow again without any blocking or clogging.

The Overnight Trick!

Now, once you brush the filter, do an extra step to get complete progress. Get a plastic bag and put distilled vinegar in it and pull the bag over your faucet head. Tie it up using a rubber band or anything similar, and let it soak for the whole night. Discard the bag the next morning and remove any extra particles remaining. Let some water flow and clean up the surface as well.

Now the jets of your faucet will be clear of any kind of mildew or mold, lime build-ups that happen every so often with kitchen faucets will also be eliminated. No more fear of spreading these stinky things all over your lovely kitchen. Use this simple trick!

Warning

You should never use vinegar with bare hands. Make sure you get good rubber gloves for the process. Simply grab one from the supermarket. Your kitchen gloves will also work great. Vinegar and lemon juice often tend to irritate a few skin types, if you are one of those people then working with vinegar will harm instead of benefit, keep this in mind.

Also, if the parts of your faucet are made of nickel or iron, this treatment will possibly not work in a good way. This material has a tendency to break down if soaked with vinegar. In case you have no idea about the material, do a simple test.

Get one portion of diluted vinegar and four portions of water mixed up in a bowl. Use this solution on a very tiny area through a cotton swab. If the metal comes off with hard water build-up then do not apply this trick. Otherwise, you are okay to proceed with the method.

Conclusion

Having scary bacteria all over your sink is something nobody would want, so do yourself a favor and think about deep clean-up. Know the right way to clean your bathroom faucets with vinegar. Keep all the warnings in mind. You’ll thank yourself later for saving a ton of time and effort. Give it a try and score a sparkling sink in no time. Good Luck!