Does Vinegar Damage Toilet Bowls? (Read This Before Using)

If someone has recently told you to use vinegar to clean your toilet, you might be wondering if this will actually work or if it will just cause a massive mess in your toilet. So is this a good idea or does vinegar damage toilet bowls?

Vinegar does not damage toilet bowls. Vinegar is often used as a natural, eco-friendly substitute for all-purpose commercial cleaners. You can also use vinegar along with other natural products (like baking soda) to enhance the cleaning of your toilet.

Most all-purpose cleaners contain bleach, which has long-term health effects. In this article, we discuss the benefits of using vinegar with other natural products, how to clean your toilet using vinegar and why you should be using natural products instead.

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Will Vinegar Damage Toilets?

Even though it might be scary to pour vinegar into your toilet, it does not damage your toilet at all. Remember, vinegar is a natural alternative to bleach.

If you’re comfortable using bleach to clean your toilet, try vinegar! 

Does White Vinegar Damage Toilets?

White vinegar does not damage your toilet tank or bowl. Vinegar is a great alternative to commercial toilet cleaners, not only to clean dirt and grime but also to neutralize the smell of your toilet.

Distilled white vinegar is often used as an alternative to traditional commercial cleaners because vinegar does not contain bleach.

Adding three cups of vinegar to your toilet’s tank and letting it sit for an hour is enough to clean grime and dirt from our toilet.

You might also enjoy our post on How to Stop a Toilet Bowl from Refilling

What Happens if You Put Vinegar in Your Toilet Bowl?

Vinegar disinfects your toilet when poured into your toilet bowl. Using vinegar is one of the most versatile cleaning hacks, known to be a natural alternative to combat germs in your house and bathroom. 

Pour about three cups of vinegar and one cup of baking soda powder into your toilet bowl. If you have stubborn stains, you should scrub over the stains with your toilet brush.

Leave the vinegar in your bowl for one hour and flush your toilet. You should see a noticeable difference immediately.

Does Vinegar Damage Porcelain Toilets?

Vinegar does not damage a porcelain toilet because it is a natural disinfectant, as it is made from acetic acid. However, it is advised to dilute the vinegar with water when cleaning sensitive surfaces (like wood).

So although it is not necessary, you can dilute your vinegar with water before cleaning to ensure the vinegar does not damage your porcelain toilet.

However, this is unnecessary as undiluted vinegar is not harmful to porcelain.

Is Vinegar Safe for Porcelain?

Using vinegar to clean your porcelain toilet, table or tiles is completely safe. Unfortunately, most commercial cleaners have bleach or ammonia in their ingredients list, which can be harmful to porcelain.

Bleach or ammonia can alter the color of porcelain, so using vinegar to clean your porcelain furniture is safer than using most all-purpose cleaners.

To be safe, you could do a patch test on a small part of the porcelain to check for stains or discoloration.

Can You Put Baking Soda and Vinegar on the Toilet?

You can use baking soda powder and vinegar to clean stains, dirt, and grime in your toilet. Some might think that using undiluted vinegar in your toilet could damage the porcelain, but that is not true.

Baking soda is effective in removing grease and grime because it is a mild alkali and a natural, non-toxic product – similar to vinegar.

Baking soda also dissolves dirt and grease while leaving your toilet scratch-free.

What Can Vinegar Do to Your Bathroom Toilet?

There are many uses for vinegar in your bathroom.  For example, you can use vinegar with baking soda powder. In addition, vinegar can be used as a natural disinfectant.

Here are a few other uses for vinegar in your bathroom and toilet:

• Use vinegar to remove stains, grime, and dirt from your toilet. 
• Use to neutralize any bad odor emanating from your toilet.
• Use undiluted vinegar mixed with essential oil and baking soda to balance any odors. 
• Clean and disinfect the shower, sink, or tiles in your bathroom.

How Long Should You Leave Vinegar?

There is no one-time-fits-all answer as to how long you should leave vinegar. It should be left for some time to react to the stains on your toilet.

The exact time differs on your stains, but don’t simply pour and flush!

How Long Can You Leave Vinegar in the Toilet?

You should leave your vinegar and baking soda mixture in your toilet for up to an hour before flushing it away. However, it will not damage your toilet bowl to keep vinegar in it for a longer time. 

If you have really stubborn stains, you can leave the vinegar in your tank overnight. First, turn off the water valve and flush the toilet to ensure the tank is empty.

Then fill the tank with undiluted vinegar and let it sit overnight. This will take care of any bad smells or excessive staining in your toilet tank.

Can I Leave Vinegar in the Toilet Overnight?

You can leave vinegar in your toilet overnight to disinfect any mold or bacteria that might be growing. It does not damage your toilet. The next morning you should sprinkle a bit of baking soda in the vinegar, scrub, and flush. 

The vinegar and baking soda can dissolve dirt, grease, and grime while also disinfecting any bacteria or mold.

You can also use vinegar mixed with a few drops of essential oils to cover any weird smells in your toilet.

How Do You Clean a Toilet With Vinegar?

To clean your toilet bowl with vinegar, pour three cups of vinegar into your toilet bowl and let it sit for one hour. Then, add one cup of baking soda and scrub over your stains with a toilet brush.

If you’re satisfied with the result, you can flush away the vinegar and soda mixture. You can also empty your toilet tank and pour vinegar into your toilet tank.

Let it sit overnight to allow the vinegar to break down all mold, bacteria, and grime in your tank.

How Much Vinegar Do You Use to Clean a Toilet?

We recommend pouring three cups of vinegar into your toilet bowl and allowing it to sit for one hour. After that, add one cup of baking soda and scrub away your worries and stains! Although to clean your toilet tank, you would need more vinegar.

Depending on how old your toilet is, the tank capacity could differ, but most toilet tanks hold 1.6 gallons of water.

So, after emptying your toilet tank, you should fill the tank with 1.6 gallons of vinegar and let it sit overnight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_coCyNe1pY

How Much Vinegar Can You Put In Toilet Bowl?

Luckily, you cannot put ‘too much’ vinegar into your toilet bowl. No amount of vinegar will damage your toilet bowl. However, that would be a waste, so we recommend pouring three cups of vinegar into your bowl when cleaning.

Pouring three cups of vinegar and one cup of baking soda is enough to disinfect and clean your toilet bowl thoroughly.

Although you do not need to add any more vinegar if you still see some stains, you should scrub at the stains to allow the vinegar to sit longer before flushing your toilet.

Why Should You Put a Cloth With Vinegar on the Toilet?

A cloth soaked in vinegar is used to clean your toilet. This can be used as an alternative to traditional all-purpose cleansers that contain bleach. Soak a cloth in vinegar and place it around the edges of your toilet bowl over the stains.

It’s important to let this cloth sit over the stains for a few hours. The vinegar will react with the dirt and grime, eventually dissolving the stains.

When using vinegar-soaked cloths to remove stains in your toilet bowl, you should turn off the water valve.

How Do You Clean a Toilet Bowl With Vinegar and Baking Soda?

Vinegar is used to clean stains in your toilet and prevent stains from appearing. By pouring two cups of vinegar into your toilet once a month, you prevent water rings, mold, and stains from the building.

You can also pour three cups of vinegar into your toilet bowl along with one cup of baking soda and scrub over any stains that you might see on the porcelain.

Also, leave this vinegar and baking soda to sit in your toilet for at least one hour, maybe longer.

How Do I Naturally Clean My Toilet?

Vinegar and baking soda powder are the best natural products to clean your toilet. Vinegar is a powerful acid that can dissolve dirt, grease, mineral deposit, and grime. It also acts as a disinfectant to kill bacteria and mold.

Baking soda is a mild alkali and dissolves dirt and grease in water.

Thus vinegar mixed with baking soda is an excellent natural cleaning product that is non-toxic and very effective in removing grease, dirt, and grime.

Related Questions

What Should You Not Clean With Vinegar?

Even though you can use vinegar in most situations to clean up dirt or grime, it is not an all-purpose cleaner and cannot be used to clean everything. In addition, vinegar might actually damage your furniture/devices in some situations.

Here are five things that you should not clean with vinegar:

1. Mirrors –  never use something acidic to clean mirrors.
2. Marble or granite table tops – vinegar can eat away at the surface of natural stones, causing them to lose their shine.
3. Iron – vinegar can damage the plastic and rubber parts of your iron
4. Touchscreens – vinegar ruins the surface of your touchscreens
5. Knives –  vinegar can dull and damage knives. You should wash knives in warm soapy water.

How Do I Get My Toilet White Again?

To get your toilet pearly white again could be a little hard work, but maintaining the color is easier. The steps are easy to follow, and you probably already have all the products in your house!

How to get your toilet white again:

1. Sprinkle baking soda onto the stains
2. Use a toilet brush to scrub over the powder
3. Add one cup of vinegar into the bowl
4. Leave the vinegar and baking soda mix in your toilet for one hour
5. Flush your toilet

You can repeat this process if any stains are still visible on your toilet. You should follow these steps as soon as you see new stains forming.

Will Vinegar Damage a Porcelain Sink?

Vinegar will not damage porcelain sinks. Vinegar is a strong alkali, so it should not be left to sit in porcelain for days, but a few hours or even after night would suffice to dissolve dirt and stains.

You could use vinegar and baking soda or borax to increase the effectiveness of dissolving stains and dirt in your toilet, sink, and other porcelain surfaces.

However, it’s recommended not to leave vinegar sitting in your porcelain sink for longer than one to two hours.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, you are aboard the idea of cleaning your toilet with vinegar. It’s a natural product, so it is a lot healthier for your family and your porcelain.

In addition, vinegar will not damage your toilet or your pipes!