Can I Put Vinegar In My Steam Mop?

If you’ve ever used, owned, or seen one in action before, you already understand that steam mops work without detergents and other cleaning products; only water. Nevertheless, it’s in the public domain that vinegar is a handy, acidic cleaning solution from the old days.

Therefore, the question; “can I add vinegar in my steam mop” is quite common. Do you ask the same? We have the answer for you here today.

This article explains whether or not it’s safe to use your steam mop with vinegar for cleaning your floor. The sections explain even more about vinegar, its effects, advantages, and other attributes. Read on.

About Vinegar

Vinegar is a damp solution of acetic acid and a few other chemicals in small ratios. It has an assortment of uses in a household — from inside the kitchen to the laundry, and more. You can use vinegar as a food flavor as well as a laundry detergent.

Acetic acid is the main component, and it exists in various concentrations as the types of vinegar vary. The most common concentration of acetic acid in vinegar ranges from 4 to 7 percent.

Mopping Floors With Vinegar

Apart from its use as a flavor in culinary activities, vinegar is a popular cleaning agent. Households use it for its acidic nature — to remove stains and kill bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms.

Furthermore, vinegar is less reactive to pets and children, unlike most forms of modern detergents, and that gives it an edge over them. Let’s now see if we can use it with a steam mop below.

Using Vinegar In A Steam Mop

The steam mop often uses water, which heats to around 120°C to produce steam for cleaning. If you have to use it with vinegar, you’ll need to mix the acidic solution with water — before adding them to the mop’s reservoir, where they’re heated up to produce steam.

There’s no harm in doing this! And, you can use the resulting steam for your floors, except for a few floor surfaces like the hardwood.

Hardwood flooring materials feature a chemical finish, which adds beauty and protection to it. Since vinegar is an acidic solution, it can react with this surface to cause discolouration, cracks, and or peeling.

You can avoid this by using cleaning substances whose PH level is neutral. Let’s now see the benefits of using vinegar on other floors (like ceramic) except the hardwood.

The Benefits Of Using Vinegar In Your Steam Mop

Using vinegar on your floor is not only safe but also very helpful. Here are the perks.

It’s A Stain Remover

Vinegar has proved useful in eradicating stubborn stains and other floor buildups. It never goes easy on food and hard water stains, among others. Likewise, vinegar doesn’t often leave behind adhesives and soap scams.

What’s more, you don’t have to scrub the affected surface too hard to remove the stains; vinegar works quite efficiently.

It’s A Disinfectant

Vinegar is also powerful enough to kill the most common and stubborn bacteria and viruses. The acid content in it kills salmonella, bacillus, staphylococcus, and others. So vinegar not only cleans but also disinfects and sanitizes.

It Removes Bad Smell

Vinegar also removes the bad smell associated with dirty floors. Its sweet smell will take over your house’s atmosphere. However, some do not like the smell of vinegar.

If you’re one of them, you can use essential oils or and other solutions instead.

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It’s Cost-Effective

The cost of the amount of vinegar required to clean your floor doesn’t need you to break the bank. Besides, vinegar is a famous solution sold in most shops. So, you shouldn’t worry about finding it close to you at a highly affordable price.

Vinegar Is Environment-Friendly

Famous cleaning chemicals, like most detergents, often contain harmful substances. The substances can cause such adverse effects as allergies, poison, skin damage, and others.

Vinegar is a simple solution of acetic acid and other low-quantity chemicals that do not cause harm.

Cleaning Your Floor With Vinegar: The Steps

You already grok that vinegar is safe to use with your steam mop, but you may be wondering how it should work. Here are all the basic steps for using vinegar with your steam mop.

Step 1:

Mix one cup of vinegar with one gallon of warm water. The water should be warm to activate the acidic nature of the vinegar solution to kill microorganisms.

Step 2:

Start by sweeping the floor in question using a mop or vacuum. You need to do this to remove all the loose dirt before cleaning with vinegar.

Step 3:

The same way you often pour water into the steam mop, pour the solution in 1 above into the steam mop.

Step 4:

Now clean your entire floor using the steam mop as you often do. With the vinegar solution inside it, the steam will get rid of all the bacteria, viruses, bad smells, stains, soap scams, and others.

Note: Not all the floors on which steam mop can be used require the same concentration of vinegar per cup of water. The concentration differs with different types of floors.

Alternatives To Vinegar

You might want to use another solution to clean your vinegar-sensitive floor, and you’re wondering which one can be the best. We recommend the use of a mixture of soap and water, which is highly effective in the same task. Use the ordinary type of soap for this situation.

The ordinary soap is a disinfectant and sanitizer. It kills germs, viruses, and other microorganisms that love hiding inside cracks and crevices. There are other solutions to this problem, but the soap solution is the best.

The Bottom Line

So can I put the vinegar solution in my steam mop? Yes, you can, except for a few floor surfaces like hardwood, whose surfaces get damaged upon interaction with acids. The vinegar solution will remove stains, disinfect surfaces, and eradicate odors, among other things. The good news is that vinegar won’t damage your steam mop.

It’s time you shopped for one — best of luck!