Your Bathroom Cleaning Chemical Guide

Overwhelmed by your options when it comes to chemical cleaners for bathrooms? Unsure of what’s safe to use on bathroom tiles, and what might damage a laminate floor? Well, you’ve come to the right place! Today, AppliancePartsPros.com is walking you through some common bathroom cleaning chemicals and how best to use them.

Does vinegar really live up to all the hype?

In the right concentrations, vinegar can effectively clean glass surfaces like a bathroom mirror, or help to kill mold and mildew, but the super cleaning power promised by so many online outlets isn’t necessarily true. Vinegar is an extremely affordable and eco-friendly cleaning option, but if you’re more concerned with effective cleaning power and time efficiency, you’ll likely get better results from actual cleaning products.

Is combining cleaning chemicals safe?

You may have seen videos on social media where tons of colorful cleaning products are layered one on top of another in sinks, tubs, and toilet bowls, then scrubbed down to get those tough-to-clean areas spotless. Do not try this yourself.

Combining cleaning chemicals, even common bathroom cleaning products, is incredibly dangerous. You could wind up with a face full of chloramine vapors – and burnt skin and lungs as a result.

Never combine cleaning products without first extensively checking labels and ingredient lists.

Which cleaning chemicals are dangerous to combine?

As mentioned, a hard and fast rule is to simply not combine cleaning chemicals if you aren’t sure how they’ll react together. If you’re worried, opt for solutions that you know are safe and eco-friendly.

While we can’t go over each individual brand of cleaner and what it shouldn’t be combined with, we can list off a few basic but important guidelines:

• Bleach and ammonia are two common ingredients of many household cleaners. Combined, they release chloramine gas, which can burn your lungs and throat if inhaled.
• Bleach and vinegar will also create chloramine and chlorine gas when combined, irritating or burning skin, eyes, throat, and lungs.
• Bleach and rubbing alcohol create trichloromethane, which will, at best, leave you dizzy and nauseous. In high volumes, it can cause fatal damage to your internal organs.
• Hydrogen peroxide and vinegar when mixed create a corrosive acid that can cause serious damage to you and your possessions.

What’s the best way to unclog a sink or tub drain?

While liquid drain cleaner is certainly an option, it’s best used as a last resort. Liquid drain cleaner isn’t guaranteed to clear all clogs, won’t address underlying issues like damaged pipes, and can exacerbate existing damage by corroding pipes or basins. It also isn’t very environmentally friendly.

So, before you grab the drain cleaner, try these options, first:

• Plunger. They’re iconic for a reason! Using a plunger in a toilet is fairly straightforward – ensure you have a good seal and move the plunger up and down several times without breaking that seal. Here are some tips for using plungers in sinks and tubs:
  • Have a separate plunger for sink and tub use. Don’t reuse your toilet plunger here. You can get smaller plungers for exactly this purpose.
  • You’ll need to remove the overflow drain cover and plug the opening up with a rag for a plunger to be effective.
  • Fill the basin of your tub or sink with an inch or two of water. A seal is necessary for the plunger to be effective, and the water helps to keep the seal in place.
  • Once you’ve finished plunging, run hot water from the faucet for a few minutes to help flush the drain.
• Boiling water. Start by slowly pouring ½ gallon of boiling water down the drain, then follow that up with hot water directly from the faucet, run constantly for about five minutes.
• Manual drain cleaners like barbed plastic drain cleaners and drain snakes can clear out clogs deeper in your pipes. Check the packaging for manuals or instructions when using these.

Useful Cleaning Chemicals for your Bathroom

Your biggest concern when cleaning the bathroom is not combining the wrong chemicals and causing yourself harm. Past that, it’s a matter of knowing which cleaners and disinfectants are most effective where.

While we can’t review each individual cleaning product for effectiveness, we can go over a few common chemicals you’ll find in commercial cleaners. Let’s get started.

Safety First!

Before you clean anything, make sure you have a pair of rubber cleaning gloves to protect your skin, and do what you can to improve ventilation in your bathroom – keep doors open, run the exhaust fan. Most bathroom cleaners contain harsh chemicals that can cause dizziness and skin irritation if you don’t take proper safety measures.

Most importantly, never mix cleaning chemicals when cleaning your bathroom.

Vinegar

Distilled white vinegar diluted in an equal amount of water is a good way to dissolve hard water stains and break up soap scum. It may not necessarily be as effective as a stronger chemical cleaner, but it’s easier on your wallet and more eco-friendly.

• Put your vinegar solution in a spray bottle and use it to effectively clean mirrors and shower doors, like any glass cleaner.
• You can also use it to break down mold and mildew. Liberally spray vinegar on shower walls, (plastic) shower curtains, tub basins, and sinks and let it set for a few minutes before rinsing it away.
• Vinegar can also potentially eat through hard water buildup. For instance, you can try soaking your shower head in white vinegar – fill a baggy with it and secure it to the shower head with a tightly wound rubber band. Let this soak for a few hours, then wipe the shower head down and rinse it thoroughly.

Ammonia

Ammonia and ammonium chloride are common ingredients in many bathroom cleaners, from glass cleaners meant for sprucing up your bathroom mirror to disinfecting wipes for cleaning up tubs and counters. Ammonia is great at eating through grease and soap scum, making it an excellent bathroom cleaner.

• Plenty of common household bathroom cleaning products already contain ammonia, but you can make your own diluted solution by mixing ¼ cup of ammonia with 1 gallon of water.
• This homemade solution can be used to clean shower tiles, the tub basin, and sinks.
• Ammonia shouldn’t be used on certain surfaces because it will damage them. If you have laminate flooring in your bathroom, skip ammonia cleaners and use something else.
• You can clean hair brushes and combs that are caked in gunk by soaking them in a mixture of one part ammonia to four parts warm water. Don’t soak for more than 10 minutes, and rinse thoroughly afterward.

Bleach

Nothing is going to kill mold or mildew and remove the stains they leave behind quite like bleach, but bleach cleaners are also some of the harshest you can use. Read the label on any bleach-based product before you use it to avoid damage to your possessions or harm to you and your family, and never combine bleach-based cleaners with any other cleaning chemical.

• Bleach is best suited to disinfecting and lightening stains on your bathroom’s non-porous surfaces, like a tiled shower wall, the bathtub, sink, or toilet. If you are more concerned with cleaning rather than disinfecting, other cleaning products may be more efficient.
• You can make your own bleach solution by mixing ½ cup of bleach with 1 gallon of water. Use a spray bottle or sponge to apply this mixture to surfaces and let it stand for five to ten minutes, then rinse it away and allow it to air dry. Be sure to keep pets and kids out of the room while the bleach is setting.
• According to the CDC, solutions of bleach and water lose effectiveness after 24 hours, so always start with a fresh bleach solution when disinfecting.
• If a spray cleaner isn’t doing the trick, bleach-based cream cleansers are great for cleaning up mold and mildew on tiles, in tubs, sinks, and toilet bowls. Follow package instructions when using these, and don’t use them on a surface that isn’t explicitly listed on the package. The abrasive nature of these cleaners can scratch up and discolor certain materials.
• Never leave a bleach-based cleaner to sit longer than indicated by the cleaner’s instructions. The material beneath the cleaner can start to deteriorate or discolor.
• Plastic bath mats (the kind that go in the tub) can be cleaned with diluted bleach. You can scrub it down for a quick clean, or if mold or mildew build up on the mat is severe, you can soak the mat for a couple of hours. Be sure to thoroughly rinse it and allow it to air dry after.

More Bathroom Cleaning Tips

Before we send you off, here are a few more cleaning tips:

• Is there a lot of dust on your bathroom’s vent cover? Vacuum up loose dust and debris before you try to tackle cleaning it with anything damp to make cleaning it easier.
• You can clean some bathroom accessories in your dishwasher! Combs and brushes made of sturdy plastic and bathroom vent covers can be loaded into the dishwasher to quickly clean and disinfect them. It’s a good alternative to using harsh chemicals on them.
• Most cloth bath mats can be cleaned in the laundry. Take care not to use harsh chemicals on them, as their rubber backing can corrode, reducing their ability to grip the floor as you’re climbing out of the tub!

Wrapping Up

Bathrooms get gross, but you can more effectively keep them sparkling clean with proper application of the right cleaning chemicals. Read labels, wear gloves, and don’t combine cleaners, and you’ll be busting mildew and defogging mirrors like a pro. Have questions that weren’t answered by this guide? Check out our blog for tons of thorough tutorials for cleaning and maintaining everything from kitchen appliances to lawn equipment.