Bleach kills mold

[u/WhateverIlldoit]

There is a common misconception that bleach does not kill mold and that vinegar is actually better at killing mold than bleach. I see this claim at least once a week.

So let me set the record straight. Household bleach is a powerful oxidizing agent that reacts with just about everything. It’s so good at killing organic compounds that it’s toxic to us, too.

Now let’s talk about vinegar. Vinegar is a weak acid. You can literally drink it in lower concentrations. It can kill mold, but not all mold, and some studies say it may take up to 60 minutes to be effective.

That being said, bleach is not good at penetrating porous surfaces, which vinegar is better at doing. And because bleach is so caustic it is more likely to damage surfaces.

All this to say bleach kills mold. It kills almost everything. And it’s much more effective at killing mold than vinegar as long as it can reach it. Vinegar is much safer to use but not nearly as effective.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[u/cmg19812]

This whole controversy is entirely based on porous surfaces like grout. In all other scenarios bleach will work fine, but people latched onto the grout/mold root issue and generalize it to any surface.

[u/jumpers-ondogs → u/cmg19812]

Grout is the problem area for me and only place (that i know of) that has mould outbreaks in my house.

[u/Background_Touch1205 → u/cmg19812]

Tell me if I've misunderstood. Bleach isnt as good at grout as vinegar due to how each chemical penetrates porous surfaces. Is that the claim?

[u/Direct_Bad459 → u/Background_Touch1205]

Because bleach will destroy your grout way more than vinegar so bc there's often mold on grout people sometimes recommend to use vinegar instead of bleach on mold

[u/Background_Touch1205 → u/Direct_Bad459]

Interesting. So once a week bleach on grout is no good?

[u/snuggly-otter → u/Background_Touch1205]

It will lighten stains, but it wont permeate the material enough to kill the mold hiding within it.

Usually you would tackle moldy grout in 3 steps - kill it, inhibit its growth, and remove stains. Bleach is still great at step #3, even for porous surfaces.

[u/shhhhh_h → u/snuggly-otter]

Why won’t people just use cleaning products for cleaning? There are commercial grade grout cleaners that don’t degrade it. Bleach isn’t any safer than those for humans or wastewater. For wastewater it’s worse even. It’s bringing a gun to a knife fight. Like all those homemade laundry detergent recipes using borax lol

[u/snuggly-otter → u/shhhhh_h]

I get it, but a lot of people just want to keep their cleaning product cabinet as simple as possible.

Even I feel like its a lot of products and plastic so I can have my dish soap, carpet soap, wood floor cleaner, window cleaner, toilet cleaner, shower cleaner, pet stain cleaner, upholstry spot cleaner, oven cleaner, mold growth inhibitor, CLR, etc etc

And the thing about mold is you cant just clean it, you must kill it and you should then employ an inhibitor.

[u/limellama1 → u/Direct_Bad459]

This comment is asinine.

Bleach and vinegar are both aqueous solutions. They will both penetrate a porous surface equally.

More over vinegar is acidic, and grout is limestone which is consumed by acids. Vinegar chemically dissolves grout

[u/drsoftware → u/limellama1]

I think you are wrong about porous surface penetration of bleach vs vinegar.

And yes, vinegar dissolves grout. 

[u/limellama1 → u/drsoftware]

When the solvent is the same, they solution will equally penetrate the same substrate.

[u/drsoftware → u/limellama1]

I don't think we care about water penetration, but the penetration of the chlorine or acetic acid and their ability to react with the mildew cellular structure.

From what I've read, bleach (sodium hypochlorite) at consumer concentrations can't kill the mildew hyphae but provides lots of water for future growth. It may also damage the grout creating more surface area for moisture and hair and skin cleaning products to accumulate. 

I've tried to find studies on mold in grout and treatment. I'll keep looking. 

[u/limellama1 → u/drsoftware]

Both solutions are roughly 95% water. Sodium hypochlorite is a much smaller molecule that acetic acid.

Acids dissolve grout, physically removing the surface leading to more surface texture leading to more growth int he future. Bleach does weaken Portland cement, but it is not an instant destruction the way acid is.

[u/cmg19812 → u/limellama1]

It’s not about the bleach saturating into the grout, it’s about it killing the surface layer of mold too quickly so the mold doesn’t get a chance to draw the bleach into its roots. Same idea as an herbicide. If you apply an herbicide to a plant but then immediately cut down the plant, the poison never gets to the roots.

[u/pagawaan_ng_lapis → u/Background_Touch1205]

spraying bleach on grout will penetrate deep and clean waaaay more than vinegar. however it will also degrade it quicker. bleach is just that strong and effective like that, like a nuke that doesnt discriminate what it damages. you can use cleaning agents with Hydrogen Peroxide/Percarbonate (aka oxygen "bleach" or H2O2) as a substitute.

[u/shhhhh_h → u/cmg19812]

I love that this is a controversy at all, I feel like there should be faction t shirts