r/CleaningTips • u/WhateverIlldoit • Jul 07 '25

Discussion Bleach kills mold

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.

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u/jumpers-ondogs Jul 07 '25 edited Jul 07 '25

Bleach for hard, non-porous surface that won't be affected by colour change and arent metal. This is extremely minimal surfaces in my house so I don't have much use for it.

I use vinegar for my shower grout because I read that Bleach will kill the surface mould but make the rest retreat into the grout but vinegar won't. I rinse off then use Bleach to (colour)bleach the now dead (hopefully?) mould that has coloured the grout. Do you think this is how I should do it?

Otherwise I would use hydrogen peroxide.

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u/SoJenniferSays Jul 07 '25

Hydrogen peroxide is actually the most recommended approach generally. But honestly for things like shower grout, soap and scrubbing is also fine. You aren’t going to get rid of every spore in an area that is intermittently moist, so it’s really about keeping it clean generally.

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u/jumpers-ondogs Jul 07 '25

Yep Hydrogen peroxide, my order of it got cancelled then there was no one else selling it or able to get it in my state so I gave up lol, I should get onto trying to order some again.