Baking soda is often really great as a stain remover, but there are actually a few places where it can be really bad to use baking soda for cleaning and removing stains.
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We love baking soda, but be careful
Baking soda is a great cleaner, but sometimes it is so efficient, that it is doing a lot more than just removing the tricky stain. You would want to avoid the times when baking soda can do more harm than good.
#1 Why not to use baking soda on glass surfaces
Baking soda is a so-called abrasive cleaner. That means that there is a big risk that using baking soda to remove a stain on glass will scratch your glass or mirror. If you want an all-natural stain remover, a better choice for glass stains is vinegar.
#2 Be careful with baking soda on aluminum
You can use baking soda on aluminum, but if you do, it is VERY important to do a good rinse strait away. If you leave baking soda on aluminum, it will start to oxidize your pots and pans, or any other aluminum things you want to remove stains from.
If you leave baking soda on your aluminum pots and pans for too long, the oxidization will give it an ugly brown color. So you’ll end up with some new stains to deal with instead of getting some clean pots and pans.
#3 How to make scratches and leave a white film on your ceramic stovetop
If you want to scratch the ceramic glass on your stovetop, then baking soda might the solution for you. Baking soda will quickly make scratches on the stovetop, and at the same time leave a layer of white film, that can be really difficult to remove again.
#4 Baking soda might damage your marble surfaces
You might have heard about baking soda for cleaning marble floors or other marble surfaces. We recommend you stay far away from that tip because it might harm your marble floor more than you realize.
Baking soda will not just remove the stains and dirt, but over time also remove the upper protective layer that marble has. When the protective layer is gone, you’ll start to “enjoy” a lot of scratches on the marble too.
#5 Ruin your wood furniture with baking soda
Again baking soda is a great cleaner, but in the case of wood furniture, it is way to hard and might ruin your beautiful furniture. If you want to clean wood furniture we recommend that you use a solution of water and dishwashing soap instead.
#6 Get tarnish on your silverware faster
You can remove tarnish from your silverware by lowering it in water with baking soda. This might be pretty counterproductive though. The baking soda is way too abrasive for the silverware, and that will lead to tarnish and patina on your silverware a lot quicker in the future.
#7 Remove everything from skin and hair, including natural oils
If you use baking soda on your skin, it will neutralize your skin’s regular acid levels. That means your skin will start to be dry and crack. The same is true with your hair, where baking soda will strip it from its natural oils.
Our recomended cleaning products
Using a product that is produced for the purpose of cleaning a specific stain or area, is almost always a good idea.
In many cases, a regular good cleaning product can help you a long way. Interested in what products we recommend, then take a look HERE.
