Cleaning properties of Malt vinegar V's White vinegar

mrtom

The glass window of my stove heater has an easy to clean ash / burnt carbon residue, however there is a brown film residue that is difficult to remove. I'v read that malt vinegar is recommended however would that be causing the film residue to build up ? The obvious point is to try both however I'm interested in the chemical forces at play!

Labarbapostiza

mrtom wrote: »

The glass window of my stove heater has an easy to clean ash / burnt carbon residue, however there is a brown film residue that is difficult to remove. I'v read that malt vinegar is recommended however would that be causing the film residue to build up ? The obvious point is to try both however I'm interested in the chemical forces at play!

The chemical name for vinegar is acetic acid. It's the same vinegar in malt as in distilled. Except in the distilled it's been distilled. What you buy in the shop is diluted..My Chef distilled malt vinegar is 5% acetic acid.

The cleaning ability of vinegar is down to it being an acid. Something like a lime scale uses it's chemical structure to bind to a surface. Vinegar can eat through this and weaken it to the point it can be rinsed off. i've used it on a very dirty toilet...one that had years of hard lime scale build up. just sprinkling a little vinegar on the lime scale caused it to bubble up nearly instantly, and then be rinsed off.

Baking soda on the other hand is a base, which is the opposite of an acid. It works better on greasy grime. Caustic soda is a stronger base. Both acids and bases are corrosive, but they have a preferrence for what they eat through.

The gunk on your stove heater isn't just carbon. it would be resins and different chemicals which have condensed..it's essentially tar. To clean a tar off you might be better to neither use and acid or base but instead use a solvent like paint thinner. White spirit is good for this kind of cleaning. The effect is neither like an acid or a base, but like pouring water on dry mud.

mrtom

Labarbapostiza wrote: »

The chemical name for vinegar is acetic acid. It's the same vinegar in malt as in distilled. Except in the distilled it's been distilled. What you buy in the shop is diluted..My Chef distilled malt vinegar is 5% acetic acid.

The cleaning ability of vinegar is down to it being an acid. Something like a lime scale uses it's chemical structure to bind to a surface. Vinegar can eat through this and weaken it to the point it can be rinsed off. i've used it on a very dirty toilet...one that had years of hard lime scale build up. just sprinkling a little vinegar on the lime scale caused it to bubble up nearly instantly, and then be rinsed off.

Baking soda on the other hand is a base, which is the opposite of an acid. It works better on greasy grime. Caustic soda is a stronger base. Both acids and bases are corrosive, but they have a preferrence for what they eat through.

The gunk on your stove heater isn't just carbon. it would be resins and different chemicals which have condensed..it's essentially tar. To clean a tar off you might be better to neither use and acid or base but instead use a solvent like paint thinner. White spirit is good for this kind of cleaning. The effect is neither like an acid or a base, but like pouring water on dry mud.

thanks for that