Stop mixing vinegar and castile soap!

I heard you.

You said, Really?!?

Yup. Don't feel bad. I used to do it. I am the first to admit it. Heck, I had it on my castile soap labels ten years ago. I believed it worked because they are each so great at cutting grease and grime, and making surfaces so nice and shiny! But I am here to tell you, IT DOES NOT WORK.

If you have read any of my other posts where I give you a brief chemistry lesson, I write about pH levels. Castile Soap is at one end (alkaline pH of 8-10ish) and vinegar is at the other (acidic pH of 2-3ish). So if you mix the two of them together you are lowering the pH of soap, or raising the pH of the vinegar.

Both are fantastic cleaners. But they MUST be used separately. To clean you need an acidic product or an alkaline product. Mixing the two cancels their power out.

Here is the proof.... I took a glass measuring cup and filled it with an ounce of castile soap and 15 ounces of distilled water. I then calibrated my pH meter. I tested the diluted castile soap mixture and found the mixture to have a pH level of 9.7.

Then I added an ounce of Distilled White Vinegar and stirred the now milky solution.

The result was an almost dead on neutral pH of 6.9, which means you would have the same result cleaning with distilled water because the soap has now been neutralized.