Use Vinegar to Clean Your Microwave

Using vinegar for a natural clean
Image by elycefeliz via Flickr

I’d heard about using vinegar as a quick and cheap way to clean a dirty microwave, but I’d never actually tried it out before.

My normal routine involves spraying, wiping and scrubbing for about 15 minutes to try and remove the caked on splatters from the side and top of a microwave. It’s a tedious process and I’ve often wondered what chemical residues I’m leaving behind in the microwave when I do that.

So today I figured I’d give vinegar a shot. The recipe I used was very simple:

1/2 cup of vinegar combined with 1/2 cup of water in a microwave safe bowl. I then blasted it on high for a few minutes and let it sit and steam for another 5 mins.

The result? Well initially a strong smell of vinegar, but that didn’t last. In fact I quickly noticed that the microwave no longer had the unpleasant odor which had been building up for the last few weeks.

I then took a paper towel and wiped the front door of the microwave. To my surprise the debris came right off. 5 minutes of wiping and I had a microwave that was if not sparkling new, certainly much nicer than it’s looked in a few months.

As cheap as vinegar is and as quickly as you can do this, I can definitely see including this in my weekend cleaning schedule. If you haven’t tried it I’d definitely recommend giving it a shot. It’s greener and cheaper at the same time. I’ll also be investigating some of the other cleaning tricks I’ve read about. Next up I think might be window cleaner.

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Eoghann Irving is a sci-Fi fan, self professed geek, owner of too many computers and general know it all. Follow me on Google Buzz, LinkedIn or Twitter to chat about this or anything else.
Posted Sunday, June 13th, 2010 under Saving Money.

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    by Eoghann Irving
    Using vinegar for a natural clean: Image by elycefeliz via Flickr. I'd heard about using vinegar as a quick and cheap way to clean a dirty microwave, but I'd never actually tried it out before. My normal routine involves spraying, ...
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    Use vinegar to clean your microwave oven. Add ½ cup of white vinegar to 1 cup of water in an uncovered bowl and place in the microwave oven. Set on high for 3 to 4 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes. Finish by wiping out the oven cavity. ...
  • The vinegar I used was listed as 5% acidity. I haven't looked to see if different brands have different acidity though. Might well be the case.

    What really surprised me about this wasn't that it worked, but that it worked better than the commercial cleaners I had been using.
  • You are just vaporizing a mild acid, so it should cause some breakdown/loosening of the debris.

    I wonder, would different types of vinegar have different % of acetic acid? (If I'm correctly recalling that the acid in vinegar is acetic) and therefore would one type be measurably more effective than another?
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