On YouTube and Pinterest, there are a tonne of crazy cleaning hacks that don't work. Hands up, we all love looking for DIY hacks. Because of the amount of false information online and the number of people who believe it, we decided to create a series on cleaning tips that don't work.
Can coke clean your toilet, or is it best kept for mixing with brandy? Read and find out!
The idea that coke's acidity will help remove stains is completely incorrect. Coke only has a pH of 3, which is not a particularly acidic level. However, given that bacteria love sugar and that coke contains a lot of it, it would be a bad choice.
We decided to try the popular cleaning hack on a stained toilet, and here is what happened after we followed these steps:
The results were not good so we chose to use a different approach, as the coke didn't effectively remove the limescale.
For our next experiment, we added a cup of washing soda and boiling water to the trap. With a pH of 11.5, washing soda is significantly more acidic than coke.
We allowed for 20-30 minutes of resting time. Brushed with the toilet brush and flush to wash away the debris. Again... it did not work properly.
Coke did not work, and it should be classified as hearsay. Additionally, the boiling water and washing soda solution was ineffective. We can, categorically state that vinegar or hydrochloric acid work much better.
We also used Harpic, a commercial cleaner that contains hydrochloric acid. Furthermore, we added it to the trap and let sit for 20 minutes, after a quick scrub and flush. We were able to completely remove the limescale.
If you also found that Coke didn't work for you, then why not try to remove rust stains from a toilet bowl naturally, cleaning the toilet bowl with vinegar and baking soda, or remove hard water stains from a toilet bowl.