Many people are familiar with the cleaning power of Pine-Sol, and they also know that bleach is a top-notch disinfectant. If you’ve ever cleaned a particularly grimy surface, you may have wondered if you could mix the two products together to get a super-strength cleaner with the power to disinfect.
In this article, we will discuss why it’s unsafe to mix Pine Sol and bleach and tell you what to do if you’ve accidentally mixed them together. We’ll also tell you what you can safely mix with both bleach and Pine-Sol on their own and which stand-alone product is the more effective cleaner.
Can You Mix Pine-Sol and Bleach?
No, When you mix any other cleaner with bleach, it releases fumes into the air that can cause damage to your lungs and destroy your brain cells. You should only mix bleach with cold or warm water.
What To Do If You Have Accidentally Mixed Pine-Sol and Bleach
Since the outcome is potentially deadly fumes called chlorine gas or chloroform, you should take serious precautions to avoid mixing bleach and Pine-Sol.
Some of these precautions include storing the products separately and not using one product until the other has dried.
If you still somehow mix Pine-Sol and bleach by accident, follow these steps to remove the toxic fumes from the air:
Increase the ventilation in the area you’re cleaning by opening the windows and turning on the fans.
After you’ve increased the ventilation, cover your face with a mask to protect your lungs from the fumes. If you don’t have a mask, covering your face with a t-shirt will be okay.
Once your lungs are protected, you can put on gloves and rinse the affected surface with cool water to remove some of the chemicals.
Don’t allow children or pets near the affected area until the fumes have cleared because they are more susceptible to toxins than human adults.
What Can You Mix With Pine-Sol?
Pine-Sol is a strong cleaner in its own right, so you shouldn’t have to mix anything with it to get the job done well.
In fact, the manufacturers state that you shouldn’t mix anything with Pine-Sol to avoid creating toxic fumes. If you think Pine-Sol is too strong, you can dilute it with cold or warm water.
To create the proper dilution of Pine-Sol, mix ¼ cup of cleaner with a gallon of warm water. For really tough messes, you can apply straight Pine-Sol to a damp sponge or cleaning rag and scrub.
What Can You Not Mix With Pine-Sol?
You shouldn’t mix any other cleaners with Pine-Sol, including:
The only thing you can mix with bleach is cold or warm water. Even something as innocent as hot water can trigger the release of chlorine gas into the air and cause your eyes, nose, and throat to burn.
To properly dilute bleach for safe cleaning, mix a gallon of warm water with 1 cup of bleach.
No, Pine-Sol doesn’t have bleach in it. Up until 2016, Pine-Sol’s main cleaning ingredient was pine oil. Now, the active ingredients in the original Pine-Sol are glycolic acid, formic acid, and methoxyacetic acid.
Can You Use Pine-Sol In The laundry?
Yes, you can add Original Multi-Surface Pine-Sol to your washing machine along with your regular laundry detergent to help deodorize and soften your clothes.
Don’t use any of the other Pine-Sol products in the laundry, though; they produce too many suds and can ruin your machine. Don’t use Pine-Sol if your laundry detergent contains bleach, as mixing these chemicals can release toxic chlorine gas.
You should also take care to only add Pine-Sol directly to the drum of your washer rather than the fabric softener compartment or the bleach dispenser.
Mixing products like these by accident can release toxic fumes into the air, so it’s best to err on the side of caution in case the Pine-Sol doesn’t rinse out all the way before you use those compartments again.
Is Pine-Sol Safe For Pets?
When it’s diluted, Pine-Sol can be a safe cleaner to use around pets. However, if you plan to use this cleaner at full strength, you should rinse the cleaned surfaces before allowing access to your pets. Pine-Sol contains ingredients like benzoic acid and isopropyl alcohol.
Dogs and cats don’t have the right enzymes in their systems to break down these toxins, which allows them to build up inside your pet’s body.
What Is More Effective: Pine-Sol Vs. Bleach
The answer to this question really depends on what you’re trying to clean. For example, adding bleach to a load of white laundry will remove stains and disinfect your clothing.
On the other hand, Pine-Sol is great at safely cleaning and disinfecting most types of flooring.
They’re not really interchangeable products unless you’re using one of Pine-Sol’s multi-surface cleaners. In any case, both are strong cleaning products that should be used with care.
The smell of Pine-Sol lasts for at least a few hours when diluted and can last for up to a day if applied straight.
s Pine-Sol a disinfectant?
Yes, when used at full strength, Pine-Sol Multi-Surface Cleaner is an EPA-registered disinfectant.
Is Pine-Sol better than Lysol?
f you’re using them for disinfecting purposes, Lysol is the better option. While both products are registered disinfectants, Lysol only takes 2 to 5 minutes to disinfect surfaces, while Pine-Sol takes 10 minutes.
Do you have to rinse surfaces after using Pine-Sol?
If you dilute Pine-Sol before using it, you don’t need to rinse your surfaces. If you use it straight for disinfecting purposes, leave it on your surface for 10 minutes, then rinse it off with cool water.
Conclusion
Despite them both being excellent disinfectants, you should never mix Pine-Sol and bleach. Mixing these chemicals together can release toxic fumes called chlorine gas, which can cause significant damage to your lungs and kill your brain cells.
Since mixing bleach and Pine-Sol can have deadly results, you should store the products separately to avoid accidents.
Not only should you not mix Pine-Sol and bleach together, but you also shouldn’t mix them with any other cleaning products either. Both of these cleaners should only be mixed with cold or warm water.
Hi, my name is Shauna Stone and I love improving my home to make it perfect. Researching new cleaning techniques is one of my favorite things to do - have you ever fallen into the rabbit hole that is cleaning TikToks?
I think my love of cleaning and home pride came from my time at college. I know that college kids are meant to be messy - but some of my roommates were on another level altogether. I don’t even want to recount the images I saw throughout college… *shudder*
A tidy house is a tidy mind, after all, and I cannot get anything done if my house is a mess. I like to think of it as my safe haven, and I don’t want my safe haven to be anything less than perfect!
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