# Vinegar soln ruining the spray bottle?



## MyLittleWarrior (Dec 19, 2006)

I was wondering if this happens to anyone else, and if so what you've done about it. Any spray bottle I've ever put my 1:1 vinegar/water solution in eventually stops spraying. I've used those small cheap spray bottles from the Target toiletries section, and I've reused empty spray bottles from seventh generation cleaners. That one lasted longer, but it too evenutally stopped spraying after a few vinegar refills. Does the vinegar do something to the plastic to gum it up? What do you keep your vinegar solutions in for spraying down counters and such?


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## jrabbit (May 10, 2008)

I have never had that problem, but my bottles usually are just straight vinegar - same bottle for YEARS. I wonder if your water is the problem. Maybe distilled water would work better.


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## swiss.army.mom (Nov 29, 2008)

Hmm. We've used the same two spray bottles for about 2 years with no change in them. They came from the carpet cleaning company but aren't especially nice or anything. We do about 2:1 water:vinegar.

DS is helping me post this and wants to see some of the little cartoons . . .





















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## greenmansions (Feb 16, 2005)

My bottles stop spraying too... I have been reusing Trader Joe's spray bottles that are used at DS' preschool. I bring them home and fill them with vinegar and water solution. But the sprayer lasts less than a year usually. So I've been using the same bottle for a long time, just keep replacing the sprayer.

My thinking is that the vinegar corrodes something inside the spray mechanism.


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## mtnjeni (Apr 17, 2008)

I've had the same problem, particularly with the cheapies from Target. Reusing other spray bottles has lasted longer (say 2-3 years) but eventually all of them have failed. My thinking is that the bottles I'm reusing aren't made to last "forever" and eventually they just give out. I don't think it is the vinegar specifically, but I'm not a scientist or anything.


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## cristeen (Jan 20, 2007)

I'd be more inclined to blame hard water than vinegar. Calcium/lime build-up can block the tiny spray hole of the sprayer, and that would definitely be my first suspicion.


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## greenmansions (Feb 16, 2005)

Where I live we do not have hard water and my pumps fail.

Vinegar dissolves the minerals so I think it would be harder for any to deposit inside the spray mechanism. That said, if it actually dried out inside there and the minerals precipitated out, they could be harder to redissolve and move out of the pump. Would depend on the minerals and the level of acidity. (I am a lapsed chemist, but my DH is not lapsed and he says it is possible.) Hmmm.

I had a pump I was using with detergent in it and it was corroding inside - the plastic parts were actually crumbling. I'm figuring the same type of thing is happening inside these pumps. I will have to take one apart next time it fails.


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## Drummer's Wife (Jun 5, 2005)

this is interesting because we have hard well water and I haven't noticed this problem with my vinegar sprays.


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## FernG (Feb 14, 2008)

That happened with my small, cheap Target bottles. I finally bought a big Rubermade bottle, which has lasted for a long time.


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