Rust Removal Vinegar VS CLR **SHOCKING RESULTS** 

Please, never put poison of any kind in a food or beverage container. I spent 8 years recovering from drinking CLR in water that my roommate had in a drinking glass when I asked my friend to get me a glass of water and he grabbed that glass. NEVER put poison in a food or drink container.

CLR is around $5.30 at Walmart (28oz). Cleaning vinegar (the good hard stuff!) is around $1.60 a gallon (64oz). And the vinegar will clean your countertops, stove and all, plus it's better in the laundry rinse than fabric softener, and it'll keep your drains from stinking too!

Strongly recommend you put boiling water in the CLR glass about four times before you try to drink out of it. That stuff is bad news if you get it in your body.

So, just a side note: vinegar IS an acidic item. Once you have cleaned the rust from your metal items using vinegar, rinse them in a water and baking soda bath. Then a light coating of 3 in one or wd 40, etc.

The CLR should have been mixed with water. CLR uses the H2O as a catalyst for penetration. Read the instructions on the bottle. They recommend mixing it 50/50.

It would be interesting to see what the second set of wire cutters after a follow up 24 hours in the vinegar after the CLR treatment. Good video!

Care must be taken when using vinegar to remove rust from items that are/ were chrome or zinc plated. If left a day or so the vinegar will remove the zinc/ chrome plating. The problem is that there are carcinogenic elements used in both chroming and zinc plating and these will now be floating around in the vinegar/ rust soup. The most dangerous is the gold coloured plating with the slight rainbow/ oil-slick effect on the surface. This is called hexavalent chromate and it is highly carcinogenic to the point that it was banned in many countries. So, extreme care needs to be taken when disposing of the used vinegar and anything it has come in touch with it.

Metal treated with vinegar must then be neutralized to prevent flash rust. A short soak in a baking soda and water bath should do the trick.

I had a buildup in my tea kettle from the water. I put vinegar in the kettle, heated it up on the stove just to boiling . I then shut off the heat pulled it off burner and put 3 tbsp of baking soda in !! Soaked it in this over night. Took stainless steel scrubber to it , it completely dissolved. No CLR. Vinegar, rosemary, lemons, dawn dish soap and baking soda. Just thrown all into small bucket. Leave for 1 month to get concentrated, oven cleaner!! Works awesome and no more breathing in toxic fumes.

Great video. We use white vinegar to clean our coffee pot for the calcium build up, in the garage per my wife suggestion. White vinegar works but we put baking soda in the water and then use 0000 steel wool with motor oil on our tools. I wouldn't dare use my wife's glasses. Thanks again

Great helpful video! My grandparents had a thousand uses for vinegar! I use it constantly for all kinds of applications and I've never had great results with CLR. I watched your video and was curious about comparing the two. Thanks again!

I've never had CLR work on anything, I knew which product would work the best before the test started. Vinegar is also my go-to for cleaning the bottom of the toilet.

sweet.. I been soaking paper towels in vinegar, covering in plastic bag, and its eatin rust off an old car.. I was curious about CLR and you just confirmed vinegar gobble rust better!

I just did the white vinegar and it worked great, i soaked about 300 rusty sockets i found at a garage sale for 3 days. Rust was still on them but mostly wiped/scrubbed right off with a dry rag. Wonderful results at a very cheap price

Vinegar is amazing for so many things !

I always thought there was something other than CLR to clean rust! Thanks ☆

This was really helpful for me as I'm preparing to replace a pipe. Thanks!

I have used vinegar in motorcycle fuel tanks to get rid of significant surface rust. It works beautifully, HOWEVER, the fuel tank then requires flushing out with hot water. Upon emptying the hot water and immediately using a heat gun to dry it out you are left with light flash surface rust. Your vinegar pliers appeared to have surface rust also after your final rinse. What I did after flushing and drying my fuel tank was to use evaporust which reacts with the raw steel and keeps it from rusting after flushing out that material. The evaporust is saved and is good for multiple rounds of doing this process. I'll put up a video on my channel soon doing another RZ350 fuel tank.

One suggestion: Try using the C.L.R. at a 50/50 mix with water. Because it is a dense liquid the water mix may help it to penetrate the joints better.

Thanks for the video! CLR works amazingly well as contact cleaner on copper. HD has 30% concentration vinegar.

TWO THINGS... 1. I would have been curious to see if the vinegar would have succeeded on the second pliers where the CLR failed. 2. Zoes Kitchen is GREAT!

My brother in law found a old ax head bared in the dirt. It had about 1"1/2 or more of rust on it. He soaked it white vinegar for 3 days and it came out looking almost brand new. It was amazing.

Great vid as usual. I will use this

I've used vinegar to clean out gas tanks with great results. Thanks for the video

When it comes to cleaning a coffee maker I find that using the citric acid or coffee maker cleaner to work a lot better than vinegar. As soon as I dump the used chemical solution in the sink it brightens the metal a little bit. It also cleans up the drain. Our drain is at least 30 years old and lost its chrome plating somehow but the underlying metal still cleans up nice as soon as any of those chemicals touch it. We have hard water and it can leave stains behind that seem like no amount of scrubbing can get them off easily. They are rust stains and some people have gone as far as to try to sand theirs away. I just use a good acidic rust stain remover that effortlessly cuts through those stains. It is a dangerous chemical but it is a lot better than scrubbing a stain like that. The stuff I use dissolves it before your eyes and is too powerful for tool cleaning because it might dissolve the whole thing leaving only any non metal parts behind. Your wife might not like you using those glasses for the experiment but apparently CLR is harmless once rinsed out since some people use it in coffee makers. I would not use just any chemical in a coffee maker, if it is not all flushed out in time it might cause damage internally. Also you would not want that in your coffee.

I use white vinegar for drain cleaning, shower head cleaning, window cleaning and it’s the absolute best and so cheap. I also rinse my hair with apple cider vinegar and water after shampoo and conditioner and it makes my hair frizz free, shiny and so soft. Magic stuff! Great video….I’ll definitely use vinegar on any rusty stuff.

Thanks a bunch for this! You saved time, money, and and gave a great show. Tell the wife we said thanks for sacrificing the beer mugs. You got a subscriber just because I woulda done the same thing Brother! Lol

Great video! Definitely helped answer the question between the two cleaners for me. Thanks! :)

Thanks 4 the video! I love 2 both save money and not use chemicals 4 anything. I am looking 4 something that stops rush stains from rusted nails on exterior walls b 4 painting. Not sure if vinegar will do the trick because it is a liquidy liquid so 2 speak and I need something that will not just run down the side of the house.

Excellent. Thanks for a nicely made and informative video!

They both seem to work good.

Thanks for honest review

Vinegar is has so many uses. Never thought of using for rust removal. I use vinegar as a cleaner for my hot tub when I empty it for cleaning.

Real glad to find this vid. About to restore an old plane and brace'n'bit. Will defo try white vinegar first. Love the CLR colour though. You take care now.

Thanks for sharing. Will try vinegar on my motorcycle handles. In my opinion from what I saw I'm going with the vinegar.

My experience with vinegar is that it removes rust great, but rust creeps back in very easy. Obviously oiling or treating it after can prevent this. Not sure how clr compares on that front. Clr is also harder to gett off hands, small issue.

I think this guy is a lobbiest for the vinegar industry:)

Great video thanks for sharing

I had a massive leaking somewhere at the top of the water pump. I was going to use a "Stop Leak" product but wanted as clean of a surface as possible. I used about 1/2 cup of CLR, topped-off the radiator with a minor amount of water (it's already small, only 1.5 gals.), drove the car a few blocks. I added more water when I got home so overnight the dripping would allow the CLR to flow through wherever it was going through. Went out at 8am. VERY little water in the catch pan under the car. Poured that out, watched for dripping but there was NONE, not ONE drop. Drove a few blocks, parked back home. at 10:15am I went out and the catch pan was DRY!! I have no idea what the CLR did..... but my car now no longer leaks!! SO weird. UPDATE: Drove to the auto parts store for a fw items. No drips under the car. Stopped by the bank, then came home. Still no drips and the temp gauge stayed centered between Cold and Hot, perfectly centered. Ran the heater all the time I was out (not fun on a warm day lol ). So even with a heat-pressurized system, it still didn't leak!!

White vinegar is also great for cleaning corroded battery terminals. Been using it for years.

I have used vinegar and it always worked great for me 😊

Brother this was another great test you did. I Got my money on the vinegar. I am going to start using that on some of my truck tool. This will help me save money and stop buying new tools when they rust.

Awesome...I have a chain currently soaking in a bucket of vinegar. Of note...soak the items in a baking soda and water mix afterwards to neutralize the effects of the acid.

ive done quite a bit of derusting with vinegar what ive found is walmart great value vinegar will work but is slow use white house vinegar because its more acidic and works way better that clr i would never use simply because mainly what i derust is cast frying pans or other food related items and i have a rule it if its not edible it has no use in food utensils and no washing an item doesnt remove all traces of a chemical thats why i only use food safe vinegar

Some people just like chemicals. I just watched your original video and I'm a 100% white vinegar user. I came across your video because I had a tiny bit of rust on my knife that I'll be using for a meat cleaver and I was already in the process of using my white vinegar as I watched your original video. Vinegar is a win all day everyday, even on black mold! Wipes it out completely whereas bleach feeds black mold. I clean everything with white vinegar. Cheap, safe, and effective! Great video comparison. 💯

The CLR actually seemed to take the surface rust off well, as you can see the pliers had a nice sheen after he used the wire brush.

Vinegar is good to remove water deposits. You can spray it on your sink let it stand and wash it off with a sponge to get it clean. But I never thought that it would remove rust. This proves you do not always need strong chemicals to get something clean.

Good video. Thanks for the tip. Just curious how would coke compare?

Thanks for showing that to us.

I usually use multiple dips. CLR, wipe down, then vinegar and lemon juice, etc. Muratic acid might work too

I used white vinegar to remove rust from the exhaust headers on my F150. with minor wire brushing and a second overnight bath in vinegar they came clean and I primed and painted with 1200 degree paint. worked great. and will never use anything else. The reaction will eat aluminum so do it in a plastic pan and don't let the vinegar sit on concrete if you spill because it will damage concrete.

Seen another video that said your supposed to go fifty fifty on clr and only a few minutes soaking. I do like the white vinegar though. 🤛🥋

Thk u! I’m going to try the vinegar. May add a little bit of baking soda

The CLR is thicker. Maybe that's why it penetrates less. Maybe better for plumbing than small tools?

Warning - Vinegar evaporates quickly and will give you a headache in a confined space. I was using it in a corne6 but solved it by using an electric fan when working there. A lid on the bath will save a lot of vinegar. Also you can buy the 30% industrial cheaper and just cut it back to 6% with water. Thanks for the video.

I found your vid looking for a way to remove rust from my vinyl floor from a old cabinet that sat for about 6 years in my kitchen, I hope it works as well on floors on it does tools.

Great video man! Thanks for posting!

Thanks ! Great experiment...

I've also used vinegar to eat mill scale off hot rolled steel sheets prior to painting them. The scale wipes off in 24 hours. Works great if you have a little time to spare. If time is money buy HRPO steel sheets. I used paper towels to keep the vinegar in contact with the steel while using as little as possible.

1) Is flash rust a real thing? 2) does the vintage leave a permanent black stain to the metal or does it go away?

Try Evapo Rust -v- the white vinegar. I have used white vinegar many times, think it does the best for the cost.

Plain old white vinegar is my go to for rusty fishing pliers etc. I've had several very rusty pairs over the years and soaking them in the vinegar for 2 days followed by a good rinse and a coating of WD40 works like a champ.

Citric acid works well too. I did a whole car frame in it and did a video on it. I knew the vinegar would outshine that clr.

Also something to note, some vinegars are 5% but it all USED to be 10% ... you can still get it, but you need to look around a bit more. Grocery stores usually have instead of wally world...

I was surprised at the finished result of my water impregnated tool kit. I soaked everything overnight, not expecting to recover anything! You can see the chemical reaction almost immediately. Vinegar pickles the metal. If used on edged tools, vinegar restores the cutting edge, on rusty files vinegar brought the files back to new status, also cleaned up a 5/8 tap. I washed the solution off and oiled my resurrected tools as soon as I had washed them. CLR works too, just not as good. Of course I could have used liquid drane cleaner, but it requires more care when using caustic solutions.

Wish I would've seen this before wasting 20 buck on a jug of CLR, I always assumed it cleaned better but at best it doesn't seem to be any better than 3 bucks worth of vinegar

I remember something called naval (navy) jelly; I haven't seen in 40 years, being used for rust removal.

I'd like to see how the vinegar performs against the CLR using a ultrasonic cleaner.

Great preparation and equipment

Excellent video! Thank you.

I have a vintage probably WWII era baking pan, about 15" x 24" long, heavy steel that says Lockwood 1944 on it, that is totally rusted. I found it in an Antique store. I would love to clean it back to metal and polish it just for the history of it.

For instant rust removal you can use CRC Brakleen Non-Flammable Chlorinated Brake Parts Cleaner. If I can I avoid chemicals like CLR. These chemicals end up in our water supply and that can be bad for our health.

I just watched a video on Evapo-rust you might try that again the vinegar, but thank you for your video. I'm going to try the vinegar first ☺️🥇

Interesting attempt at comparing performance of the two solutions. Appreciate the effort. Perhaps to suggest some improvements to your side-by-side experiment: a) you had used two different tools; angle-cutter and linesman pliers; both tools should have been identical types with same exposure to obtain rusted condition; b) you should have used the same measured volume of each solution. Thanks for posting.

What will the vinegar do to aluminum? I have an engine with a steel cylinder but the block is aluminum and I want to remove the rust from the cylinder.

Hey thanks I am having to clean up my oven racks as they are all rusted. I might go for the large bottle of vinegar. Because this item is a lot wider.

Oh Heck Yeah!! Thanks so much!!

I love the comments here but another thing I was wondering is if you mix them is it safe would it work better what would be a good ratio

When CLR first came on the market years ago it had a much stronger reaction and worked likely 50% better than the CLR today. The CLR will have lasting properties the vinegar won't. However, the cost, the chemicals, and the hassle gives Vinegar the edge by quite a bit.

As a sidebar (because it will take a week or more) use a 10% mixture of blackstrap molasses and water (90% water). this is excellent and a gallon of molasses from the feed store will make 50 gallons of rust converter. you can de-rust huge projects. Works very well.

I use Wally World (Walmart) house hold cleaning vinegar $1,78 half gallon works great

I am for sure going to use the white vinegar 👍🏼thanks!

Vinegar and blue Dawn is great for your shower 🚿.

I allow my tools to soak no less than 24 hours for stuck tools. Sometimes for 2-3 days. I rinse them off and they are a greasy like black. Then I use dawn dish soap and hot water and give them a good wash to get them good as new! More soaking less elbow grease.

White vinegar is definitely the way to go, I clean tools that way too. Why search for a fix to a problem that doesn’t exist...like you say it’s cheap, effective, and available.

Yea it did the job it worked on my big treble hook thanks a million

Vinegar is very effective but I bought some clr on the clearance isle and tried it out and it did work very good for me too

I thought I was doing something wrong! I’ve tried Lime Away, CLR and other supposed chemicals for rust, lime etc. and they have never ever worked! I would have never thought to use vinegar on rust I use it for tons of things thank you!!!!

Using the cleaning grade white distilled vinegar would have really impressed you if regular white distilled vinegar did. It's much more acidic and will float rust off in minutes

I use C.l r. On shower heads 1x. A year. And bottom of cooking pots&pans. Use a scrubber or steel wool/copper. I'm going try using the vinegar instead. Because its cheaper. But being careful in how to dispose of the containment after used.

I can hear your wife from here... Now get to staining that deck and stop playing consumer tester, LoL 😂

I actually use used empty plastic gallon White Vinegar jugs. I just cut off the top at the natural indepth upper line. This makes for an effective container to hold rusted metal parts including firearms parts. I also add Salt to the White Vinegar this creates a power acidic mix. Do this in open air, outside and let the sunlight heat it up for a few hours. Or place in a water tight metal deep pan on a hot plate. Note buy an water tight metal pan dedicated just for removal of rust from metal tools,firearms parts etc. Never use any such container again for preparing any food items. Finally procesing. I use number four (0000) steel wool to finalize the rust removal process on the various metal objects. Then rinse and coat metal/ gunparts with hot water and baking soda let sot for a few minutes and lastly give a final rinse cleaning with hot boiling water. Then quickly dry off the tools/ gun parts with use of a hair dryer, heat gun and or dry cloths or paper towels. Lubricate the tools/ gun parts using good Oil to penetrate saturate the metal tool/ gun parts. You can also wrap the tool/ gunnparts in a shop towels soaked in oil Lubricant overnight put inside a clean plastic bag or in a safe place.

I've got a rusty old drill press (the type you clamp a portable drill in) and if wire brushed it and sprayed it with rust converter. Now it won't slide at all! Any suggestions people?

All natural is best I wonder if brown vin. Would work.. love to see that!

Heard a Yamaha Vmax screaming by!

Vinegar all day. Its cheap and works

Great video. 🎉

Not doubting your results how does vinegar do on calcium and lime scale from hard water I know clr descales my shower head and makes it work properly after a short few hour soaking then filter through fine mesh strainer back to bottle for next time

Yeah but I run CLR though my Bosch Powerstar on-demand electric waterheater to clean out mineral deposits once a year. I have valves that let me isolate and purge the heater when I am done.

Thank you so much!!!! 💯💯💯💪😎👍💯💯💯