Now, growing up I heard baking soda was great for all sorts of things other than certain cookie recipes.
De-greasing scrub
Fire extinguisher
Toothpaste
Dish scrub
Now, I’ve used baking soda the above, but I’m now running into people who say no no no - that’s all bunk! In order:
No, this is a terrible de-greasing scrub, use real cleanser. Well, OK, it’s not as good as, say, Comet but in a pinch it seems to work. Am I deluded or not?
Fire extinguisher. Now, the one time I used a baking-soda-based fire extinguisher it was a commercially made one. It certainly did work (thank Og - otherwise the roof fire might have not been put out in time) but as I said, that was made by someone who actually knew what the hell they were doing in regards to fire extinguishers. Personally, I’ve always had my doubts about using it as an improvised fire extinguisher for, say, a blazing frying pan. Has anyone investigated how useful it is for that purpose? (This would, of course, assume you have a box of it handy nearby)
It will clean your teeth. I know this from experience. However, I’ve been told never never never ever do this it will take ALL the enamel off your teeth and they will all fall out by last Tuesday. I do, in fact, find that a bit puzzling both because my dentist once told me the toothpaste they use during routine cleanings has baking soda (as well as ground pumice, which you don’t want to use everyday), and a lot of commercial toothpastes say they have it. Yes, excessive use of baking soda will irritate your gums and is bad if you have problems with sodium intake. However, I think that occasional use probably isn’t harmful, especially if you don’t apply great force while brushing. But am I right on that?
This gets back to degreasing, but also dealing with hard water. I think it helps cut grease on pans and dishes, as well as softening my water, or at least making the soap actually lather and sud. I’ve been told by some no no no I’m just imagining this. My imagination ir pretty good, but it usually doesn’t trump reality. I say I’m right, but it would be nice to have it confirmed.
I think there is reasonable evidence that baking soda is useful in all of the applications you mention. The one very questionable application for baking soda is odor suppression by leaving an open box in the fridge. First of all, in prefer for an odor to be suppressed it must come in contact with the baking soda and unless your circulating air through the box it’s just not happening. Second, the surface of the baking soda will quickly become saturated and useless. Unless the baking soda is constantly being turned, what you have is a passive surface. Third, baking soda is only good for acidic odors and many of the odors are not acidic.
I have personal knowledge of baking soda’s efficacy as a fire extinguisher. A month ago, an electrical outlet in my living room burst into flame, setting the couch on fire. i was able to put it out by throwing handfuls of baking soda on it.
In a lighter vein, I also use baking soda in lieu of shampoo. Works great.
You can also use a little baking soda in a glass of water to remedy indigestion or heartburn, so add that to your miracle powder list–although I’ve heard people say that this is a dangerous thing to do.
On the 4lb box I have, it recommends adding a cup to your laundry for softer, fresher smelling clothes. If I have some clothes that smell a little funky and the regular detergent alone isn’t quite taking care of it, I will add one oxyclean container scoop full of baking soda and that will generally take care of it and leave things feeling a bit softer.
The air inside the fridge gets churned each time the door is opened or closed (and small eddies will keep turning gently for a while after you’re left it). As for surface saturation, all you need to do is pour a little out of the box straight into your kitchen trash every few days. This reveals new surface in the box for the fridge and deodorizes the trash some too.
I don’t brush with baking soda, but some of the best teeth I’ve ever seen in an old person’s mouth were brushed with baking soda every day for decades.
I understand the routine. Finding definitive evidence one way or the other is difficult. One thing I have noticed is that people that do this tend to keep their fridge pretty spotless. Suffice it to say, I’m highly skeptical.
Baking soda is a fine abrasive, so it can be used in cleaning and scrubbing. However, it doesn’t contain any detergents or soaps, so it doesn’t really fight against dirt or grease except via elbow grease. Thus, it’s not really a good degreaser.
Most toothpastes contain chalk as a cleaning abrasive, and baking soda does work although it might be a bit too abrasive for some people. Again, baking soda contains no detergents and no fluoride which hamper its ability to protect teeth.
Baking soda doesn’t burn and can be used to smother fires. I’ve seen it used to put out grease fires in pans although putting the lid on would probably work just as well. Combining it with vinegar produced carbon dioxide which can display oxygen that a fire needs for combustion. Older fire extinguishers used a similar combination. You turned them upside down to mix the two chemicals.
Whatever you do, don’t mix up baking power with corn starch when applying it to a fire like a roommate of mine once did. He was trying to smother a toaster oven fire and grabbed a big yellow box of what he thought was baking soda. When the fire wasn’t going out, he blew on the big white pile of fine powder to help cover the fire and whoosh! He had no eyebrows for two weeks. Believe it or not, Alcohol was not involved.
At work we have a three door reach in freezer jam packed with seafood. About every 10-12 months the case starts to smell seafoody and we replace all the baking sodas. We use 10 of the ones designed for freezers with the sides the peel off. I use them partially because of the extra surface area but moreso because it’s really hard to clean them up when they get knocked over and spill all over the place way in the back of the case.
Sodium hydrogen carbonate (baking soda) decomposes on exposure to heat, giving off carbon dioxide- an acid like vinegar’s not necessary. It will put out a small grease fire.
I’ve seen posters on these forums complain about not being able to find washing soda. Just boil an equal amount of baking soda in water for a few minutes, and it turns into washing soda.
Baking soda puts out a fire the same way throwing sand on it does. The sole advantage to using it to put out fires in the kitchen is that it makes cleanup easier than using sand would. A pan that had a grease fire in it which you smothered with baking soda can simply be washed in the sink. The soda will simply dissolve and go down the drain. No harmful chemicals. Nothing to clog the sink.
All protons accounted for, I reckon.
I did forget to mention the water molecule.
This happens in dry heat also. The same decomposition reaction can be achieved by baking the baking soda.
I think this used to be a very common treatment before the likes of TUMS, Rolaids, and Alka Seltzer. The soda neutralizes acids but does so in a violent reaction–drop some into some vinegar sometime to see it. There was a case that I read about in Science Magazine or maybe Science News (a news weekly or biweekly IIRC) around 1983 where a man had indigestion after eating a large meal at a Mexican restaurant, took some bicarb, and there was a rapid expansion of gas. For some reason the top end of the stomach was closed up and the pressure could not be released in the conventional way. It tore a hole in the side of his stomach. He was successfully treated and survived.
(Those publications have online archives but they don’t go back far enough for me to come up with an exact cite.)
I thought baking soda degreases by undergoing some kind of reaction with the grease, not by containing soap. It actually degreases very well. If you add it to a pan with baked-on grease, it dissolves it and releases it from the pan. Even the hard, yellow baked-on thin layer of grease.