This evening my dad and I had the unfortunate privilege of learning a valuable lesson. After work today, my dad decided that it was time to clean his coffee pot. I told him that I mix 1 part vinegar with 1 part water, run the mixture through the machine twice, I think I got that from Martha Stewart. Then run plain water through the machine to get the vinegar flavor out. Nobody wants vinegar flavored coffee, blah!
Well, after 2 runs there was still some black stuff inside the water reservoir. So he decided to put some bleach inside with some water. Well, he didn’t take the vinegar out, he just put the bleach in too. BAAAAAAAAD, bad, bad idea! We had toxic fumes goin’ on up in here!
It felt like my lungs were on fire. I had a burning in my chest, I thought we were gonna die! Ok, maybe not die but your lungs should never feel like that!
The Killing Power of Bleach and Vinegar
http://chemistry.about.com/b/2007/09/26/the-killing-power-of-bleach-and-vinegar.htm
So apparently vinegar INCREASES the killing power of bleach! I really should have known about this, I was a Science Teach (yikes!) ….not to mention my Husband is a Chemical Engineer and he didn’t know this little fact either. Of course after we looked it up we were like duh!
We evacuated the dogs out of the house, opened the windows, and turned on the fans. I think it wouldn’t have been so bad it the coffee machine didn’t heat up the water, that really increased the amount a fumes.
If you or someone you know does something this stupid like we did, here is the CDC’s website and some facts about Chlorine gas.
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/chlorine/basics/facts.asp
I’m putting this in the list of things to NEVER do again.
Related articles
- Chemical Interactions (marleeroth.wordpress.com)
- The make up of Bleach and Vinegar (marleeroth.wordpress.com)
- http://www.marthastewart.com/269335/kitchen-tip-cleaning-a-coffeemaker
Lovin it! 