Why You Should Never Dilute Bleach With Hot Water
Bleach is a great disinfectant, but safety is important. You already know that you cannot mix it with ammonia, vinegar or alcohol , but did you know that water temperature also matters?
CDC and others recommend mixing 1/3 cup bleach per gallon of room temperature water. Using hot water is not dangerous, like some of the other things people do with bleach (please don’t put it on your skin ), but it has certain disadvantages.
To learn more about disinfection, watch the video below:
First, a hot steam bleach solution is more likely to allow some of the bleach to fly through the air. The fumes of the bleach can irritate the eyes and nose, so you should still use the bleach in a well-ventilated area. Using room temperature water will minimize this effect.
Another problem is that hot water breaks down the chemicals in the bleach faster . Even a properly prepared bleach solution will be less effective if left overnight, so you should mix in fresh bleach every day. If you need a bucket of diluted bleach for your evening cleaning, warm water will retain its effectiveness better than hot water.
However, there is one situation where hot water is okay and that is laundry. Clorox claims that washing clothes in hot water with bleach is okay, and heat even helps the bleach work faster. Concerns about fumes and reduced efficiency do not arise when the bleach is left inside the washing machine for the short time it takes to wash the socks.