Removing Rusty Bolts Is So Much Easier With One Common Kitchen Ingredient

Anyone who keeps a home bar or enjoys carbonated beverages will know the value of having club soda in the pantry. Whether you're using it in a cocktail or to remove stains from your carpet, this innocuous product can turn out to be really quite useful to have around. And it can be helpful far beyond the kitchen or living room — for example, you can use club soda to remove rusty bolts.

Rust builds up on bolts when the metal is exposed to oxygen and water, causing a chemical reaction called oxidation. While rust takes a while to spread, it will eventually cause the metal in question to lose its structural integrity, which can lead to damage that's costly to repair. Bolts that have rusted in place are particularly difficult to remove, as much of that rust has built up in the grooves. To fight this, you can fill a spray bottle with club soda and give the troublesome bolts a good soaking. Then, apply some trusty WD-40 as an extra displacement and watch those bolts come loose. But how does this process actually work?

Club soda removes rust from bolts in the same way that it takes up stains from carpets or cleans your stainless steel refrigerator. Not to be confused with seltzer, which is just water that has been carbonated, club soda is carbonated water to which certain minerals have been added; this includes the likes of sodium chloride, potassium sulfate, and sodium bicarbonate. 

The carbonated water acts as a gentle agitator that encourages the rust to lift from the metal surface. This is because, as carbon dioxide dissolves in water during the carbonation process, it creates a low-pH carbonic acid. In turn, the additional minerals will also do their part in helping to dissolve the rust. The length of time you need to soak the bolts in the club soda will depend on how pervasive the problem is. Typically, if you leave the club soda to do its job for a full 24 hours, most — if not all — of the rust should have been lifted up and removed. Rinse with cold water and dry completely, lest you expose the blots to future rusting.