Citric Acid Vs. Lemon Juice: What's The Difference For Cleaning?

If grease and grime seem to be having a field day on some of your home surfaces, you might be reaching for some lemon juice or citric acid to get rid of it. There are a lot of ways you can clean your home with lemons, but can you use citric acid for them, too? Well, turns out both are acidic substances that can be used for cleaning a variety of surfaces. The key difference lies in their concentration. Lemon juice contains citric acid, but it is not as concentrated as pure citric acid, since lemon juice contains a variety of other substances as well. When it comes to cleaning, some studies have shown that citric acid can disinfect surfaces. Lemon juice, on the other hand, is generally not recommended for use as a disinfectant.

Other than disinfecting, you can use either citric acid or lemon juice to get most jobs done. Both can be used to remove limescale, or clean hard water stains off your shower wall. Since citric acid is more concentrated, you generally need less of it to tackle similar jobs. While you might need a quarter cup of lemon juice for every two cups of water to spray down your counters, it only takes a tablespoon or two of citric acid for the same amount of water. That makes it pretty convenient if you need to do a lot of cleaning, whether that's cleaning all the counters in your home or softening your stiff towels, especially if you're trying to save your lemon juice for tea!

Citric acid may be the better choice for disinfecting your counter or getting rid of tougher stains, but, there are two cases where lemon juice might win out. Lemon juice may be more convenient for last minute cleaning or sudden problems. Unless you go out of your way to buy citric acid or you regularly use it for baking, you may not have any in your home. Lemon juice, however, is a common grocery store staple for many people. It may already be in your pantry, allowing you to grab it quickly whenever you need to say goodbye to hard water stains.

The other place where lemon juice excels is its scent. Citric acid is effective at neutralizing odors, but it doesn't have a strong scent of its own. For some people, this may be a benefit. If the scent of lemons bothers you or doesn't mesh well with the other scents in your home, then using odorless citric acid might be a good fit. However, the lack of scent can be unsettling for some people. On top of that, people generally associate the citrusy smell of lemons with being clean. Although citric acid is an effective cleaner, it may not feel as clean to you without the added lemony scent. The scent of lemons can also serve as a reminder to clean, prompting you to wipe down your counters whenever the scent starts to fade. It's a minor drawback, but it could potentially make a difference.