Many people love the smell of Fabuloso but want the disinfecting power of bleach as well when they mop or clean surfaces. So can we mix Fabuloso and bleach?
Can You Mix Fabuloso and Bleach?
Bleach is a strong chemical and should not be mixed with any cleaning products. When bleach is mixed with Fabuloso, it forms a toxic, Chlorine gas that can be very harmful to human health.
What Happens If You Mix Fabuloso with Chlorine Bleach?
1- Chlorine Gas: Mixing Fabuloso with bleach forms a gas with a strong and irritating odor. This gas is toxic and can cause severe health problems.
One of the sicknesses that inhaling chlorine gas can cause is pulmonary edema. This is when excess fluid builds up in the lungs. Some of the symptoms are tightness in the chest, shortness of breath, coughing up foam, etc. (Source)
This disease is life-threatening and should be treated immediately. You may not experience these symptoms immediately, so if Fabuloso is accidentally mixed with bleach around you and you inhale large amounts of chlorine gas, you should seek mediccal help.
2- Irritation: Mixing Fabuloso with chlorine bleach forms a gas that can cause mouth, throat, and eye irritation. Immediately after mixing the two products and you expose yourself, you will experience symptoms like coughing, nasal burn, and a sore throat. Your lungs could even get inflamed.
If you continue to stay around the solution and inhale more of it, it can lead to respiratory distress and cause difficulty in breathing.
You may also experience watery eyes and redness in the eye. If not treated properly, it can cause permanent damage.
3- Explosion: Some Fabuloso cleaners contain hydrogen peroxide and mixing chlorine bleach with hydrogen peroxide creates oxygen gas.
When mixed in small concentrations, there may not be a violent reaction but mixing concentrated quantities of these two chemicals can cause explosions. Mixing these two and putting the solution in a closed bottle can also cause explosions.
4- Air Poisoning: When chlorine bleach is mixed with citric acid or other acids, a poisonous greenish gas (Chlorine) is formed. This gas poisons the air and when the air particles are breathed in by humans or pets, they can die.
What Happens If You Mix Fabuloso with Oxygen Bleach?
Oxygen bleach is chlorine-free and made up of mainly hydrogen peroxide and natural crystals. So it isn’t toxic like chlorine bleach which is mainly made up of sodium hypochlorite.
Fabuloso can be safely mixed with oxygen bleach because they share similar ingredients. Sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide which are active ingredients in oxygen bleach can also be found in a few versions of Fabuloso multi-purpose cleaners.
Mixing the Fabuloso with oxygen bleach may not however be necessary since it would not be a more effective or powerful solution.
The main difference between the two is, while Fabuloso is majorly used on hard non-porous surfaces, oxygen bleach can be used both on surfaces and on fabric. It can whiten fabric and remove stains.
You Can Mix These with Fabuloso to Disinfect!
1- Vinegar
Vinegar can be safely mixed with Fabuloso cleaners that do not contain hydrogen peroxide to disinfect. Although it is not a strong disinfectant, it can still kill some surface bacteria and viruses. (Source)
2- Hot Water
Mixing Fabuloso with hot water makes it better at disinfecting surfaces as it cleans. Since you won’t be adding extra chemicals or cleaners, it is safe on all surfaces
3- Rubbing Alcohol
Rubbing Alcohol is effective against many bacteria, viruses, and fungi. (Source) Mixing it with Fabuloso will help it clean better and also disinfect. But note that you can’t mix Fabuloso with hot water if you’ll be adding rubbing alcohol.
4- Isopropyl/ Ethyl Alcohol
Unlike rubbing alcohol, isopropyl and ethanol are undiluted alcohol with strong disinfecting properties. Either of them can be safely mixed with Fabuloso to aid its cleaning and disinfecting properties.
5- Hydrogen Peroxide
HP is a great disinfectant for tools and surfaces and can be safely mixed with those versions of Fabuloso that do not contain this ingredient already.
6- Citrus Juice/ Citric Acid
Citrus fruits like lemon, lime, oranges, etc have citric acid in them. They are also great at deodorizing since they smell so good. Mixing citric acid or citurs juice with Fabuloso helps disinfect and sanitize surfaces in your home. And this is natural, there won’t be toxic reactions, and mixing too much won’t cause problems.
Final Thoughts!
Fabuloso should never be mixed with Chlorine bleach as it will produce dangerous gas. There are however several ingredients that can be safely added to Fabuloso to disinfect, which we have explained.
