There are countless ways mold can form on rubber. It can be in your washing machine gasket, water bottle, silicone rubber lining your bathroom, car trim, and others. And most sites top recommended solution is vinegar. But this has been scientifically proven not to work. We’ll dive into how to really remove mold from rubber.
Why Vinegar Never Works
If you read guides written about this online, they will probably all suggest vinegar. These people do not know what they are talking about.
Vinegar is mildly acidic. It’s also a household product that just about everyone has. If its all you have on hand, fine. It works well as a general all purpose cleaner. But it is generally relatively ineffective vs mold and especially on rubber.
At the Occupational and Environmental Hygiene Laboratory in Australia in 2015, researchers conducted tests on a variety of different cleaning substances against mold. They tested tea tree oil, vinegar, several types of household cleaners, and other substances.
Of every item tested, vinegar was the second least effective substance. While some will tout it as a mold cleaner, it rarely removes anything but surface mold, which is coming off from being brushed or rubbed with a towel more than it is vinegar. You could actually replace it with water and get similar results.
There is also advice to use a vinegar baking soda mix to attack mold on surfaces. While both are mildly effective, you shouldn’t to combine them together. If you’ve ever done this you’ll notice a lot of fizz. This is due to the chemical reaction that goes on. Sodium bicarbonate(baking soda) and acetic acid(vinegar) combine to make CO2, H20 and sodium and acetate ions. Your vinegar and baking soda turn into gas and water and renders both substances less effective.
So if vinegar cannot effectively kill the mold growth, what will?
Step by Step Guide to Remove Mold From Rubber
Materials
To remove mold from rubber you’re going to need these materials. Keep in mind some can obviously be interchanged. Just use some discretion.
- General disinfectant/cleaning spray
- Toothbrush or plastic scrubbing brush, depending on the size of the area you’re working with
- Bleach
- Baking Soda(Optional)
- Rubber gloves
Steps
Alright, so this is more of a generic outline. We’ll get into details depending on what rubber you’re trying to clean down below, with some helpful added info if this isn’t getting it done.
- First put your rubber gloves on, and any other protective equipment that you may have purchased. Make sure you avoid the bleach making contact with your clothes and with your skin. If any does get on your wrist or other areas of the body, make sure to wash off. Do not touch your eyes ears nose or mouth while handling bleach.
- Spray the rubber down with your disinfectant spray and use the plastic scrubbing brush to scrub the mold from rubber. This should clean mold on the surface of the affected area but will not kill the mold that has eaten into the surface of the rubber.
- From here, if you are using baking soda, mix the baking soda and bleach into a bucket or cup until it makes a thin paste.
- Apply the bleach or bleach paste onto the rubber. Spread with the toothbrush, spoon, or rub on with your gloved hands. We use the paste to keep the bleach in place, otherwise it will run off the rubber or evaporate. The paste should have helps hold it in place so it makes contact on the mold for longer and doesn’t evaporate.
- Leave the bleach for 10-30 minutes. Make sure there isn’t any bleach on nearby metal. In this high concentration it would not be good for it.
- From here take your tooth brush or the scrubbing brush and water to wash and scrub the mold and the bleach solution from the rubber.
- You will likely need to repeat several times.
- Once you rinse all the bleach it should be good to go. Wipe down with a clean cloth to finish. If it still isn’t gone, see if your rubber item is listed below. We have some extra tips
Rubber Items: Washing Machine Gasket
How Mold Forms
This is a really common location for mold. And it’s gross. The rubber seal in the gasket usually folds over on itself. The water has nowhere to go after using the washing machine. It collects in the fold of the rubber seal and over time you get mold growth.
It’s a huge problem because mold actually has quite a musty scent and the last place you want that transferred over to is your clothing.
To Remove Mold From Rubber
We’re still going to use bleach here. The process shouldn’t be that different on washing machines from what we’ve outlined above. Make sure you really get down in the folds of the rubber.
If it doesn’t work order some pool shock on amazon. These are little rough granular pellets. It’s actually chlorine used to treat pools. Once you’ve spread your bleach along the rubber in the gasket, sprinkle the pellets over the areas with mold. It shouldn’t take much These should stick in place thanks to the bleach acting as adhesive.
This will start reacting with the mold in your washing machine. Don’t leave it for long. It’s pretty strong for the rubber. Probably 10 minutes will do the trick.
Rub this off with the scrubbing brush. The little pellets should also provide added friction and really dig into the mold in the surface. Hopefully this finally gets the mold growth out of your washer gasket.
BEFORE RUNNING A LOAD!
Make sure you run the washer with just water or add detergent a couple times to get all of the bleach out. It would be a tragedy to finally free your washing machine just to ruin your favorite clothes.
Prevent Mold Growth in the Washer in the Future
Have a regular wash that you do every few months to prevent mold from ever appearing in the first place. Run the laundry machine on the setting ‘Regular/Cotton Hot’ and add 1 cup of bleach in the bleach compartment. Repeat this about every 3 months.
Rubber Items: Silicone Rubber Lining in Showers and Bathrooms
How Mold Forms
Mold loves moisture. And what better place than your shower. There is steam and water getting all over the walls and floors almost every day. Even in the most well ventilated bathroom, there is consistent use the moisture won’t go away.
Combine this with various organic carbon particles that come off from your body and mold has everything it needs to not only survive but thrive.
A lot of silicone rubber has additives that are supposed to prevent mold from digging into the rubber and penetrating it. And it just doesn’t work. The mold sits on top and digs in anyway. But this is actually really easy to remove.
To Remove Mold From Silicone Rubber
Spray with the disinfectant and wipe it down just like before.
This time, take a roll of toilet paper and roll it up. Like in a spiral twist. Like a twizzler. There should be no problems with length if you do this right. I should be as long as it needs to be. See below.
Line the silicone rubber with this. This should be where the shower wall meets the floor or container. So lay this toilet paper twizzler strip across.
From here, drizzle bleach down the wall. This is going to hit the silicone rubber and soak into the toilet paper rollup. Now press the toilet paper against the silicone seal to make sure the toilet paper roll is flush with the shower.
What you’ve done now is create constant contact between the bleach and the mold. Without the toilet paper, the bleach evaporates. Now it’s being held in place against the moldy rubber. It can’t evaporate!
Leave it for a day, or do this before you go away for the weekend. This should kill the mold.
Obviously beforehand make sure the bleach won’t damage the shower container or the shower tray. Ceramic is most common and should be okay.
Prevent Mold Growth in the Bathroom in the Future
Spraying silicon rubber with anti mold solutions periodically should do the trick. Or just apply the technique I’ve outlined above regularly. Additionally giving your bathroom time to dry should cut down on constant moisture.
Wrap Up
If I didn’t cover the exact situation your dealing with, you should have enough to at least to a little of improvising and figure out something that works.
If bleach isn’t doing the job or you don’t have any, I recommend trying hydrogen peroxide or ammonia. Just make sure you aren’t mixing any other these chemicals as they don’t play nicely with one another and produce toxic fumes.