Cleaning Metal Pots

Bar Keepers Friend

For a long time, Sean and I have used Bar Keepers Friend to polish up our copper bottom pots. It's a cleaner and polisher that can be used on stainless steel, chrome, porcelain, ceramic cooktops, brass, tile and copper. It removes rust too. It works very, very well.

I was using it the other day, and I thought about the fact that I didn't know anything about this product; what it contains or whether it has toxic chemicals in it or not (there is no ingredient information on the label).

I searched around the internet and found out that the active ingredient is oxalic acid. Here's what I've gathered about it: it's a toxic chemical, harmful if inhaled, can be absorbed through the skin, can irritate the skin, eyes and lungs, and can cause kidney damage.

Here's a report on oxalic acid, and here's an article on eHow Health - Oxalic Acid Dangers.

I don't know how much oxalic acid is in Bar Keepers Friend, or if it makes this product unsafe or not, but I have decided to stop using it on my cookware.

**In searching, I couldn't find anything that says Bar Keepers Friend is dangerous to use. But since I am going 100% toxic free in my cleaning, it's my personal decision not to use it since it contains an unknown amount of a toxic chemical.

***

An Alternative

I still want to get my pots clean (often soap and water isn't enough to bring back the shine)...so what do I use now?

Well, a while ago, I came across an awesome blogger, Jillee, who posts all sorts of useful household tips, recipes, etc. While I was looking for some of her homemade cleaners, I came across this post: Kitchen "Miracle" Cleaner.

Basically, mix up a paste of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. I tried it on my everyday silverware and it made them shiny as new. I also cleaned my kitchen faucet with it and again - shiny as could be.

So I thought about trying it out on the copper bottom pots. And it worked wonderfully! Equally as good as the Bar Keeper's Friend.

In the above photo, I cleaned the whole pot the best I could with soap and water - even using a scrub brush. The right side was as clean as I could get it. Then I used the baking soda - peroxide paste on only the left side. Very shiny!

Read more about Hydrogen Peroxide and its uses: Use Hydrogen Peroxide to Heal and Stay Healthy.