Alcohol cleaners are gentle, so they are safe

Does it work?

Disputed

The effectiveness half is supported by the stainless steel trade association's own recommendation; the safety half rests on a mis-ranked hazard. Alcohol is the right cleaner for those jobs, and it is still a serious fire hazard.

This is a verdict on whether the technique is effective. Whether it is safe on a particular surface is a separate question, answered below.

Where not to use it

Why it works

Alcohol is a good solvent for oily soils and evaporates completely, so it genuinely is the right agent where water would leave a mark — that half of the belief is correct. What the belief omits is that the property making it evaporate cleanly is volatility, and a volatile flammable liquid produces an ignitable vapour above the surface it was just applied to.

Background

Isopropyl alcohol reads as the mild option: it is in hand sanitiser and skin products, it evaporates cleanly, and it leaves no residue, which is why it is the recommended treatment for fingerprints on stainless steel and for oily marks where water is unwelcome. The regulator's ratings invert the intuition. Its NFPA health rating is 1 — slight — and its flammability rating is 3 — serious. The sheet states plainly that isopropyl alcohol is a FLAMMABLE LIQUID and a DANGEROUS FIRE HAZARD, that poisonous gases are produced in fire, and that containers may explode in fire. In a kitchen that matters, because the surfaces most often wiped with alcohol are next to gas burners, hobs and hot appliances, and the vapour is what ignites rather than the liquid. The sheet also lists it as incompatible with oxidising agents, naming chlorine among them, which is the substance-level reason not to follow bleach with an alcohol product. And its odour threshold of 22 ppm carries the standing caution that odour must not be relied on to judge exposure.

What it does not do

• The ratings are occupational classifications for the substance, not a domestic risk assessment
• The sheet does not address the diluted alcohol content of consumer products
• It gives no ignition distance and no ventilation threshold

What to use instead

• Detergent — A surfactant-based cleaner. The general-purpose answer for greasy and particulate soil, and the correct first choice far more often than any specialist product.
• Microfibre cloth — Split synthetic fibres with a very large surface area, which lift and trap soil mechanically — often with water alone.
• Neutral cleaner — A near-neutral surfactant cleaner. The recommended answer for natural stone of every kind, and the least interesting product in the cupboard for good reasons.