Eli5: How come some homemade cleaning solutions call for a mixture of an acid (vinegar or lime juice) and a base (baking soda)? Doesn’t that turn into water and salt?

Question

Are they just fooling solutions?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

On the back of an ammonia bottle I found a recipe for what I call Yellow Magic. 1 part baking soda, 2 parts vinegar, 4 parts ammonia, top off with water. While I do understand the chemistry involved here, I would swear it works better than just ammonia and water. This is my all-purpose degreaser and it costs pennies per bottle to make, so I don’t sweat it. But I do wonder why I’m doing it.