Why is it easier to clean things with warm water than with cold water?
In: Chemistry
It’s not necessarily easier for cleaning (unless cleaning things like fats/oils), on most surfaces it’s for sanitation. A lot of surface living infectious bacteria/fungi/viruses need a specific range of temperature to replicate and infect a host. For many human related infections, they do well with temperatures mirroring our internal temperature of 96-99 (F). When the temperature is increased further (100+) many infectious diseases will start to fail/be prevented from replicating or die. So when cleaning a surface with hot water coupled with a detergent, you’re destroying the infectious disease or causing them to be less effective at replicating therefore reducing its infectious potential.
Some surfaces with grime like fats or oils need heat to be a liquid again. So for something like a stove top, hot water helps with removing the oil splatter.
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