5 Ammonia-Free Cleaning Products

Commonly used for water purification, plastic manufacturing, and even explosives, Ammonia (NH3) most commonly produced industrial chemicals in the United States. It’s highly corrosive and toxic and causes tens of thousands of poisonings annually in the United States alone, especially in children and those working in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

It became a popular ingredient in cleaning products several decades ago because it’s an effective degreaser, shiner, and it works great on windows and mirrors.

Despite the obvious dangers of ammonia, it's still marketed as safe and is used in most American households.

Thankfully, people are becoming aware of the dangers of ammonia-based cleaning products; it's one of the more dangerous and ubiquitous ingredients of concern.

At Branch Basics, we're motivated to help you find ammonia and chemical-free cleaning products that will create a safer home for you and your family. While we cannot always control the amount of ammonia in the environment, we can take proactive steps to limit our exposure at home by eliminating ammonia-containing cleaning products.

In this article, we'll walk through the lesser-known dangers of ammonia, along with our favorite ammonia substitutes, including our own human-safe cleaning formula. Let's dive in!

1. Baking Soda + Vinegar

Baking soda and vinegar are incredible ammonia replacers.

Baking soda, aka sodium bicarbonate, is a fantastic natural scouring agent, whitener, brightener, deodorizer, and bleach alternative. 

Distilled white vinegar is excellent for cleaning almost anything you usually clean with ammonia, including windows and surfaces. 

It also has natural anti-microbial and disinfecting properties, especially when used with hydrogen peroxide (but they must be sprayed separately and stored in separate bottles!!).

It is important to be aware that vinegar contains acetic acid, which is a lung irritant when sprayed. If you use vinegar as a spray, make sure that there is good ventilation, you do not inhale when spraying, and that no one with a lung condition or respiratory weakness is present. 

Learn more, including how to safely use vinegar in: 12 Uses for Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda) Around the House and 12 Ways to Use Vinegar in Your Home.

2. Castile Soap

100% pure castile soap, such as Dr. Bronner’s and others, provides an all-natural base for many DIY cleaning products.

For example, mix castile soap with baking soda and water to create an effective soft-scrubbing cleaner.

A few drops of castile soap can also be combined with water and vinegar for mirrors and windows.

A quick online search yields dozens of clever DIY cleaners with castile soap.

*Note: we would advise against any DIY cleaner that uses alcohol. Although alcohol is an effective antibacterial/antimicrobial agent (and works well on glass), it can also lead to the proliferation of superbugs. Thus, when DIYing, vinegar is a safer option.

3. Lemon Juice

The best things in life are often simple and practical. This is certainly true with lemon juice, another effective ammonia alternative (hence its use in many conventional cleaning products).

The citric acid and natural enzymes in lemon juice act as natural degreasers, stain removers, brightening agents, and bacteria-busting cleaners.

Lemon juice and zest can be added to various DIY, ammonia-free cleaning recipes using baking soda, vinegar, salt, castile soap, and water.

It can also be used straight on oil or grease stains, cutting boards, and to clean sinks and certain surfaces.

4. Olive Oil

Olive oil can serve as a gentle, DIY alternative to ammonia in certain cleaning tasks, especially for surfaces that benefit from conditioning.

Unlike ammonia, which cuts through grease and disinfects, olive oil does great at polishing wood, removing sticky residues, and buffing stainless steel.

It’s also a great choice for conditioning leather, leaving it soft and supple. While not suited for heavy-duty degreasing or disinfecting, we recommend olive oil as a safer option for more delicate cleaning jobs.

5. Branch Basics 

Branch Basics was designed to replace all household cleaning and laundry products (including those containing ammonia) with just Concentrate diluted with water.

How does that work? It’s so easy.

You just take our Concentrate and dilute it with water, per instructions on the different spray bottles and our User Guide, to make different cleaners, including:

• Bathroom: a thick, sudsy blend ideal for deep cleaning bathrooms, toilets, really dirty dishes, and other big messes.
• All-Purpose: a perfect multi-purpose cleaner for surfaces, dishes, hand-washing, as a stain-remover for clothes and carpeting, and more.
• Streak-Free: possibly our most beloved product because it only takes one drop of Concentrate to make! Seriously. One drop of Concentrate + water makes enough to last for months and months. And it works just as well (if not better) than ammonia-containing products.
• Foaming Wash: this is a luxurious hand soap and can also be used as a body wash, facial cleanser, make-up remover, baby & pet shampoo, and to wash dishes.
• Laundry: which replaces any laundry detergent for machine or hand-washing, soaking, and stain removal.

For extra cleaning and stain-fighting power, we also offer Oxygen Boost. 

An all-natural, mineral-based powder that can be used as a laundry booster (a must-have for parents), scouring agent, and bleach alternative. 

You can also create custom Branch Basics blends for other jobs, such as floors or carpet cleaning, by following the instructions in our User’s Guide. 

To learn more about ammonia-free cleaning with Branch Basics, check out our Starter Kits. 

How to Check if Your Cleaning Products Are Ammonia-Free 

Not all product labels are easy to read, nor are they always 100% transparent.

That’s where a tool like EWG’s (Environmental Working Group) Skin Deep Database is invaluable.

If you’re unsure if your favorite cleaning product is safe, simply type ingredients into the database and it will come back with an easy-to-read toxicity score. “1” being the least toxic and “10” being the most toxic.

Our advice is only to use products with all ingredients with a score of  1-2.  Once you find an ingredient with a rating of 3 or more, that product should be tossed.

ThinkDirty is another excellent app for determining safe cleaning and personal care products. Look for a 0-3 rating for safest products.

Related Read: The Most Toxic Cleaning Products To Avoid & Safe Swaps

Common Household Products Containing Ammonia

Regarding cleaning products, ammonia is a common ingredient in:

• Window cleaners
• Floor cleaners
• Tile cleaners
• Multi-purpose cleaners
• Pet stain removers
• Bathroom cleaners
• Disinfect sprays

So, many chemical-based cleaning products could contain ammonia.

What a great reason to toss those toxins and switch to ammonia-free, human-safe cleaning products.

Safety Implications of Using Ammonia in Your Home

Ammonia is also produced naturally by the human body, in urine, for example, and in nature.

However, chemically produced, concentrated ammonia is not the same as the ammonia your body creates and excretes.

In other words: it’s everywhere…but that doesn’t make it safe.

So don’t be fooled if a product company tries to sell you on the idea that synthetic ammonia is “safe” because it exists in nature. 

This popular marketing tactic, used by various industries (even those claiming to be “green” or “non-toxic”),  is a manipulation of the truth. 

To discover the disturbing truth about this chemical, one must only look up “ammonia toxicity” on the National Institutes of Health PubMed Database.

Ammonia exposure can result in the following:

 

• Inhalation: 
• Coughing, and nose and throat irritation 
• Immediate burning of the nose, throat and respiratory tract
• Irritation or damage to the mucous membranes
• Drooling
• Wheezing
• Trouble breathing
• Bronchiolar and alveolar edema and airway destruction resulting in respiratory distress or failure (death)
• Skin or eye contact: 
• Rapid skin and eye irritation
• Severe injury and burns to eyes and skin
• Blindness and irreparable eye damage
• Frostbite injury
• Ingestion
• Corrosive damage to the mouth, throat, and stomach
• Liver and kidney damage

Regular or chronic exposure to low levels of ammonia via cleaning products is very harmful to the lungs.

For example, per research published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, individuals who used ammonia daily for household cleaning for 20 years had decreased lung function, equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes daily.

Also, people living on conventional commercial farms or in agricultural communities are at a higher risk of chronic exposure, due to the amount of ammonia used in agricultural products (including sprays).

Get Started With Ammonia-Free Cleaners from Branch Basics Today!

Figuring out how to clean without ammonia can seem complicated, especially if you’ve relied on it for years.

Thankfully, you stumbled upon this article and now have everything you need to buy and/or make your own ammonia-free cleaning products.

Knowledge is empowering! 

That is why we created Branch Basics; to share the power of pure through human-safe products and educational offerings.

There’s so much we’d love to share with you about tossing the toxins and creating a healthier home.

We also have tons of info available in our Wellness Center (blog, podcast, and more).

Check out Starter Kits for everything you need to start cleaning ammonia-free today.