Walmart Borax Aisle (2024)

FAQs

What section of the grocery store is borax in? ›

The laundry aisle at grocery stores and big-box stores, such as Wal-Mart.

Borax is available in the laundry section of your local grocery store. Take a cup of water and add to it 1 Tbs. of borax (approx 4% solution). Stir until completely dissolved.

You should also keep borax powder away from children and pets. Please Note: This product has been reclassified by the ECHA as Reprotoxic Category 2 and as such is not available to the general public.

But you can do the same by using baking soda as a substitute for borax. Baking soda can brighten and soften clothing and lower the pH of hard water just as borax does, but it's risk-free and non-toxic.

Also called sodium borate, borax is a naturally-occurring mineral salt most often mined from Turkey and California. 1 The borax you'll find in the cleaning supplies aisle at the grocery store is partially dehydrated and looks like a white powder.

Borax can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea if you ingest it by itself, and large amounts can lead to shock and kidney failure. It's banned in U.S. food products. It also can irritate your skin and eyes, and it can hurt your nose, throat, and lungs if you breathe it in.

Borax (sodium tetraborate) and baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) aren't the same thing. They're both salts, and they're both popular as “green” household cleaning agents, but borax has a pH of 9.5, compared to baking soda's pH of 8. This makes borax considerably more alkaline than baking soda.

Mixing baking soda and sugar is the best combination that you can use to eliminate pesky ants. The sugar will lure ants, and the baking soda will kill them eventually, and it works the same as borax. If you want a safer bait for ants, baking soda is the one as it is non-toxic.

"Using borax in the laundry can whiten and brighten clothes, get rid of odors, and soften hard water to reduce mineral deposits left behind on fabrics," says Kristin DiNicolantonio of the American Cleaning Institute. Add 1/2 cup of borax to your laundry to brighten white or colored clothes.

Mixing borax with popular cleaning products — like vinegar and bleach — to create those popular DIY cleaning recipes is not recommended.

What is the same thing as borax? ›

Both borax and boric acid are known as borates, which are compounds that come from the element boron. In all actuality, there wouldn't be any boric acid without borox. Borax and boric acid are both naturally occurring compounds that are found in arid regions like the salt plains in Utah or Nevada.

When borax and vinegar are mixed, a chemical reaction occurs resulting in the formation of a salt, water, and carbon dioxide gas. The carbon dioxide gas is what causes the bubbling or fizzing sensation that is often observed when these two substances are combined.

Borax (also referred to as sodium borate, tincal (/ˈtɪŋkəl/) and tincar (/ˈtɪŋkər/)) is a salt (ionic compound), a hydrated or anhydrous borate of sodium, with the chemical formula Na ₂H ₂₀B ₄O ₁₇ (also written as Na ₂B ₄O ₇·10H₂O).

Borax is significantly more alkaline than baking soda. Borax has a pH of 9.5 vs. 8 for baking soda. That might make it more effective in certain situations, but it also makes it a harsher cleaning agent.

Adding borax to a laundry routine can help improve water quality. Improves acidic water: Borax has a high pH of about 9.24. 4 Adding 1/2 cup per load of laundry into the water changes the pH to around 8 (a neutral pH is 7). This slightly alkaline pH is ideal for cleaning.