Can Coca-Cola Really Remove Rust From Metal?

You may have had a health teacher in high school warn you about the dangers of Coca-Cola the way that ancient soothsayer warned Julius Caesar about the Ides of March. One of their favorite tidbits was that, supposedly, Coca-Cola can be used to strip the rust off metal. And if the soft drink so beloved it redefined Santa is capable of such a thing, what it might do to your body? (Maybe you better deep fry it, just to be safe.)

Now, while Coca-Cola is by no means healthy (even when it isn't flooding your neighborhood like it did El Paso), your stomach probably isn't made of metal (unless you're RoboCop, a possibility we cannot rule out), so you don't have to worry about it melting your stomach walls or anything. But your high school health teacher was right: Coca-Cola can indeed strip away rust. In fact, it's a fairly common household hack, and it can really come in handy if you don't have any white vinegar or baking soda.

Coca-Cola contains phosphoric acid to lend a little sharpness to its flavor. This is bad news for your kidneys, which will collect the acid over time and form it into excruciatingly painful kidney stones, but it's very good news if you have some rust on your garden tools you want to clear away. Phosphoric acid is an excellent rust remover, and scrubbing some Coke on and leaving it to rest for a few minutes before scrubbing it back off will work a treat.

As if that's not enough, it can even help clean your toilet bowl, too. It's not exactly ideally suited for the purpose — it'll stain the porcelain even worse than whatever it was that stained it in the first place. But if you need to get rid of caked-on material, it will get the job done.