I've followed the recommended procedure on mine and it's worked just fine. Don't see any reason to use baking soda, except perhaps for cleaning the carafe if need be. Instructions were to pour a pint of white vinegar into the well, run it for 30 seconds and shut it off and let it sit to work on the buildup in there. Then finish the cycle. Run a carafe of clean water through afterward. Could do the procoedure twice if you wanted I suppose but I never have. And I always run 4-5 containers of clean (actually filtered) water through after the vinegar treatment. Frequency depends on the type of water you have and the useage of the maker.

You are probably fine using the baking soda/vinegar at this point. Here's the thing: Bathroom sinks get nasty glopps of soap, hair, shaving stuff, tooth paste, etc. + probably some growing stuff. Nasty, to be sure. A big part of the problem is that there often isn't enough water to wash it all the way down the drain. Remove the stopper if you can. Block the drain and fill the sink full with warm, soapy water. Open the drain and plunge it with a sink plunger while keeping the overflow blocked with a damp rag. That should remove most of the nasty stuff that's clogging the pipes. Repeat until you have a fast running drain again.

Baking soda is a much lower pH than soda ash. You would know if it got on an open cut. OUCH! The store is correct and in reality both products are real cheap compared to any other pool chemical. You could go to Costco and load up on a 50# bag of baking soda and accomplish your task. Just know that the ability to affect pH or alkalinity is less with soda ash so more is needed. Soda ash may be more but you'll use less.

I have! I often use (or used to use) baking soda as a facial exfoliant; it's very gentle and my skin loved it--it really saved my skin when I was pregnant and dealing with breakouts & roughness. Sometimes I would use it on my face instead of cleanser, and if my skin was feeling especially delicate or sensitive I wouldn't rub it, I'd just sort of pat the baking soda on and rinse it off. My skin is sensitive (especially acid-sensitive) and dry, so using something alkali helped balance it out, and it was smooth as a baby's butt. You can use it to exfoliate anywhere, actually (anywhere you'd normally exfoliate, that is; don't put it near or on sensitive parts!)--in fact, one company that makes those spinning facial brushes (can't recall which, sorry, but it's a pricy one--not Clairsonic) also makes these soft pads and an exfoliating gel to use with the brush; the exfoliating gel is basically baking soda in a Cetaphil-like goo (seriously; sodium bicarbonate is listed in the ingredients). I still sometimes use it in summer on my feet. Scalps like it, too, but it can be drying to hair. I would (still do, sometimes) add it to shampoo for a deeper clean, or use it straight when I felt/feel my blonde was getting a little brassy--it will bleach your hair over time, with regular use. It does clean your hair & scalp, and rinses clean. If you add it to conditioner it will make your hair feel & seem thicker when dry, but a little less manageable, and again, it is drying because it's so alkali. I also used it, with great success, on the horrible cradle cap/peanut butter scalp both my daughters had as babies (they were both born with full heads of longish hair, so it was hard to deal with the cradle cap). The vinegar will re-balance your hair after baking soda treatment. It's also good for your scalp and adds shine and tone to hair--try apple cider vinegar for brunette shades. (And if the baking soda doesn't work for cradle cap, go the other direction and use vinegar.) It always made my hair super, super soft. Some people use it as toner--that's generally for oilier skin, if memory serves. My skin doesn't like it much (acid sensitive) but I've known people who swore by it. Now I use a fruit-acid exfoliating gel from Pete Thomas Roth twice a week, and a spin brush & Shiseido White Lucent for everyday cleansing--I'm not in my twenties anymore, lol, so acne is no longer a concern and I don't need something that will help deal with it, like baking soda--but I still always have baking soda on hand, and have taught both of my daughters its many uses. It's worth trying to see if it works for you, especially since a box of baking soda is like a dollar and you probably already have some in your house. Oh, and as for cleaning other things, b.s. and vinegar do work for a number of items around the house: sinks, toilets, etc. I seem to recall baking soda is a good cleanser for copper-bottom pots, but please double-check that before you try it! AND, my favorite baking soda cleaning trick: if you have a pot with burned-on food--deep or shallow, doesn't matter--put the pot on the burner, dump about 1/3C baking soda into it (roughly--you just want a good heap of it in there, an inch or so high; use more if it's a really large pan, but not much more), and then add water until the water *almost* covers the baking soda, like the tip of the heap is a little mountain rising from the water. Turn on the flame (or coil, or whatever) below the pot, med-high to high, and let it come to a boil. The burned-on gunk will generally lift right off--sometimes it requires a couple of minutes and some gentle-to-moderate scraping with a wooden spoon to help it along, but it will come off and leave the pot shiny-clean! (Only once did I have to do this a second time, because not everything came up the first time. It really does work.) Hope that helps!