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I have to remove some hot glue and apparently the trick is isopropyl alcohol.

Of course, I don't have isopropyl alcohol in my house but I do have lots of vodka (don't judge).

Can vodka generally be used in places where isopropyl alcohol is required as a solvent? (So this question is more than just the case of hot glue).

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    Do you live near a drug store or grocery store? Isopropyl alcohol is readily available for a very reasonable price.
    – Michael Karas ♦
    Jan 26, 2019 at 22:15
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    Like a dollar. You could try but vodka and isopropyl are profoundly different. Even one carbon-atom difference changes food (propylene glycol, ethanol) into poison (ethylene glycol, methanol)... And isopropyl is different by two carbons and a very different shape of molecule.
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Jan 26, 2019 at 22:26
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    @MichaelKaras I only need a few teaspoons of isopropyl alcohol and have a serious amount of vodka (don’t judge). Seems silly to spend even a buck for something that i will hardly use.
    – RoboKaren
    Jan 26, 2019 at 23:18
  • Can't hurt to try.
    – Jim Stewart
    Jan 26, 2019 at 23:26

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I am not sure this is a comprehensive answer to your question but this past holiday season I was doing some repair work in my daughter's house bathroom. I needed some isopropyl alcohol to clean soap scum off the bathroom wall painted surface. They did not have the isopropyl alcohol available so instead brought me some ethanol alcohol from a supply that they had distilled themselves.

This ethanol was a very high proof and it did indeed clean the painted area but it also almost immediately softened the paint to the point that it became a gooey coating on the wall. Letting it dry again the paint seemed to restore itself to a non gooey state.

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