I understand, as I was taught that as well. Just know that the only reason it has worked for you so far is that you haven't yet had a bad enough burn to notice that the vinegar is actually increasing the heat of the reaction. Please do use only water from now on, as it will be impossible for you to know if the next time will be the one that would leave you with a severe chemical burn from applying vinegar to the lye splash. Make sense?
OTH, I still do use vinegar to spray and wipe down my soap-making surfaces when I'm all done, since I'm not worried about the exothermic reaction on my old counters.
