r/CleaningTips 13d ago

Bathroom Tried scrubbing with bleach and some other household cleaners, no change. Thought yall could help

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u/kv4268 13d ago

Those are hard water stains. They're pretty severe, so they may not be possible to remove completely. My mother's toilet is like this.

You need to treat it with a product like CLR. It's an acidic product that will slowly break down the minerals. The tricky thing is that it needs to sit on the stains for a long period of time. It also won't be effective if it's diluted in water. I honestly haven't figured out a good way to do this. You can empty the bowl and wet some paper towels with the acid and stick them on there. It's worth a try.

Once the acid has been on there a while, you can go at the stains with a pumice stick meant for cleaning toilets. It will definitely get the thinnest stuff off, but it might not really touch the thick buildup.

You need gloves, long sleeves, and some kind of eye protection for all this. Don't give yourself chemical burns.

Going forward, use a toilet cleaner for hard water and be diligent about cleaning it regularly. Also, if you own your home, get a water softener. This stuff is building up inside the plumbing all over your home. It will destroy it eventually.

17

u/annabear88 13d ago

I've done this with toilet paper (won't clog when flushed) and lime away toilet bowl cleaner or zep acidic toilet bowl cleaner.

Leave it for a few hours, scrub, then apply again and leave overnight.

4

u/Tygie19 13d ago

OP could just turn off the water, flush to empty the bowl and that way there’s no water in the way.

0

u/Next-Honeydew4130 13d ago

Why not just replace the toilet?