Remove brown toilet stains/deposits

[micky]

I should have said that I fell way behind in the first 6 months, and the first time, I had to clean it about 6 times in a row to get it all clean. After that it was much easier.

[Ashton Crusher]

I've used swimming pool acid to clean out badly stained toilets. Creates a lot of fumes. Don't stay in the room after you put it in. Then get in and out fast when you swish it around and flush. Run the exhaust fan.

[dadiOH]

The porcelain is glass. The only acid that will attack glass is hydrofluoric and it is highly unlikely that you will ever encounter it.

[notbob]

I once hadda work above a large open vessel of it. Hi-tech chip mfg, and all that. To say I was extremely careful for that 1 hr is putting it mildly.

Anyway, thanks for the info.

nb

[HerHusband]

If you are on a septic system, I would try other alternatives before dumping acids or other caustic chemicals down your toilet. You wouldn't want to cause problems with your septic system just to remove a stain.

Dark stains are usually a build up of rust or minerals. I have removed heavy stains like that using a mild abrasive like Comet or Ajax and one of those green nylon scrubbing pads. Yes, you have to stick your hands in the toilet and do some scrubbing, but it has always worked for me. There's enough abrasive to remove the stain, but not enough to damage the finish on the toilet. It helps to turn off the water to the toilet and flush as much water as you can from the bowl. Scoop out as much of the remaining water as you can before scrubbing.

I have also had good results with a product called CLR (Calcium/Lime/Rust). It's fairly harmless, but it can damage some surfaces like laminate counter tops. I once left a permanent ring on our old countertop when a little was on the bottom of the dish I was using to hold it while cleaning.

Anthony Watson Mountain Software

[Danny D.]

Is that really true?

Do others concur?

If so, that good news opens a whole realm of chemicals we can use to clean the brown stains off the toilet.

[Dan Espen]

Porcelain is mostly glass, but more important, the glaze applied to porcelain is also mostly glass:

Ceramic glaze raw materials generally include silica, which will be the main glass former. Various metal oxides, such as sodium, potassium and calcium, act as a flux to lower the melting temperature. Alumina, often derived from clay, stiffens the molten glaze to prevent it from running off the piece. Colorants, such as iron oxide, copper carbonate or cobalt carbonate, and sometimes opacifiers such as tin oxide or zirconium oxide, are used to modify the visual appearance of the fired glaze.

My experience with brown stains, is that regular toilet cleaners and some scrubbing do the job. It took more than one session, but no heroic actions were required.

Oh, also, yes, etching glass is done with hydrofluoric acid.

[Danny D.]

Well, if nothing is going to harm the porcelain, then I can now experiment more easily with acids of phosphate and hydrochloric.

For example, I have muriatic acid (for the pool), so, I will try that to remove my brown stains on the toilet and report back.

I'll probably post results separately as this thread was opened by someone else so I don't wish to hijack it for my experiments.

[NotMe]

Be VERY careful with muriatic acid in enclosed spaces.

[Danny D.]

See followup here:

Summary montage here:

[bromwellk5]

Brown Stains Bottom of Toilet Had brownish stains in the bottom of two of our toilets, thought it was the porcelain eaten away due to color and texture and what appeared to be the raw ceramic/clay showing though. After reading everything in this blog, si mply turned off water to toilet, flushed, soaked up remaining water with ra gs and filled with CLR (since found out ZEP has same product for about 20% less). Let it sit, took small flat screw driver and gently scraped under e dge of the brown stuff, it popped right off in flakes. Continued to do sam e with larger, easily accessed areas then followed up with small, hard bris tle, non-abrasive brush. Turned water back on and flushed- eureka, just li ke new. Based on what I've read and not having hard, iron saturated water, my guess is that a combination of what little iron there is in the water, combined with my children not flushing their urine consistently, a calcium/lime/rust build up occurred. Unfortunately I didn't take before and after photos to post, but fortunately it worked. Thanks for all postings, FRO

[Stormin Mormon]

Nice to hear success, now and again. Thank you for sharing.

[temietrius]

I tried the denture cleaner technique and it worked!

[kalialnory]

But it can hurt the pipe, read directions didn't it say not to use on toilets? I had clog in sink PVC pipe and used the acid but said not to use in toilet!??? The pipe is old metal so????

[Channy Ducharme]

replying to notbob, Channy Ducharme wrote: just go buy a bottle of Coca Cola and pour that in the toilet. let it sit for a few hours and just use the toilet brush and ta da.......... clean.

[Mesut S?ahin]

Thanks for information.

[micky]

Be sure to read the directions, or find directions if there are none.

It's add acid to water, or maybe it's add water to acid. One is safe, the other dangerous.

[gfretwell]

That mostly refers to sulphuric acid because there is an exothermic reaction. I would also be very careful with acid in porcelain. If you eat off that shiny finish you will never get it clean. I ended up having to replace a toilet from that. I hated it anyway so I wasn't too upset. That was my #1 toilet because and decent #2 would plug it up.

[invalid unparseable]

Old saying is, "Do like you oughta, add acid to water."

As for toilet stains, I like Iron Out which contains oxalic acid.

[gfretwell]

Guess you never put water in a battery ;-)