Ring of hard scale on toilet - have septic system. How to clean?

May 21, 2005 9 Replies

Hi there I moved into a new house with a septic system, and one of the toilets has a rock crust of scale around the bowl. What can I clean it with that will be safe with a septic system?



I tried vinegar for a night with no effect (not that I noticed anyway).



Thanks



Dean



Scrape it off.

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Vinegar, bleach, rust removers, etc will all fail. You need something containing oxalic acid. Stainless Steel Cleaner and Bartender's Friend are two products you can try. Dry the bowl first by turning off the water supply and flushing a bucket of water through the bowl to empty it.

Dean,

In the cleaning supplies section of your local hardware store they sell blocks of pumice stone. This should remove these deposits.

Dave M.

In the future always clean your toilets with an acidic based toilet cleaner, at last check none of the powders were acidic but many of the liquid cleaners were, you have to read the ingredients.

The answer is that vinegar isn't strong enough and CLR won't hurt the septic system (unless you use several jugs of it).

The real answer is buy one of those little pumice blocks made for the purpose and scrub a dub. I tried everything on our toilets, nothing worked well, then tried the pumice and it was the answer. No scratches, looks like new.

I used a pumice stone. They make them for cleaning toilets but I used one for callus removal (it was handy). Didnt seem to scratch the surface which was my concern. but test on a small spot to be safe.

================================================================ My wife came across this product called "The Works" toilet bowl cleaner in the local dollar store. We have well water and a septic system. Our bowls always had lime & calcium deposits on the bottom, and no amount of scrubbing would remove them. We tried everything--I had to replace 2 bowls because they got so bad. Nothing worked until she found this stuff. Now, no more stains or deposits.

*** RON ***

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