Stained Toilet

[RPA]

Hello,

We just moved into a house which was unoccupied for several months.

There is a discoloration in the toilets above the water line. I have tried CLR, Bleach, regular toilet cleaner and nothing seems to work.

Does anyone have a suggestion of what will work to remove the stains.

Thanks for any suggestions,

Robert

[Rufus V. Smith]

What color is it?

[Bill T (remove clothes to ema]

I found a "Pumice" stone, found at the local hardware store will scrub the stain away. The stone is softer than the porcelin, but is harder than the stain. Works great. hth bill t

[RPA]

Thanks, I'll try that.........

[Joe Bobst]

Check the yellow pages for janitorial supply stores. They have the more serious products for dealing with stubborn stains. They may have recommedations for you based on their knowledge of the local water supplies. CLR is a good product but comes in such low concentration of the sulamic acid main ingredient that it is ineffective in the larger volume of the toilet bowl. Some of the pro products may have this compound in less diluted form. HTH

Joe

[RPA]

Very good idea, thanks

[Marshall]

The best cleaning product I've ever found, bar none, is a brand called 'The Works.' They have several items including toilet bowl cleaner. Pour half the bottle in around the rim of the bowl. Let sit 5-15 minutes. Then use a brush. It is super at removing ALL TYPES of mineral build-ups. It is available everywhere- markets, walmart, Target....

[Art Begun]

Turn off the water and flush so there is minimal water in the bowl. Try and hydrochloric acid based toilet cleaner overnight. If that doesn't work, go in the other direction and try Limaway or CLR overnight. Don't mix any of them together or you will get a dangerous chemical reaction. Rinse the bowl well inbetween.

stains.

[tnom]

If it is s rust stain try "Iron Out" or "Whink". Read the directions first.

[Otto]

Sounds like an iron stain. If it is, you can scrub with bleach until the cows come home and it won't budge. That's because bleach is an oxidizer and iron is already oxidixed.

Here is a simple trick that you can tell your friends: If it's iron, use vitamin C. Seriously. Vitamin C is ascorbic acid which will change the iron from a ferric to a ferrous state. I was ready to buy a new toilet bowl before I heard about this. I crushed up some vitamin c tabs and put them on a sponge. The stains wiped away like magic!

I just used the cheapest generic rite-aid vitamin C tablets. Might as well give it a shot.

Good luck.

[clevere]

When I was a janitor, we used pumice stones for that .. it works wonders.

[Chervah]

I had good luck with a product called barkeepers friend (or bartender's freind). It is a powdered form of oxalic acid sold in a can with a shaker lid- similar to comet or ajax. I dipped water out of the bowl to lower the water line and then applied to the "ring" of stain and left a paste on the stained area for 10 minutes. It melted the stain right off. Use gloves.

[Bob Bowles]

[RPA]

Thanks, you and everyone have some great suggestions. I'm sure I'll hit paydirt with one of them !!