Best way to clean brown stains from toilet bowl ?

I use thick bleach. Works for me. We're in a hard water area if it makes any difference.

If peroxide worked, after a fashion, try a stronger oxidising agent…bleach…

People often suggest bleach, but ISTM that all that does is whiten whatever is the problem. Does it feel rough? If so, it might be scaling of some form so an acid will be the answer. Interested to hear back what you find solves it.

Exactly! I remember cleaning some dishes with bleach many years ago and they looked beautifully white until they were used again when all the old stains sort of redeveloped immediately.

First try hydrochloric acid (spirits of salts) in case it's alkali-based or iron-based. Leave overnight if possible. Flush well.

If you want to try a peroxide-based treatment, get one of those 500g tubs of oxidising bleaching powder based on sodium percarbonate (sodium carbonate perhydrate). Lidl do one (Almat Oxi-Fix). Put a heaped tablespoon of it in the bowl, and leave overnight again if possible.

Strong household bleach, neat. Just fill the bowl up with about half a litre and leave it overnight

Yup. Citric acid for scale and bleach for stains

Id does break down organic stains though.

That rather unlikely with peaty water. Sadly porcelain glaze does develop surface crazing over time.

can use usual abrasives to polish it out

One thing I wouldn't use is anything which might damage the porcelain's surface. That would make it much harder to keep clean in future. I winced at your mention of "scoured", but I imagine you used a plastic scourer, not wire wool or its ilk.

Glass is surprisingly resistant to scratching. Especially if yoiu use somnething like 'vim' etc

For those in hard water areas suffering from limescale, brick acid is probably the easiest & cheapest method.

Beware. It turns chrome black. It isnt great for iron or copper either.

It is simply too strong.

You can get e.g. Citric acid in 'appliance descalers' that is kinder to the metals. It's about £2-£5/kg depending on purchase quantity

You just have to be patient...

Tried and tested recipe:

Make a big batch of Elderflower Wine. Discover that it tastes absolutely awful so decide to distil it into schnapps.

Pour the schnapps into a bottle and the residue down the toilet.

All stains completely gone.

Nick

Yes, I should have made clear that the use of brick acid was for toilet bowls & ceramics.

The problem is you do not know what is downstream of a toilet, Iron pipe perhaps?

Also eBay, similar price, usually free delivery.>

-- SS

Alternatively...

Decide that now is the time to completely revamp your bathroom. I hear that brown is very much this year's colour! [1]

However, due to the complex bioavailability of polyphenols, it is difficult to know what the most relevant substance is after intake of elderberries and elderflowers in humans. Due to the fact that polyphenols are metabolized to simpler phenolic substances [14], it was also of interest to investigate whether these metabolites could contribute to an effect. "

Phenolics, including carbolic acid, are a family of compounds commonly referred to as simply "phenol". This chemical was one of the first antiseptics used to sterilize medical equipment, but can also be mixed with other ingredients to

clean toilets,

floors, drains, and other items. "

You might be onto something, professor :-) Nature finds a way.

For my first ghetto chemistry, I would try preparing the material out of doors, rather than doing that indoors. If nothing tips over or catches fire... maybe it is safe.

Paul

AIUI, brown stains in the loo can be of two sorts; thin poo smears that never properly flush off and just discolour the porcelain, and iron staining from the water.

If the former, a good scrub with a loo brush will normally get rid of them. Better, pour a little neat bleach all around the inside of the rim, let it dribble down into the bowl. let it soak there for a few hours, like overnight, then flush the loo and follow with a good scrub with said loo brush.

If the latter, oxidative bleaches such as 'bleach' or hydrogen peroxide won't be very effective. You need a reductive bleach such as Dr. Beckmann's colour run remover. E.G.

Caveat: I've never used it for cleaning loos, as I don't get iron staining, so you use it at your own risk!