The apartment I've just moved into is very nice, apart from the fact that the toilet is encrusted with an appalling amount of limescale around the rim etc.
I would be interested to know of your recommendations as to the best stuff to use to banish it. What would be the best form of abrasive for tackling this?
Thanks in advance.
I wouldn't use an abrasive at all. There are LOADS of products on the supermarket shelves for removing limescale. I would think the gel type would be best but it will probably need several applications.
Andy
A product that contains phosphuric acid.
mark
Agreed the glaze will get damaged and make staining/sacle build up even more of a problem.
Yep, don't expect a one hit wonder result. Scale will dissolve in mild acid without damaging the glaze.
Harpic 100% Limescale Remover - does what it says on the bottle. Works a treat.
I had a similar situation.
We bough shitloads (apt, as it turned out) of gel descaler, and a quart of brick acid.
Both ate through the scale slowly, and I ended up knocking off lumps with a chisel.
Every night the bowl was filled with acid and left.
The rim wasnt too bad, but round the bend was evil. It was about half the diameter it should have been and not JUST scale., Layers of scale ad s*it. Years of scale and s*it. Took about a week of acid, chipping, and flushing for an hour after work each day, to clean it all up.
The good news is it all did clean up.
Thats when I decided to never be without brick acid and caustic soda ever again. And the next house would have a softener..
Be VERY careful with gel cleaners on CHROME tho. It dulls the surface permanentely. So does brick acid. I guess its chrome sulphate.
Abrasives are moderately useless. If a bog brush won't clear it, use a chisel. Get a cheapo wood chisel with a sharp edge, and go gently.
What I found was thet the clingy gel stuff etched the edges UNDER the scale, and chunks could be levered out..then more gel or overnight acid would do the same again. Bit by bit the enemy was pushed back..and mopped up.
Lime Lite products from Henkel - excellent.
Acid isn't too effective on the s*it part. What you can do in this case is to alternate it with another powerful cleaner, such as washing machine or dishwasher detergent dissolved in hot water and left in the trap over night, which are both good at clearing the organic debris.
When switching cleaning agents, flush the previous one well away first, enough times to clear the sewage pipework too. Mixing of different cleaners can cause violent chemical reactions and production of toxic fumes.
Angle grinder
If you block the thing up with a rag, fill to the brim, and leave overnight, even weak acid like citric will do it. Sulphamic (Fernox descaler) is better (and easy to use) but I don't like the fumes from hydrochloric (brick acid) indoors
We did use a bit of caustic to reduce the smell, but in reality the stuff was a matrix. Disslve the carbonate, and the evil stiff went with it.
Yes. Its great fun doing big sperriments in your loo bowl innit? With the whole bathroom as a giant fan extracted fume cupboard.
Then you have to get the rag OUT again..
works for stuff you can SEE, but not stuff 'round the bend'..
Sadly I used that - it hardly knocked a dent in it I'm afraid! :(
As for the other acid-based products mentioned in this thread, are they things readily available in B & Q etc.?
Arsebiscuits! Must be heavy-duty scale - good luck anyway.
Builders mercahnts for brick acid, or a good hardware shop.
Don't expect it all to go instantly.It takes time to dissolve decades of urine, limescale and s*it.
Someone mentioned phosphoric acid. I think thats 'jenolite' rust remover. Brick acid is about 30% hydrochloric. Most descalers are sulphamic, but any acid will ultimately crap all over carbonates, apart from carbonic acid!
Other acids you can get are formic - I think Kilroc uses that..and sulphuric. That's generally for specialised sanitary cleaning type operations. Or car batteries of course.
Even vinegar (acetic acid) or rhubarb juice (oxalic acid) will do a bit to scale.
The one poster who mentioned blocking the loo and filling it up with acid had a good idea if its rim based stuff.
Sulphuric can attack the glsae on a WC pan.
Or the Tesco, Morrisons own label. Look on the label for the words 'contains hydrochloric acid'. As others have said, might take many applications.
Dymashift is the product you want. About £10 for 5 litres. It has 25% phosphuric acid and is used by commercial cleaning companies for cleaning toilets for one.
mark
I've never seen toilets for two. Do Doulton make them? ;-)
Last I heard only nitric/sulphuric mixed could do that..
Howevr, it pays to be careful.
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