Cleaning shower base and cubicle - best/easiest way?

I normally dampen surfaces with hot water, then scatter citric acid crystals on the moisture. Leave for a while (15 minutes or something), then scrub off with a scourer.

You can also make a saturated solution in a sprayer, which is good for vertical surfaces like shower screens. Flush the sprayer afterwards otherwise it crystalises inside it and jams the mechanism.

It's not as powerful as HCl so needs a bit of scrubbing but it's effectively just concentrated lemon juice, so the fumes aren't so nasty (fizzy lemon basically).

Crystals are sold by the kilo on ebay/amazon/etc. Most are 'food grade' so safe to eat, should you do so.

Theo

Buy citric acid crystals and make up your own solution?

Well, once you've got it pristine spray the wet surfaces with Mr Muscle Shower Shine after every shower. It prevents build up of limescale so you hardly ever have to clean it.

I find OzClean shower-power does a good job, supposed to be for glass screens, but I use it on the sink and bath too. It's one of those citrus based sprays, used to be available from from most supermarkets, but nowadays I have to venture into Wilko for it ...

Anything that contains detergent and acid. Or mix your own. Bleach is also useful, but obviously not with acid.

Clean it every day - so that you will hardly ever need to clean it.

What am I missing?

So what would you suggest for an enamelled bath. Most of the non abrasives won't touch it, and you can hardly fill a bath up with a specialist chemical. Brian

I use the Limescale Remover and Mould Remover sprays from the HG range. Always found they work well. About £15 for the two sprays, enough for one good clean. Done twice a year, so £30 or so a year. No doubt could make something similar, but can't be bothered.

Juts beware, this does eventually dissolve tile grout of the cementitious kind.

I use the same stuff but on a pimple studded PVC shower floor, which may be a bit more resistant than a shower tray.

"HG" is good but does have a bit of a bleaching action as it contains sodium hydroxide.

I had a good result from cider vinegar to dissolve lime buildup in a non-stick saucepan.

Not really a usefull answer as such but... fitting a proper water softner 15(ish) years ago was one of the best things ever.

Before that I used to use a fresh stanly-knife blade to "shave" off the lime scale from the shower glass door/walls. Surprisingly effective. (Also found the same technique works miraculously on the oven door glass!)

Viakal was used in abundance on the tiles previously but the water softner has paid for its' self many times over in saved chemicals both cleaning and soaps, shampoo etc etc.

I was just wondering about Brick acid (patio cleaner) and whether it would react badly with grout. Seems like it's OK if diluted to use on tiles/grout but the suggestion is to only leave for a few minutes not hours and one suggestion was to nutralise with amonia once rinsed off.

Would be cheaper than Viakal.

Cheers Pete

Both brick acid and the normal 'shower shine' react badly with grout and brick acid does no good to chrome either.

When cleaning my tiles earlier this year, prior to re use, the grout vanished with brick acid, and the acrylic adhesive with paint stripper.

Really, unless you know that everything it touches wont react badly, do not use brick acid.

I regret having done so myself.

Be patient and use a milder acid. Citric or acetic will work.

And protect grout Which is limescale in itself