Discoloured toilet bowl

[geoff]

Is there any realistic way of "rejuvinating" the enamel of a toilet?

[chas]

you couldtry cleanig the shit of it after you use it Smoe people live like fucken pigs

[Frank Erskine]

Angle grinder, of course...

[ARWadsworth]

You could try washing it with chas' head. I doubt it would work but it's a plan with no drawbacks.

[Andy Burns]

Alternate, heavy, prolonged doses of bleach and limescale remover, with several flushes and a good brushing in-between.

[Tabby]

The glaze is glass, which doesnt discolour. Either there's something on the surface, or its so badly scratched its looking lighter due to light scattering. Surface muck is effectively removed with 97% sulphuric acid - but do treat it with real respect.

NT

[geoff]

You could always come back when you've developed a basic understanding of the english language

If you don't understand the meaning of "rejuvinating the enamel", leave such grammatically advanced concepts to those that do

now f*ck off

[geoff]

I think that the tenants would complain that the bowl was blocked with shit

[geoff]

No, it's the ceramic under the glaze, which is why I was wondering, on the off chance, that there was some technique I was unaware of

[The Natural Philosopher]

[The Medway Handyman]

That can also damage the glaze. Use Harpic more than once.

[The Natural Philosopher]

caustic soda

[Fredxx]

Perhaps I'm being thick here, but what's going to penetrate the glaze without removing it, in order to clean the ceramic?

[geoff]

I've got 20 kilos of that sitting around absorbing moisture - I'll give it a shot

[The Natural Philosopher]

the same thing that got the stain in the first place.

water

[polly filler]

I've found barkeepers friend to be very good.!

[geoff]

In message , polly filler writes

I'll try it if caustic soda doesn't work, ta

[Thomas Prufer]

Only if it's got scale on it and you can etch that off. (I heard of on chap that plugged the siphon, put citric acid in, and shoved an immersion heater in --a "Tauchsieder"-- and gave it a good boil and it came up new... Cuppa tea? No?)

If it's the old enamel that's sensitive to acid, or it's enamel or porcelain rough with age and scouring with Vim, you don't have a chance, or not much of one. I had a man in who said he could polish up our old acid-etched bathtub, but it didn't do enough to be worth the trouble or quoted expense. He used an angle grinder (you knew it was coming, right?) with a Scotchbrite-style pad, something he called enamel powder liberally as an abrasive, and an acidic cleaner (mostly phosphoric acid, AFAIK), all at the same time. Oh, and ear defenders. And he didn't charge anywhere near the quted cost, at the result wasn't what he and I had hoped for. (He also said he'd tried all the car polish/wax tricks, and they weren't more that temporary fixes).

Thomas Prufer

[MuddyMike]

I threw the pan from the house my son bought last autumn because we were unable to remove heavy staining and limescale from the bottom of the trap. It laid among a load of other detritus pending a trip to the tip with the trailer right through the winter. When I did get around to dumping it, it was clean! It seems the winter frosts had dislodged whole sheets of limescale and other muck.

Mike

[Tim Watts]

97%? Bit extreme!

A trick my old man did was to take a balloon, fit to a bit of hose,insert baloon round u-bend and inflate - then pinch off the hose.

Now fill the bowl to the rim with water make up to dilute strength (