How to remove encrustation from a toilet?
After enthusiastically adopted water-saving methodology as encapsulated in the ditty: "If it's yellow - let it mellow; If it's brown - flush it down" the toilet now has difficult-to-remove encrustation.
Nothing seems to remove it! Has anyone succeeded? What worked? Acid or alkali?
Success stories and advice eagerly anticipated.
98% sulphuric acid shifts it fast. So does brick acid. Dilute HCl, such as some patio cleaners, also work, tho not as quick. Best to flush them I think, just use less water.
NT
The pan in the downstairs toilet of the house my son bought had that problem. I threw it outside in November intending to replace it. When I looked at it again in Jan all the encrustation had simply fallen off!!! I have recently finished re-installing it into the newly tiled and decorated room. Perhaps it was the frost, or being left dry I don't know what cleaned it. I do know that nothing STWNFI tried to clean it with in situ worked.
Mike
I wouldn't mess with that stuff when there are relatively harmless acids that work just as well
I used 23% hydrochloric acid, mainly because that was what I had to hand, but it worked.
Colin Bignell
Me neither.
Which would you use? Vinegar? Citric acid? Kettle de-scaler?
So now you know that water saving methodology is bollox :-)
Acid. Something like Harpic or a supermarket own brand.Make sure it says its a limescale remover. Weasel words like 'helps prevent' or 'reduces' mean its just a detergent.
You may need several goes to remove it.
Which is, near enough, brick-cleaner, IIRC. That's what we use when the limescale has got unsightly.
Whatever you have to hand or can nip round the corner and buy. I use sulphamic crystals because I happen to have a tub of Fernox descaler. Citric from the chemist works, but might take a little longer, as does the kettle stuff. For a total descale, block the toilet with a bunch of plastic bags, top it right up to the brim, chuck your acid in, and leave till next morning. Always assuming you have a second loo of course.
Yes, just a small amount of brick acid (cheap from builders merchant, Wickes, etc) left for a few hours or overnight, and it then just needs one wipe with the brush and flush, and it looks like new.
Beware of using this regularly where it might harm the sewer, e.g. cast iron pipework, or mortared joints, and for a one-off, flush out with a few more flushes afterwards.
The problem with anything you pour in is that it gets diluted by the water in the pan.
I always empty[1] the pan and than use Cillit Bang directly on the glazed surface.
[1] I use a pumping action with a toilet brush to push as much water round the bend as possible, and then suck the rest out with an old meat basting thing - the sort of thing with a plastic tube with a rubber bulb on the end - emptying it into a 2 lb jam jar
Is that a French crab?
In message , ARWadsworth writes
I bet SWMBO loves you.... (or do you not stick it back in the kitchen drawer after? ;-)
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember John Rumm saying something like:
"This joint tastes funny."
And that's before it's been lit...
Unless you have some medically remarkable calcareous urine (and kidney stones like a bastard), there's no relation. However your local water supply is probably hard. Iron form local plumbing doesn't help either.
Use sulphamic acid (commercial limescale shifter) to shift it. Sainsbury's own brand toilet limescale (blue plastic bottle) is cheapest. Sulphuric acid (a great organic cleaner) isn't as good. Hydrochloric acid is powerful on limescale, but tends to show up crazing in glaze on toilets, so isn't advised.
The problem is that calcium sulphate is insoluble. This is one of the main compunds formed when sulphuric acid reacts with limescale, and it quickly forms a protective layer over the scale. So when you use sulphuric acid, you get a good fizz to start with, but it quickly dies down and stops.
Hydrochloric acid is fine in this respect as calcium chloride is highly soluble in water.
Or the bathroom cabinet..that was your grannies DOUCHE you nutcase.
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