Limescale on gold-plated taps.

[Stuart Noble]

Off the shelf in my chemists

[Stuart Noble]

Not easy to thicken acids. I doubt flour or wallpaper paste would do it.

[Andy Dingley]

You can't - that sounds like a zinc (mazak) base metal underneath that's discolouring.

[david lang]

Yeh but, no but, yeh but if only aqua regia will dissolve gold, ergo every other acid won't. So any scale remover should be safe.

Dave

[Rob Morley]

So you don't have things like lemon curd on your planet then?

[Rusty]

Just as I thought, I think the taps were made in Poland. So why have we expanded the EU to include it.

[Stuart Noble]

There is a viscosity curve when you add small amounts of acid to things that aren't soluble in acid e.g. mayonnaise, but increase it to a level likely to be effective as a descaler and the viscosity disappears. Most thickeners are just not effective in an acid environment (with the possible exception of xanthan gum). Some mineral thickeners can cope with mild acids (attapulgite) but bentonite cannot. So there you are. Don't accuse me of living on another planet because I draw your attention to these things :-)

[Owain]

So you can get a Polish plumber to change the taps for some quality ones from Lidl.

Owain

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

Matt typed

Not citric acid, which is used to make wine and lemonade, surely.

I've bought caustic soda off the shelves at Boots, no questions asked anyway, and thats *far* more dangerous.

Cola drinks contain dilute phosphoric acid and are easily purchased...

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

Stuart Noble typed

Ummm... aren't the limescale removers with the 'Do not use on gold taps' warnings all based on citric acid anyway...?

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

Stuart Noble typed

And Lime Lite gel is what????

[Stuart Noble]

Dunno. I assume from the 4 question marks that you may be about to tell me. Ketchup is a gel, and acidic enough for routine cleaning of tiles and stainless steel, but it would take a month of Sundays to dislodge scale

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

Stuart Noble typed

Don't actually know. Believe it to be citric acid based but it carries said warnings. Still use it on our 'gold' taps, which are losing their plating but I prefer that to limescale excrescences...

[Andy Dingley]

Citric acid is dead easy to get - go to a homebrew specialist, not a chemist.

[Andy Dingley]

Most don't. Only the "real" colas contain phosphoric acid. The taste is quite distinctive and is one of the obvious differences between Royal Crown and Panda.

If you want phosphoric acid, the cheapest supplier is a hydroponics (i.e. DIY cannabis) shop. They sell glacial phosphoric for pH control in hydroponics tanks. For de-rusting you want it as concentrated as you can get, so this is ideal.