Stainless steel sink - cleaning

Don't throw tea bags in the sink?

You'll need something mildly abrasive to clear out the marks. Proper cream cleaner?

Christian.

Caustic soda, 'Mr Muscle' oven cleaner, or, if you are a wuss, plain bleach.

Then you can buff it with a buffing mop and T-cut :-)

Bleach, or a cleaner containing bleach such as Flash Kitchen Spray. We use the latter to remove the tea stains from the worktop, sink, and even the inside of cups.

Of course it doesn't actually *remove* the stains, it just renders them invisible (though if you're being pedantic I suppose a stain is only a stain if it's visible). I discoverd this when I used bleach on some photographic developer stains many years ago, they disappeared beautifully but the moment some more developer hit them they became instantly brown again.

Personally I think life's too short to want stainless steel to stay pristine on the bottom of the sink.

Solvol Autosol (if you can still get it) is much better for SS than T-Cut.

Use my old granny's tried-and-tested method for removing said stains from the inside of her teapot (why did she mind about it?!) - soak in a fairly concentrated solution of clothes washing powder. Works a treat with no need for abrasives.

David

Seconded.

I've used the same trick on both stainless steel teapots and sinks. A generous helping of washing powder and hot water, and leave to soak for a while. If doing this to a teapot, rinse thoroughly afterwards. And then rinse again. And again. And then vow never to clean the thing ever again because tea tastes 'orrible for ages afterwards!

On the other hand, on a sink it does a fantastic job.

Steve.

"Ed" wrote in news:bj4gqg$lbe$ snipped-for-privacy@news6.svr.pol.co.uk:

I've got a compe white sort of sink, and the instructions say it's not the sink that stains, but limescale from water stains, and to use descaler.

I've found this works

mike r

Descalers can mark stainless(sic) steel, something which I know first hand...

"Ed" wrote

Can't beat good old bleach. I can personally recommend a Tesco own brand - Tesco Kitchen Cleaner Plus Bleach 500ml Trigger 88p. Got it in a 2 for 1 offer with their bathroom one, not expecting much, but I'm a sucker for offers. But - it removes every kind of stain known to man, not bad on grease. Really cheap, but pongs to high heaven. Has an aura that it might be one of Mr Burns of Springfield's by-products. Bathroom one was rubbish, btw.

An excellent metal polish I've used on brass and stainless for years is Wenol

Tomato ketchup is what they use in the catering trade I believe. As for tea stains on china, try a dilute solution of Ribena overnight. I once used washing powder to clean a saw blade. It certainly got rid of the resin on the teeth but it badly pitted the metal so I don't think I'd want it in my teapot.

An excellent descaler safe for use on stainless is "Phos" from Clover Chemicals Ltd (01663 733114), it is also food industry safe.

I know all about that one. Fine wet and dry paper is your friend.

Christian.

I haven't heard that name in years...I suspect you are completely right :-)

That is not *necessarily* so. Bleach and caustic soda work by chemical recations. They change the chemical composition of what they bleach. If teh end product is water souluble, it will simply wash away.

Viz a grease stain will end up as soap and be gone for ever.

The tendency of caustic is to rip other molecules apart, leaving fragmenst with various groupings on them left over. Its very rarely a reversible reaction. Well not without considerable equipment and knowledge anyway :)

Anyway I use caustic on things like stained china and steel sinks, and mainly, it's fine. I have ended up staing some things - can't recall what - but mostly its pristine woderfulness afterwards. Beware of its effects on plastc tho - can make tghe waste pipes brittle, so not to be used too often.

This is often, but not always, true.