How to get rid of brown limescale under waterline

[WetBandits]

We have very hard water so the limescale builds up pretty quickly. Our other toilet is spotless, but the one in our en-suite has the worst buildup that we can’t shift! We put a descaling block in the bowl overnight once a week, scrub the bowl and put descaling gel around the rim every night, but we can’t get rid of this buildup and it just looks horrible!

This morning we’ve tried plunging all the water out and attacking the stains with Viakal and Pink Stuff with a motorised scrubbing brush but it still looks like we haven’t touched it in years! Any wisdom to help us get rid of it would be much appreciated please 🙏🏼

I was going to say spirits of salts too(hydrocholric acid). Wear gloves and don't let children near it.

My toilet rim is the bane of my life. Liking pumice stone idea

Citric acid (as suggested by my chemistry prof husband AFTER I'd spent hours trying to scrub the limescale off). You'll find it in the baking section of the supermarket. Looks like sugar. Get out as much water as you can, tip in the bag of citric acid and leave overnight. It doesn't disolve, it just sits at the bottom doing its magic.

Same. The coke made it worse.

Repeated use of descaling tablets leaving them for the longest time possible - including while on holiday for a week. Followed by a good scrub. There is still some left but we are nearly there.

Another vote for citric acid... I ordered mine online and used it a few weeks ago.
Worked a treat and didn't need to scrub it just left it overnight and then cleaned the toilet as normal.

Pumice stone

Do you remove water from loo first? Thanks

Pumice stone x 1000. Over the years I've poured all kinds of awful chemicals down the toilet in our very hard water area. The only thing that worked was an HG one and I felt pretty guilty about it because it is clearly very toxic.

Then I discovered pumice stones and I have had sparkling toilets ever since! You'll need to give it a good old scrub the first time, and keep flushing to clear the water so you can see all the bits you've missed. But it really does work, and once it's gone I just give them a quick rub down with a pumice every couple if months to keep it at bay.

The only thing I would say is that personally I much prefer the ones without the handles. The stones are an odd shape and because of the handle you can't get them right up into the back of the bowl. These are the ones I use:

https://amzn.eu/d/hueHMo3

No, just straight in. I bought a bag from Amazon. Send a waste to use food grade but it all seemed to be.

Scoop all water out and use kilrock gel overnight.

Then chip chip away.

Another vote for spirit of salts, but be very careful and protect eyes, skin etc

You don't need a new toilet pan. You just need to get some industrial strength "for professionals" cleaning acid - be careful with it because, clearly, it's corrosive. But basically you push as much water out as you can, apply this stuff for about an hour (ventilate the bathroom) come back, scrub with toilet brush, it will give an almighty sulphurous stink but it will be gone. If it's very very ingrained it may take two goes. But it works. I've also used it squirted on a piece of kitchen roll to remove limescale very effectively. Don't get it on any cleaning cloths though - DH did, and then chucked them in a wash with a load of DC clothes and it took me three more washes to get the smell of the acid out of the clothes!

Limescale gets stained brown if you don't flush the toilet e.g. at night. If you practice "If it's yellow let it mellow" you NEED to be on top of limescale almost before it forms.

Ok a question I should know the answer to

how do you get the water out of the loo 🙈

Spirits of salt. Don't waste time with anything else.

Push with the toilet brush and the water will go past the U-bend. There will still be a tiny bit left at the bottom, you can't get rid of that bit easily. The industrial strength acid works even with this tiny bit of water.

If coke, vinegar, anti-limescale cleaners etc are doing nothing this kind of thing works. You can buy it online or at places like B&Q.

Thank you!

@WetBandits completely remove water from bowl (could use old towel) and use Harpic Power Plus10x. Leave as long as possible/overnight.

Very effective, zero effort 😊

I empty it out with a cut-down small plastic bottle - like a plastic coke bottle etc - and for the little left in the bottom of the toilet after that, old rags. The water in the loo is fixed until you flush it.

Force ALL the water out. Use kitchen roll or whatever to blot away whatever's left.

Put a big pad of cotton wool over the affected area, soak it with vinegar. Put cling film over that to stop the vinegar from evaporating. Leave it overnight.

The vinegar-soaked pad will turn the limescale into a rubbery consistency which should just peel away clean.

Did you use ordinary harpic or the 100% limescale remover? I swear by the latter. It’s amazing.

Thank you

This worked wonders on a rental property (in a hard water area) that hadn't been cleaned in months. No scrubbing required. I just poured it on and left it for a couple of hours.

I have the same problem, tried lots of things then tried a couple of fishwasher tablets down the toilet for a couple of hours then scrubbed with a brush. Worked a treat for me! Do it once a month to keep on top of it

*dishwasher

If you force all the water out it will stink as you will have removed the water separating it from the drain. If you tip in a bag of citric acid you won't need to remove water. Also if you remove too much it won't reach the brown that is now above the water level!