Serious toilet cleaning requires

[GeneralissimoVonBobbington]

This is a pretty gross problem, but I'm hoping you can help. The downstairs loo in our new (old) house has some revolting looking encrustations around the rim a the front of the pan. Any idea how I can get rid of these? I would rather just replace the loo but DH is too tight reluctant.

I swear by Harpic Power Plus.

Some kind of limescale remover and some elbow grease [boak]

Sigh. I was going for some sort of chemical magic wand. Thanks - I will don my hazmat suit...

I'm sure I saw How Clean is Your House once and they soaked kitchen roll in something and plastered it on like papier mache - maybe try that with Harpic and leave it for a while?

For really serious limescale/dirt removal use Spirits of Salts - but it is a nasty chemical so only use when all else fails (goggles/protective gloves useful).

Somewhere in the depths of my mind I can recall Kim-or-was-it-Aggie using coca cola. But I may have dreamt that

We had a loo like that in a rented house once. It was grim. The previous tenants must have never cleaned it for it to build up like that.

Anyway, we did manage to get it under control...though never totally got rid of it.

Scoop out the water, apply the strongest limescale remover you can find, leave overnight, and scrub in the morning with a scourer. Not the most pleasant job but removing the water does help as the cleaner goes on neat.

I used 3 or 4 applications of Ecover on ancient limescale/stains - soaking a kit.towel is a good idea- without any scrubbing required.

I would use a solution of caustic soda mabe with paper towels as recommended above

but

be very careful when you're using it. Follow the directions on the packet etc

I got mine in b&q for blocked toulet and at the same time it cleaned all stains etc

You will need to empyt the water from the toilet bowl using gloves and mix the caustic soda as instructed with water. Then pour it slowly into the bowl to avoid splashing and leave for about 2 hours. Then flush away.

apparently kim and aggie on tv always say to use a pumice stone (won't damage porcelain) and vinegar and baking soda.

more suggestions

(as you can see I can't sleep tonight :-) )

K&A have used coca-cola, but also soak kitchen roll in white vinegar or lemon juice and kind of papier mache round the loo and leave overnight i think.

Try putting a couple of dishwasher tablets in there and leaving it to soak overnight.

I had an old loo that was gross, I put cheap bio washing powder and boiling water in mine and left it overnight. For the ones round the rim i made up a paste of the washing powder and spread it round. Did the trick :)

Hot white vinegar in bowl stick it on with toilet paper if on side after taking out water leave overnight it works really well. It's only hard water IMO.

Bleach and lots of elbow grease will get rid of it.

Harpic power plus!!!! excellent

Just a little advice for you: Whatever you do, do not mix any vinegar with bleach, read on here it makes a rather nasty gas

Thanks all - sadly elbow grease and ordinary bleach was not quite up to task, but the Spirits of Salt did the trick. I soaked kitchen towels in the stuff and wedged it up and under the rim like papier mache. Great lumps of calcified, well, I don't want to know what really came off when I gave it a little prod an hour or two later [boak]

Also put some diluted down the pan which is now sparkly!

What Lilymaid says - Spirits of Salt which is dilute hydrocloric acid. From an old fashioned hardware store (not b&q).

glad you got a good result.

Pleased to hear that you and the Spirits of Salts shifted the encrustations. I had a similar problem in my old house (also blocked with children's toys from the previous owner which had to be hoiked out with a wire coat hanger from down the u-bend). My father then did the trick with the Spirits of Salts and hey presto, a working and clean loo).