How to clean discoloured (brown!) toilet u-bend?

[teacher1984]

We've just moved to a house with fairly new toilets that just happen to be completely discoloured brown below the water line. Any tips on best way to get this lovely and white again? Is it limescale? Bit intrigued why this would happen to new toilets?

Thank you!

Limescale is calcium carbonate (dissolved in the water in hard water areas - not on soft water areas). It slowly precipitates out and sticks on to surfaces (taps etc as well as toilets). Calcium carbonate is alkaline - so any acid will react with it, break it down, and will come off the surface. Limescale is basically the same stuff as antacids that you swallow to calm down an acid stomach.

Any acid includes lemon juice, vinegar, coke, lime scale removers. The stronger the acid, the quicker the reaction (but the nastier the acid). Removing the water ensures the acid is not diluted. The longer you leave it, the longer the reaction has to take place. The warmer the air (or water solution) the quicker the reaction - so I presume in a freezing cold bathroom it takes a bit longer than in a toasty warm bathroom.

Bleach is not an acid (there are lots of different bleaches - normally an alkali) - it won't remove the limescale - but it will remove the colour, and may also be a disinfectant.

Whoever said they used vinegar - so no chemicals - um sorry - they are all chemicals - you just happen to know it by its common name.

the way our toilet works I just have to scrub in the bottom for a while & the water just seeps away to expose the limescale directly. To do with design, I guess. No need for plunger or scoop... I like having a brush, though.

I would put a tube if denture tablets in over night and then scrub with a toilet brush.

WE had this. Its limestone stained by wee, worse as we don't flush wee overnight. The thing that worked was a decent dealing toilet cleaner (maybe harpic ?) none of the cheap stuff worked. It took a few goes but did the job.

You need to just squirt a lot of harpic limescale removing toilet down and leave overnight. Flush and brush the next day. Since your is really bad, you will probably need to do this every night for several days. Limescale is a hard deposit and you might need to remove it bit by bit.

Dh got good results with hot (from the bathroom tap, not boiling) water, after I had tried various acids (vinegar, loo cleaner, citric acid etc) which had maybe loosened it. Apparently it just 'fell off'. It needs doing again now, so I'll have to try it to see if he was telling the truth. I think he pushed the water round the u bend with the toilet brush first though.

When I say a lot of harpic I mean a third of a bottle.

1. Go to Wilkinsons or similar and buy some citric acid crystals, c. £1 for a small box. 2 boxes are required for the first clean.

1. Add more water if the brown line is at the water line. Add a whole box of citric acid.

1. Walk away for hours... as many as possible.

1. Gloves on... have a feel/scrape of any brown areas. You might find it 'delaminates' so you can pull off the limescale in sheets. Feel around the back of the u-bend, as far as you are comfortable with. The important bit is to get the water line clean.

1. Flush, a couple of times.

You can do the next bit immediately or over a couple of days/weeks

1. With the water line clean you can now concentrate on the

bottom and u-bend. Gloves on, shove water round the u-bend. Literally just push it down until the water just covers the first stain, or you get bored.

1. Add half of the second packet (you only really need 1/4 of the packet, but it won't look like enough ) and walk away, for as long as you can.

1. Gloves on and go back to peeling/scraping the limescale off.

You may have to repeat this stage.

I keep a box of citric acid and occasionally shake some down the pan. Since spending a couple of hours doing the above when we first moved in 2 years ago I haven't had to do it again - and we live ina hard water area!

The citric acid didn't work well for us... more expensive cost than above, & was back within a week, too. At least vinegar is cheaper.

Oh! I used vinegar and it didn't do much for us, and cost much the same.

Might it be quite regional then? Find the cure that best suits your loo deposit