Help limescale and toilets

[cheesecake864]

I am going crazy with out toilets and limescale.

We live in a hard water area and our toilet is constantly got limescale staining it.

I have left toilet cleaner in it over night so now have blue limescale

I have tried everything I can to get rid of it!

Please spam me with your fail proof solutions

Thanks

Apparently a sterident tablet works wonders..

Is it scaling up inside the tank, or the bowl?

Basic chemistry is Acid + Base = Salt + Water

Scale is basic, so adding an acid would work, but you have to be careful.

There are toilet blocks that can be put in the cistern which help prevent it, or you can use a gel for limescale removal.

If you have problems with limescale elsewhere, you could spray some shower cleaner (Cillit Bang, Limelite or Mr Muscle) and leave it for a bit.

You can use vinegar, pour it down the sides, making sure it covers the walls and leave it for a few hours or, if you don't have children and feel confident enough, try 'Spirits of Salts' from hardware or plumbing shops.

SoS is concentrated hydrochloric acid, high corrosive, must not be mixed with any other toilet cleaner and should be used sparingly. Do not use it in the cistern and put it far away from children when it's not in use.

I had awful toilets that I was despairing of having tried everything (I thought). They're now much better, I plunged the water out as far as I could, then left toilet paper soaked in vinegar on every bit of limescale for several hours (used a whole bottle of white vinegar per toilet). Then I scrubbed with a scouring pad, the edge of a 2p piece where it was particularly thick, and one of those silver wire scrubbers that you usually use in the kitchen for stainless steel pans. I repeated this several times and managed to clear all the visible limescale. It was a hideous job but worth it.

I spray the purple cilit bang and leave it for about 30 mins then get right in the with a scourer

Thanks - it's in the bowl and worse on the water line and at the bottom of the toilet

Bleach won’t work you need to go at it with toilet brush to get water level down then pour boiling water from a kettle and load of lime scale remover then leave for a few hours then scrub.

The above was told to me by the helpful elderly man who owns our local hardware shop 😁

Black harpic down for as long as possible. Its a limescale remover and works wonders

Heavy duty toilet limescale remover and lots of elbow grease. Once clean, use toilet descaler daily. Bleach only takes the colour out of things - it’s doesn’t actually shift the underlying problem.

citric acid.....pour in loads of hot water then a tub of citric. leave overnight. I promise it works. .I think it's quite eco as well

P's no scrubbing needed!

Get the water level down then spray with viakal. Removes the need for scrubbing.

Black harpic is good but for sure remove all of the water from the bowl first (scoop it out and pour it away). Then neat black harpic overnight and a good scrub the next day (wear thick gloves). You may need to do this several times. I use the harpic tablets (pictured) in the bowl overnight once a week to keep on top of it once it’s cleared (just drop into the water).

White vinegar. Empty the bowl, pour the vinegar in, leave for as long as you can (pref overnight). The limescale flakes off with a toilet brush after.

I always chuck white vinegar in the toilets as my last job before leaving the house to go on holiday as it works magic over a week or two, even without bailing the water out first.

Apparently coke works too but I've never tried it.

As others have said, get a bag of citric acid from the supermarket. Empty it into the toilet and leave it over night. It will remove everything. I learnt this after years of scrubbing, also in a hard water area, when DH, a chemistry proff, asked why I didn't just use citric acid. !0 feckin years it took him to mention it.

I have used vinegar overnight which softens it as does black harpic but it never went completely - but i ended up using a toilet pumice in the end to get rid of it.

I think I'm going to have to try the citric acid next time!

I just ended up scrapping it off with a wire brush and a knife for the tricky bits. I now use the harpic tablets (posted above) and that keeps on top of it.

If you empty the water in the bowl
And pour some full fat coke down there

Yes to citric acid. I used to buy boxes of in cheap in wilko to clean the baby bottle steriliser and limescale off kettle.

Thanks for this thread. We've got a limescale deposit at the very bottom. You can't see it unless you view from a distance, so you can see under the start of the bend. Was assuming I'm going to have to get the rubber gloves on and scrub scrub scrub, but there's some good ideas here too. Thanks all!

Another vote for Viakal.

If you empty the water in the bowl
And pour some full fat coke down there

I did that once and DH, the chemistry proff, went nuts. Apparently coke and some bathroom cleaning products become explosive when combined.

He's just corrected me. It doesn't become explosive

If you mix coke with bleach you get chlorine gas, which is the poison gas they used in the trenches. So not explosive but you might want to give it a miss.

Black harpic!!!!!!

The tablets all night/day and then the gel for the bowl/above the water

I don't have a good before photo but all the blue is thick limescape that you could chip off if you really dug at it. The second photo is after a quick brush and flush, I did the gel next and it's mostly perfect now except two awkward bits the bush cant reach. Minimal scrubbing and I think it smells quite nice