Limescale is ruining my life!!!!

[londongirl12]

Ok that's a big of an exaggeration, but my god it's annoying!! We live in a really hard water area, and no matter how much I clean, there's always water marks. Got a new kettle this week, and it has limescale in the bottom already. Please tell me your tips for dealing with the annoying stuf!! 😢

We use a brita filter jug for water for the kettle - but I still descale it semi-regularly. For everything else Viakal. It's the only thing that works. For really bad limescale I spray it on and leave it for a while before scrubbing off.

With our water softener, the only lime-scale I have left, is around the hard water tap that was installed at the same time as the softener. I used the 2p trick after reading about it on mumsnet. Surprisingly it actually works. Just rub a 2p on the lime scale and it flakes off...

WindFlowee92
I don't know if you are in the UK, but, if you are, have you tried Bar Keeper's Friend?

Best limescale remover ( as a Limelight alternative) is the Harpic one in a blue "toilet duck" bottle. Often on offer for a pound. It looks like it's a toilet cleaner but us actually just limescale remover.

@WindFlower92

How does everyone get those horrible brown marks off your white sinks? Is it viakal? I'm scared to try anything in case nothing works and I'm stuck with it forever!

are they stains from tea, coffee, teabags, onion skins?

or rust marks from non-stainless utensils or cans?

Is your sink white glazed ceramic, like a London or Belfast?

Or a modern material like Asterite?

@PigletJohn it's the bathroom sink so it must just be water, soap and toothpaste! No clue what it's made from sorry, it looks just normal and cheap to be specific

@bebarkered I'll have a look for it!

Bathroom cleaning sprays are formulated to remove soap and lime deposits.

shaving foam is particularly prone to leaving a film.

Brown stain can also come from rust in the water from old iron pipes. This is fairly uncommon

And when I lived in a cottage in Suffolk, water was pumped from a well and had enough brown sediment in it to see at the bottom of a bath or in the kettle or cistern. This is very unusual. I have also seen it in Somerset.

Hi again WindFlowee92
Tesco and The Range sell it. If you don't get that, buy a tub of Astonish paste, that's fab as well

As suggested already we use a Britta filter jug for the kettle and coffee machine, nothing else works! Definitely makes the tea taste better too.

BTW your bathroom basin is pretty sure to be made of glazed ceramic, so don't use Barkeepers Friend which is a fine abrasive (ground pumice IIRC) and will wear the glaze. So are "cream" cleaners which are generally not recommended by the sanitaryware manufacturers.

I use BK on stained Asterite which will take a very long time to wear away, though it does reduce the polished shine.

I pour a pint of white vinegar in kettle and leave overnight
Ditto toilet and kitchen sink weekly
I buy a £5l container for £5.99
Perfect results and much cheaper than Viakal, and you can combine with bicarbonate of soda for more heavy duty effect
Extremely hard water here