A delightful question

[BroccoliSpears]

How do I get rid of the brown stains in my loo?

(Sorry, just couldn't bring myself to make that the title)

It's not poo stains, just brown below the waterline which won't come off with scrubbing with the loo brush. Is it limescale? I use Ecover loo cleaner to no effect, and tend not to have strong cleaning products in the house. What should I buy?

Or, even better, is there some lemon, vinegar and baking soda concoction that will do it?

Well I hd a horrid brown loo and only cured it by means of Harpic Super Bastard Nuke stuff. THough some people reckon cocacola left overnight will work - I tried it to no effect.

You probably won't want to hear this but I would bung a bit of thick bleach down there and leave it.

OOh Ooh what about steradent tablets? Aren't they supposed to be good?

It's limescale. Vile stuff.

Like madamez says, you need the big guns to get rid of it.

Thankfully we don't suffer from really hard water in our house.

I wonder if you can buy water-softening blocks (like the bleach blocks) to go in your sistern to help prevent further build up ?

For cleaning false teeth?

OMG, I meant cistern

[shoots self]

Loads of bleach when everyone's out and leave it for as long as you can.

maidamess, bleach doesn't get rid of it though, it just bleaches it. You will still have the crusty deposits, they'll just be a slightly more palatable colour !

yes yes for cleaning false teeth but also for dissolving stains, if you don't want to go down the bleach route.

Harpic Blue will sort it out. Leave it overnight.

Limescale - if you want to be a bit eco about it you could chuck a big load of citric acid in there which will de-gunk it. You have to have a friendly pharmacist though, as they don't like selling proper amounts to people they don't know as it is jolly popular for cutting drugs in the criminal fraternity

If you don't have a friendly pharmacist then live with it until the beginning of May when you can go to your unfriendly pharmacist and tell them you need it to make elderflower cordial. They reckon that anyone who knows it is needed for elderflower cordial is probably unlikely to be a smackhead

If it's limescale then surely vinegar should do it? May take a few goes though.

I wonder why one loo is so much worse than the other?

Thank you for the suggestions so far.

Agree that bleach would probably just bleach it and there's definitely a rough surface when scrubbing that needs to be removed.

Will try cocacola tonight and then move on to falsie tablets then citric acid. (And then I'll buy some Evil Well'ard Loo Cleaner which is patently what's actually going to get the job done).

I used a pumice stone (have to be careful not to scratcht the enamel though)

vinegar, i think the brown is stained limescale, bleach wont get rid, concentrated vinegara nd a good scrubbing

and white vinegar, but empty the cistern first (if you can) and leave it in overnight.

Does it matter what sort of vinegar? I only have poncey.

oh just buy the 'ard loo cleaner - I've had this and some beast-in-a-bottle cleaner was defintely the way to go - ate up that manky limescale in no time

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it has to be white vinegar. Far better for the environment then anything else

lol megglevache. I assume you mean the contents of a bottle of coke?

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