Amazing cleaning fix for heavily stained tea mugs

[RogueFemale]

I might be late to the party but I have only just discovered this to deal with heavy brown tea staining (which also makes the mug surface rough).

Half a scoop of Vanish Oxi-Action in the mug, add boiling water, leave for 10-15 minutes, and the brown stain just lifts off like magic in a sort of 'skin'. Quite odd, I didn't expect it. You then rinse the mug and lightly scrub a few small bits, but the end result is like new and the glaze perfectly smooth again.

Again, sorry if you all know about this already!

A small drop of bleach and a short soak before washing works and has done so for me since 1975.

I pour the bleach from one cup to the other, then use it to clean the sink/drain etc to minimise environmental impact.

Steradent tablets or a drop of Persil, and boiling water, works a treat!

Use sodium percarbonate instead, then there's no bleach at all going into the water system, nor is there any chance of the other harmful effects (through ingesting or inhaling).

Mmm we have it in our nearest store too - Carrefour. It's about €4

Haven't done the lemons in the vinegar trick yet, but will be.

Blimey, so many people mentioning sodium percarbonate and I've never even heard of it before this thread! Anyone know where you can buy it, high street or supermarkets?

I tried Steradent active plus on a really heavily stained mug, added boiling water and left it overnight. It did a lot but I really needed a green scourer to get the heavy ring around the inside bottom edge off. But I don't have milk in tea so going by the milk-in-first suggestion upthread, I'll always have my work cut out for me ☺️

Yep, I use Vanish on mine and my OHs mugs, it works a treat. If we weren’t lazy gits and washed them a bit more, it wouldn’t happen, but we do drink a lot of tea.

Napsan works too, as I tried it when we ran out of Vanish. If that works on our youngests toxic socks, it’ll work on tea stains. 😀

I just use a normal kitchen sponge and don't have any tea stains - elbow grease is the way to go!

Cif and a good scrub

You can buy it online. Hopefully as people start to ditch many cleaning products it'll become more easily available eg in supermarkets.

You don’t need to spend on Vanish Powder.

Morrisons, Asda and Pink Stuff all do the same in the laundry aisle….ie Stains powder- It’s Sodium Carbonate Peroxide.

Also good for cleaning mould stained composite decking as it fizzes the mould off.

Bleach doesn’t remove the stain itself, whereas steradent etc does

Before Oxi Action etc came along - my Nan's denture tablets were great at cleaning tea stains too as it Soda Bicarb!

Pink Stuff or supermarket own brand oxy powder is cheaper.
I use the oxy powder for my steel travel mug.
Citric acid is class for removing limescale in the kettle too, and it's not going to harm you if ingested in small doses, unlike those heavy duty descalers, though it will make the milk in your tea curdle if you forget to rinse the kettle.

I can't thank you enough! I have tried everything on my favourite mugs. I tend to forget I've made a cup of tea, so put it in the microwave for 30 seconds and that seems to bake in the stains. One year, elbow grease and magic erasers worked, but the following it didn't. Had some old oxy-something laundry powder hanging about, so tried that - could not believe how clean the cup came out.

It's such a simple solution.

Citric acid is another Nancy B favourite, and a supermarket staple for me. Brilliant at descaling kettles, and I use it to make Nancy’s heavy duty loo cleaner; it really does get those grim brown stains off.

Yes, I have always suspected that bleach doesn't actually remove the stain, just makes it invisible. The difference with my Vanish experiment was clear. The stains actually lifted off, a physical 'skin'.

Yes I use citric acid for the kettle too, much more environmentally friendly.

Huge thanks to @Tortephant and others who suggested sodium percarbonate. I have now got a tub and lobbed a tablespoonful in with this morning's laundry (whites). They've come out amazing, even the aged cleaning cloth that's not looked white in years. Genius! Going to soak my tea stained spoons in it.

It will brighten and refresh your denim too.
Pop a handful in the loo and leave it a bit, will look brand new when you return!

I don’t like using chemicals or bleach on my cups - bicarbonate soda is food-safe and does the trick momentarily . Just rub quite a bit with a bit of water.

Sodium bicarbonate is a chemical 🤓

Bicarb does sweet FA on the sort of crusted on tea-stains OP is talking about.

I use washing powder to clean my bathroom. Half a school in a few inches of water, a large sponge. Splash everything liberally, go over it again and everything slides off. I have also scrubbed walls with it.

I am debating whether to pull the sides of my oven out and dose them in washing powders, too. With a good rinse after.

I've used washing powder in my mop bucket before now, works a treat. And bio powder in the past to soak burnt pans (this frequent issue was finally solved by letting my husband do the cooking).