Removing limescale below toilet bowel waterline.

[4andnotout]

The bowel has a build up of limescale upto the waterline, i have tried toilet duck and elbow grease but it isn't shifting!
Can anyone recommend anything?

This may sound silly but how do you empty the bowl of water??

put the brush in and pump it up and down. Most of the water will spill over the bend and go down the drain.

I favour the Harpic fizzing tablets that you put in the bowl while the house is going to be empty. The trap must have the normal amount of water in it.

Otherwise, Parazone Bleach Blocks that you put in the cistern will, over some weeks, dissolve the limescale from inside the cistern, the waterways in the rim, and the bowl. Try it. When you look in the cistern after a month to put a new block in, you will notive the limescale washing off the float and the sides of the cistern. Because they clear the rim waterways, they also improve the power of the flush.

Come back here afterwards and say how well it worked.

Glad you got it sorted. To prevent further build up, I'd also recommend domestos zero limescale.

For difficult limescale in the toilet bowl try using HG bathroom - hagesan blue professional limescale remover. First use mop to remove water from toilet bowl, then pour HG on limescale, leave for up to an hour, then use scraper to remove loosened limescale.

As someone said above, a pumice works really well. It may be hard to find one just for toilets in this country, so look for a foot pumice that you can use. If it's shaped right it should work fine.

Vinegar is acidic, but a stronger acid like you find in Viakal will work better.

Use the toilet brush to push out as much water as you can before slowly pouring in a bottle of Viakal.

You can empty the bowl by scooping out water with a sdisposable plastic cup or a sponge (throw away after) into a bucket. I use domestos zero but its hydrochloric acid which is nasty stuff. Will try a bottle of vinegar instead

The easy way to empty the water from the bowl is to get an empty 1.25 litre plastic soft drink bottle or 600ml, remove the cap stick it in the bowl and squeeze. The water then goes into the bottle. Just repeat a few times and use a sponge to get the last bit.
Trying a litre of vinegar - fingers crossed - now after removing the pan to replace the rubber outlet and inlet seals.

Im so excited to share with you the successful removal of limescale down my loo. I read all the info in your blog and wish i had read it first before i attacked my loo with a wire scouring pad. Here's my story:- Just moved house and disgusting loo, tried lots of products including tablets that you leave to disolve overnight which DID NOT make the slightest difference even though i used the whole lot. Resorted to using a wire scourer which made it look 10 times worse. I went yesterday to a large supermarket and came home armed with all the advice given previously including a 1.00 bottle of Domestos Zero limescale remover (on offer) thrown in. Before i armed myself with rubber gloves, pumice stone, white viniger, cup to empty the loo and a bottle of coke on standby, i poured down some of the Domestos Zero limescale remover in a hope that this may work but not really very hopefull but what the heck, it only cost a 1.00. A cup of coffee later i could not believe my eyes, and a couple of further treatments later IT IS ALL GONE, including the marks i made too. What a saving, i had a plumber on standby and had chosen a toilet to purchase. If nothing worked i couldn't stand/sit on this loo any more and too ashamed to have guests round. Well done DOMESTOS.

I read all your stuff on here, pumped most of the water out of the bowl with the brush and poured in 2 litres of warm vinegar (£3 for 5 litres) left for 1 hour - quick scrub with the toilet brush and its clean as a lemon fresh gusset!! - Brilliant! Thankyou

I've spent years cleaning limescale off shower doors, kettles, toilets taps - you name it. It has driven me bonkers over the years having to replace appliances and trying out all the latest cleaning products. A few days ago a flyer came in the door from EW Technologies saying they can put in a water softener including installation into my home and with a free drinking filter for only £499. I really want to believe them when they say that this system will remove limescale from my home forever. Is this too good to be true. Has anyone any experience of water softeners that they could share?

Value denture cleaning tablets work too. Very cheap.

doopdoop they do work and you end up using less toiletries/cleaning products etc as it softens the water but there are ongoing costs so check those out first. My nan has one and my skin/hair are softer when I use her shower

I have a water softener and can vouch for no limescale, soft skin/hair/towels, much less soap, washing powder, household cleaners used. The soft water will slowly dissolve away old lime scale.

It is a bit easier if you have a cold-water tank in the loft that you can soften, because the more common method is to leave the kitchen cold water tap hard for drinking. That's a separate argument, but if you do that, have all the other cold taps, and the feed to WC cisterns, and especially the washing machine, from the softened supply.

Leave the garden tap unsoftened.

Avoid doorstep salesmen. Look in the yellow pages for your local softener company (which should also deliver sacks of salt). Your first question should always be "Do you repair water softeners?" If no, buy it from someone who does. If you live in a hard-water area, there is sure to be a local company that sells, maintains and probably reconditions or assembles softeners. The components are fairly simple and most use the Fleck valve.

If you're in a hurry to descale your WC, put a Parazone Bleach block (not a coloured or scented one) in the cistern every month. You won't believe it dissolves limescale, so take a photo inside the cistern the first time you do it, and observe it getting cleaner over time. This is the only way I know to descale the waterways in the rim.

Harpic White and shine. It shifts anything, best buy ever!

scoop al the water in the bowl out with a cup, pat dry with paper towel cover in Viakal, leave for an hour or two then scrub it off with some steel wool. The flush as usual once you are done. Think I found about this on here and my loo that had looked ghastly for months was transformed.

We live in a very hard water area so I am constantly fighting limescale in the loo. I've settled on a Harpic (I think?) Limescale Remover (blue liquid in a black bottle).

Years ago I tried a bottle of coke and all it did was stain the limescale brown . It looked a million times worse!

Coke doesn't work. Viakal is the best - am obsessed with it, but prob not best for environment!! I will try the vinegar thing though.

Ahh you see I tried harpic and domestos limescale remover and they didn't work but Mr Muscle limescale remover did. I used it every night for a few days (quite alot) and it was gone. Great stuff.

Pumped the water out of the bowl as PigletJohn suggested (using the toilet brush) and then tipped two pint bottles of malt vinegar down the loo (total 58p from. Four hours later, a flush and brief light scrub, and the bowl was gleaming.

Thanks all for the tips!

Seeing that there is so much of Vinegar discussion on this thread, I thought I will ask you ladies:

Which Vinegar is best for cleaning: distilled or otherwise + Malt/white wine/ ?
And where do you buy them in large quantities? I mean, the ones you find in the supermarket are invariably for cooking purposes and seem to come in 1L max.

Thanks

I tried vinegar and citric acid and the acid works best.

1 Liter of vinegar did a little bit and cost about the same as 100g of citric acid. 50g of the acid left in the bowl for a few hours broke up all the limescale. The acid is used in home brewing so anywhere that sells brewing equipment should have it(weirdly my local heath food store sells brewing stuff).
Plus you don't have to empty the toilet bowl.

So it's half the price,works better, and takes less effort.

Any form of acid will work e.g. Coca cola , vinegar.
I use Callgon or W5(cheapest- available at a well known discount supermarket). Washing mashine descalers.
With aid of brush can work in five minutes.
Cola also great for tooth cleaning - it will of course remove tooth enamel as well.

Try citric acid - you can buy cartons of it by Dri-Pak in Robert Dyas for less than £2. I put half the packet down and the limescale has gone in just over an hour, after a little scrubbing with the loo brush. Totally biodegradable too :)

I buy 5 litre bottles (about a gallon) of white wine vinegar from the local Aisan supermarket for about £2.50. Then I decant it into a plant misting bottle.

I just use this:

groceries.asda.com/product/malt-vinegars/asda-distilled-malt-vinegar/19241

Amazing! I make up a cleaning spray with vinegar, a bit of washing up liquid and water and it's great to use in the kitchen and bathroom. Doesn't smell vinegary at all! We also have very hard water and I find it's the only thing that will shift the limescale from the toilet and around the taps etc.

And environmentally friendly, safe for children and pets and cheap too 😀