Bog cleaner - what will get rid of that horrid limescale?

[dorisbonkers]

Caustic soda? Bleach, Toilet Duck?

I plan a glamorous night in.

I use Domestos Power Plus and that works. I imagine that any bleach that says '100% lime scale remover' will work. There are loads of them about now.

Coke???? Have heard that coke poured down the loo and left overnight will clean it right up but never tried it myself. Just keep drinking the coke .

Yep Coke overnight.

I tend to bail out the water (lifting the stopcock so it doesn't refill and spray it with viakal and leave overnight.

harpic 100% limescale remover works on our bog. I use it about once a fortnight with toilet duck inbetween.

We recently moved into a house with terrible limescale. My usual Ecover wimpered at the sight of it. I bought the most evil looking thing on the shelves, and it worked a bloody miracle - 20 years of someone else's urine-stained limescale gone! I did have to use half a bottle per loo, and buy a second bottle to finish the job, but blimey it was amazing.

I can't for the life of me remember what product it was (now back on Ecover trying not to think about all the flora and fauna I killed with the Bottle of Doom)but it was in a black bottle with lime green lid, and was definitely one of the main toilet cleaner brands (Domestos, Harpic, something like that)

there is a powder called "Barkeeper's friend" hich is majic on limescale. a liquiid called Viakal too. In the cleaning section in sainsbos. i'm sure they are safe in the toilet.

"bottle of doom"

I'm seconding 'bottle of doom', black bottle, green lid. I think it might be harpic.

When we were getting DP's flat ready for renting out, his loo, that he and his flatmate had possibly not cleaned, ever, was pretty awful and it made like new again. Good Stuff.

Thanks. I've been living abroad where everyone uses about a bottle of cif every time they clean.

Ta

Going to try the coke thing this evening . . have had constant problems with trying to remove limescale from toilet

Do you have to empty the bowl when pouring the coke in? Would imagine it wouldn't have the same effect if water was left in?

Spirits of Salts - available from hardware shops is the real thing. But it is a very nasty substance and you must follow the instructions scrupulously and wear protective goggles ...
It is very effective.

The advantage of emptying the bowl is that it increases the concentration - you're using neat coke rather than coke diluted in the water already there.

Bleach will not and cannot shift limescale - it can remove the colour and make it less noticeable, but it cannot remove it. Bleach is an alkali and to disolve limescale you need something acidic. The toilet cleaners promising "100% limescale removal" (like the black bottle / green lid "bottle of doom" - this one?) will have an acid as the active ingredient.

Another one you can try is to fill the bowl with boiling water (empty it first if you're feeling really enthusiastic) and then add a bottle of white spirit vinegar. The heat will give the whole thing a helping hand.

Thanks Tangle . . will give the coke a go first . . if no luck with that will try white vinegar and boiling water at weekend

I bought some tablets from tesco in a black n white box, went over night.

I second the white vinegar it works really well, the limescale comes off like lumps of plastic!

but it def. helps to empty the bowl first and leave overnight.

Ignorant question here, but how do you empty the bowl?

I think you somehow prop up the ballcock (the big orange ball!) in the cistern so it doesn't move when the water level drops, and flush the loo HTH

3 -4 extra strength steradent tablets

I just 'pump' the water with a toilet brush (if I dare mention such an offending item), this pushes it past the U-bend. Keep doing until the level drops.

Or you could use a small jug or pot if your nerve is tough enough

Thanks. We have a leaking toilet at the moment, at the base, it's soaking through all my tea towels

need to go and see about turning the water off.

I think TESCO cheap and cheerful toilet limescale remover is fab and very cheap. Even on toilets in a new house only needed one go but if very bad might need 2 or 3. I think it is about 79p

Just dont use too many chemicals at once. I did once and a worrying explosive toxic 'smoke' was emitting from the toilet. I think I may have inadvertentdly mixed together in my toilet the raw materials required for a homemade bomb That's 'extreme cleaning' for you

Whatever you do don't mix bleach and acid - you'll produce chlorine gas, which attacks your mucous membranes (eyes, lungs...). Unless you can handle working out the chemical reactions on paper, don't mix cleaning products at all!

Re. emptying the bowl, unless you have a funny suction toilet, you'll need to wedge the ball cock and bail it out - most flush toilets use the new water to push the contents of the bowl round the U-bend: No more water, no flush...

Agree with lilymaid - my Mum bought some Sprits of Salt (love the name, sounds spritual/organic, but very not!) after much gagging and eyerolling at my 3boy toilet and now you could mix your cocktails in it!