Learning the basics about how to clean limescale from toilet is fundamental to guarantee the highest levels of hygiene in your home and protect your sanitary hardware.
A stained toilet bowl can indeed be unsightly and potentially embarrassing when guests request to use the restroom. Fortunately, with this brief guide on cleaning limescale stains in your toilet, you’ll require only a few common household products and a bit of elbow grease to achieve a sparkling toilet bowl that won’t evoke horror in your household.
What is limescale?
Limescale forms when calcium and magnesium are deposited as hard water evaporates, leaving behind a chalky, scummy residue that’s often recognised on shower screens, showerheads, drinking glasses, and taps.
The colors of limescale can vary depending on the diverse compounds present in the water entering your home. Typically, limescale appears in shades of off-white or grey.
Why do I have limescale in my toilet?
Hard water has a knack for swiftly accumulating on sinks, showers, and toilets, leaving behind stubborn rust and scale stains that pose a challenge to remove. Additionally, it wreaks havoc on household appliances, hindering water flow in pipes and impeding the performance of various devices.
Among all the areas and appliances in our homes, toilets stand out as particularly problematic. Constantly subjected to heavy use and with stagnant water often present, toilets provide an ideal environment for limescale to flourish, exacerbating the issue.
How to remove toilet stains with home remedies
Bleach may seem like a solution, but it only masks the problem temporarily by bleaching the scale, leading to a short-lived improvement before the stains resurface. The most effective approach involves using an acidic solution that can penetrate and dissolve limescale. Household staples like baking soda and white vinegar serve this purpose well.
The best way to tackle this problem is with an acidic solution, which can cut through the limescale. This can be achieved by using household products like baking soda and white vinegar.
To remove the toilet stains, you will need:
- 3 cups white vinegar
- 1 cup baking soda
- Toilet brush
Step 1: Pour 1 cup of white vinegar directly into the toilet bowl and use a toilet brush to mix this around in the water. Leave it to sit for around one minute.
Step 2: Then, add 1 cup of baking soda to the toilet bowl, followed by 1 to 2 cups of white vinegar. When it begins to fizz, you should let the solution sit for about 10 minutes.
Step 3: Now, use the toilet brush to swish the solution around the bowl, ensuring the solution coats any stains that are above the waterline. Don’t flush the toilet just yet.
Step 4: Let the vinegar and soda mixture sit for up to 30 minutes, swishing it and scrubbing it with a toilet brush a couple of times until the stain has gone. Flush the toilet to rinse the mixture away and you’re finished!
How to prevent limescale build-up in your loo
To maintain the perfect condition of your toilet, it’s advisable to conduct a white vinegar wash regularly – once a week is typically sufficient. Simply add 4 cups of white vinegar to the toilet bowl and allow it to sit overnight before flushing it away in the morning.
For a more permanent solution, preventing limescale buildup altogether is key. This can be achieved by addressing the root cause of hard water through a soft water solution.
A water softener effectively tackles this issue by eliminating the magnesium and calcium present in your water supply via ion exchange. Our team of fully qualified plumbers can install a water softener tailored to your needs, whether it’s placed under the sink, in the loft, in the garage, or outdoors – whichever location suits you best.
