How to Remove Hard Water Stains in a Toilet

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Updated June 19, 2022

 

Whether you’re a first-time property owner or renting your new place, odds are you may come into contact with some hard water. Water is considered “hard” if it has a high concentration of dissolved minerals like magnesium and calcium. Groundwater often percolates through limestone where it picks up calcium and magnesium deposits. Drinking water can also contain trace minerals like iron, which gets picked up from the soil, lakes, and rivers as well as older, corroded plumbing. In some regions, hard water may also contain manganese or aluminum.

 

What’s The Solution To Hard Water?

There are a few different ways residents can choose to tackle the problems caused by hard water in their homes. The first is to invest in water-conditioning or water-softening services. Especially if you’re planning on living in your current home or property for a long time, installing filtering or softening hardware is one of the best decisions you can make. Say goodbye to bad-smelling water, constantly clogged pipes, and itchy, dry skin with softening equipment that gets installed on top of pre-existing plumbing. Water softeners remove the problematic chemicals and mineral deposits at the source, so you won’t have to worry about limescale or magnesium building up in your home again. However, once you’ve dealt with the problem at the source, you still have to deal with the remaining damage caused by hard water stains. That’s where we come in handy!

 

Say Goodbye To Hard Water Stains With Our Time-Tested Technique

One of the worst offenders of hard water stains is toilet bowls. The rusty red and orange streaks left behind by iron and calcium deposits are highly visible and ugly, they can also prove extremely difficult to remove. Regular cleaning products might trigger a chemical reaction which only further stains the minerals into your toilet bowl, so it’s important to know exactly how to clean your toilet for an effective and lasting treatment that will remove every trace of hard water. Our time-tested technique is 100% effective in removing any hard water stain, so people won’t even know you ever struggled with it.

 

Materials Needed

• Plastic Cleaning Gloves
• Baking Soda
• White Distilled Cleaning Vinegar
• Toilet Brush
• Rag

The Process Step by Step

01  Drain Your Toilet

Start by shutting off your water supply and then removing the lid of the bowl. Then, flush the toilet, keeping the flush lever depressed until the water level inside the bowl empties as much as possible. If there’s still some water left, use a towel to soak up additional water.

 

02  Fill The Bowl with Vinegar

Pour vinegar into the toilet until it covers every hard stain and scum ring. Let sit for about 5 minutes.

03  Add Baking Soda

Add about 1 cup of baking soda to the toilet bowl. Use a toilet brush or a rag to spread the vinegar and baking soda around the sides of the bowl, then let it sit for about 15 minutes. For particularly stubborn stains, you can soak a paper towel in the vinegar/soda paste and stick it directly onto the stain or scum marks.

 

 

04  Scrub Some More

Scrub your toilet again, swishing the paste around until it covers all the stains thoroughly. Let this mixture sit for 40 minutes before finally turning your water supply back on and flushing to rinse. Repeat as needed until all stains are gone.

 

Though this recipe may seem simple, it’s proven to succeed. Tackle all the challenges of hard water stains today through our time-tested techniques and put an end to hard water stains in your home.

Where Else Does Hard Water Affect Us

Hard water sediments can also carry potentially harmful bacteria along with them; research done in 2014 found hard water scaling is directly responsible for bacterial growth in residential drinking water. If your home gets water from a well, you most likely have hard water, and up to 85% of homes or buildings across the country are likely to have hard water in their taps. Hard water problems can be a real hassle, especially for new homeowners who may be unfamiliar with the issues it causes. Here are just a few problems that hard water causes in your home:

 

Clothes look dingy, worn out, and don’t feel or smell clean.

Some research estimates that clothes that are washed in hard water last almost half as long as other items washed in filtered or softened water.

 

Skin and hair irritation and damage.

Washing your hair in hard water can cause build-up that makes it tangle easily, look dull and feel rough. While showering or bathing in hard water with soap can leave a film on your skin, which can prevent the removal of dirt and bacteria. This film can also irritate skin, especially sensitive or younger skin.

 

Soap scum build-up.

Hard water prevents soap from cleaning and dissolving completely. Instead, the soap bonds with the minerals in the water to form a film that sticks to everything and causes a soap scum ring in the bathtub or toilet.

 

Cleaning feels next to impossible.

The hard deposits left behind after hard water dries are called limescale, a mineral that is incredibly difficult to remove and can even cause chemical reactions that make cleaning products less effective.

 

Permanent damage to glass fixtures.

Mineral deposits can become so bad that there is a chemical change that permanently damages glass material. For example, if you have a glass shower door with a white, cloudy residue that never seems to come off completely, those stains are likely permanent because the chemicals in your hard water have etched the glass and permanently ruined the finish.

 

Plumbing and appliance damage.

Plated plumbing fixtures discolored by mineral buildup are often beyond restoration because the chemicals eat through the coating. You may see mineral build-up around drains, faucets, and on shower heads, as well as in common appliances like dishwashers, coffeemakers, and more. These deposits can damage the rubber washers that seal the fixtures, creating leaks that can cause even more damage.

Solving those problems

can vastly improve your family’s quality of life and get things back to normal again. It can also save you some serious cash- it’s estimated that hard water can cost property owners upwards of $800 a year. No matter your situation, finding a solution to your hard water problems is essential to achieving your healthiest and happiest life.