gross toilet ! How to get rid of limescale

[sportY]

Our toilet has developed what looks like limescale in the bottom of it that I can't shift. The only way I can slightly remove it is by scraping it with a knife!!! But i'm worried about leaving scrape marks on the porcelain.

Does anyone know of any homemade concoctions that will !!!! the darn stuff?
I've tried the really good branded stuff but it doesn't work and costs a fortune.

Be grateful for your recomendations.
Thanks

[Ted_Hutchinson]

If you could get the water out of the toilet you could spray it with WD40 and it should rub off.

[squeaky]

Hiya, and... Yep! Coca cola left overnight.

I've seen other tips too - let me go look... watch this space I'll edit this post when I find others

[sportY]

I've heard about coca cola - but does it really work???

[sportY]

WD40? Hmmmmmm....just need to find an easy way of getting the water out of the loo then..... would I need to soak it in wd40 for long??

[squeaky]

Originally Posted by sportY

I've heard about coca cola - but does it really work???

So I'm told

A good dose of vinegar (distilled for preference) left overnight works too. This I know for sure 'cos I've used this one Saved me an edit.

[apprentice tycoon]

If you can find long wooden skewers these will be kinder to your porcelain to scratch off the limescale. When the loo is all clear you can keep it that way by using the AmbiPur type cleaners that hang over the edge of the bowl - when it's empty you can fill it with neat bleach, this works far better than the AmbiPur and you can re-fill dozens of times for just pennies. This drip, drip, drip of bleach keeps the bowl clean

[sportY]

ooo...good tip on the Ambi Pur thingies.....

[sportY]

Does distilled vinegar stink less that the normal Sarsons stuff???
I'm off away for the weekend so I could levae it in all weekend so it would have loads of time to work!!

[squeaky]

Distilled is a LOT less smelly, yes. All weekend would be a real winner

[Ted_Hutchinson]

Originally Posted by sportY

WD40? Hmmmmmm....just need to find an easy way of getting the water out of the loo then..... would I need to soak it in wd40 for long??

From the WD40 website Clear out limescale and mucky build up with a quick spray of WD-40 onto a cloth. You can give it a bit of a scrub for a nice shiny finish. I've not used it down the loo but I sprayed it round my taps and gave them a rub and they came up fine. Didn't bother about letting it soak.

If you wrapped a cloth round the toilet brush and used it like a plunger you could probably shunt enough water down the pipe to get at the limescale.

[jue]

I recently had a limescale problem, bought some lemon toilet cleaner from Lidl and the limescale came off following an overnight soak. It's really great stuff, thick and smells nice too.

[Mado]

I suppose if you are going to use the vinegar trick you may want to fill the toilet with boiling water before hand. Heat accelerates the dissolution reaction.

[Bossyboots]

Originally Posted by apprentice tycoon

If you can find long wooden skewers these will be kinder to your porcelain to scratch off the limescale. When the loo is all clear you can keep it that way by using the AmbiPur type cleaners that hang over the edge of the bowl - when it's empty you can fill it with neat bleach, this works far better than the AmbiPur and you can re-fill dozens of times for just pennies. This drip, drip, drip of bleach keeps the bowl clean

A warning on these ones you hang over the side of the toilet. They can get knocked into the pan and flushed away. There is then a real risk of your pipe getting blocked.

This happened to us and we were lucky it was close enough for us to get to. A bit further and we would have been in real trouble.

[culpepper]

Originally Posted by Mado

I suppose if you are going to use the vinegar trick you may want to fill the toilet with boiling water before hand. Heat accelerates the dissolution reaction.

NO! ...........it cracks the toilet bowl!!!!
cold vinegar left as long as possible will help.

[elvis_bloggs]

Would someone who suffers with acidity be of any use if they had a pee in it.

[moggins]

If you're not afraid to put your hands down the loo then you can rub the limescale away with a pumice stone. Mine was completely manky when I moved in and I did this to mine, it came up like new

[Chipps]

Vinegar dissolves calcium, which is what limescale is made of, so if you can get vinegar on the yukky part for long enough it will do the job.
(for a science experiment, try leaving an eggshell in vinegar, and see what happens. Eggshells are also made of calcium)

[Austin Allegro]

Easiest way is just pour a litre of bleach into the bowl and leave for 24 hours or overnight. It should come up completely clean. The difficult part is keeping this up by adding a squirt of bleach every day or so.

[katiepops]

You can get Harpic bleach tablets in Wilkos for about £1 a box - they work really well too (they look like diswasher tablets - two different colours).

Kate