Stained Bath

celyn90

Hi Tim, Vinegar won't touch the enamel so your fine to leave it. White vinegar is actually a very very weak acid and it reacts with the limescale giving you a soluble salt which you can wash away and carbon dioxide. The reaction might be a bit slower if the limescale is really hard and greasy, but it should come off no problems. You might need to apply some elbow grease, scratching the surface of the deposit a bit will actually help as it allows the acid to penetrate the limescale and get in and react - (larger surface area for reaction) rinse the deposit and add fresh vinegar every now and again. Citric acid will also do the job (some (but not all) commerical descalers contain this).

For taps, I use old sock soaked in vinegar strecthed over the tap and left overnight - looks sparkling when the sock is removed the following morning for no work whatsoever

Pink.

Hi tim,

As ceyln has said vinegar shouldn't harm the bath.

Recently I needed to remove some limescale from around a tap.....I soaked it in vinegar which just ran off, then came up with using kitchen towel (soaked in vinegar) wrapped around it to keep the vinegar on for longer. This really helped....a good scrub with a toothbrush finished the job off.

This older thread may help:

Cleaning enamel baths-suggestions?

Pink

FBThree

Hi Pink,

I saw Kim & Aggie do something similar - they wrapped the tap with the soaked kitchen towel, then held that in place for half an hour with a plastic bag and and elastic band.

If anyone can recommend someone who re-enamels enamel baths I'd appreciate it. Mine has been chipped as well as been damaged by the wrong cleaners being used. I think it'll cost something like £460 to get it re-enammelled and that's without paying the plumber to take it out/put it in again.... so to speak.

tim_n

mine has a chalky feeling on the bottom of the bath so I guess mine has been damanged as well - but it looks ok and doesn't stain except where the water is pooling around the limescale.

grumperina

I realise this thread is old, but some people - like me - will come across it via search engines.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I just now tried the mixture of cream of tartar and peroxide to remove marks from an enamel bath. The mix yellowed on contact with the bath, so I washed it off straight away. It has left a delightful bright yellow stain where it was applied, which I cannot remove. I am now left with a worse problem than before. :mad:

If the ingredients need to be added in particular proportions to prevent this, then this should be included.

mary43

Glad this thread came up...............we've got an old cast iron enamel bath and it has stains in it, almost as it a taps been left running if you know what I mean...........its all up the tap end of the bath and I wondered if it was a stain from the water or something. It's got no worse over the last 20 years we've been here............we clean it regularly but it's no better.

luckybowls

silverlady wrote: »

I have just bought a house with an enameled cast iron bath which has no chips or rust but it appears some-one has used something which has left discoloured run type marks on thesurface.
Can any one help and suggest how I can remove these marks? I know the bath can be re-surfaced but that's expensive.
Thanks

Hi I've just used Cillit Bang Power Cleaner SPRAY on my enamel bath and my bath looks exactly as you described, patchy and runs - I was furious as when I read the small print on the spray bottle it said not suitable for enamel. So I decided to look up 'stained baths' on the internet and found this site.
I haven't got any peroxide or cream of tartare but will definitely try it. Can I ask what volume peroxide you used 40%?? I'll let you know what happens
Although my bath is not new it just looks so unsightly, so if anyone else has made this mistake BEWARE it is due to CILLIT BANG!

whowatcher

I made a similar mistake luckybowls and have been searching the internet for an answer. How have you got on?

5chickens

luckybowls wrote: »

Hi I've just used Cillit Bang Power Cleaner SPRAY on my enamel bath and my bath looks exactly as you described, patchy and runs - I was furious as when I read the small print on the spray bottle it said not suitable for enamel. So I decided to look up 'stained baths' on the internet and found this site.
I haven't got any peroxide or cream of tartare but will definitely try it. Can I ask what volume peroxide you used 40%?? I'll let you know what happens
Although my bath is not new it just looks so unsightly, so if anyone else has made this mistake BEWARE it is due to CILLIT BANG!

Did anyone get any results for this please?

Ben84

A lot of cleaning products will wreck baths and often you won't realise while applying them because the water hides the scratches you're making. Often the most effective cleaning products are scratchy or contain acids that etch the finish.

However, if the finish is damaged you can get the bath polished. We did this when we moved house and it has worked well, the bath looks like new, it has lasted years and is very easy to clean. The catch is that polishing basically removes the top layer of the enamel so you can't keep doing it. Good cheap way to save an old bath though and if you clean it carefully after that you'll be fine. I normally use washing up liquid/stardrops and a cloth (no green scouring pads) or soda crystal solution - just dissolve fully first in hot water or those crystals are scratchy.

Definably don't try limescale removers, scouring powders, washing powder or bleach. Maybe I'm overly careful, but my bath is ancient and still looks new, so it must be working.