Help! Have nearly 1cm thick limescale in toilet bowl. How do I get rid of it.

mishkanorman

We had the same problem although thicker than yours, took me months of overnight treatments and scrubbing - in the end i took a screwdriver to the thickest part and chipped at it till it cracked. I pulled out lumps that were almost 3cm at the thickest point :eek:


Before anyone makes remarks about it, this was in a property that had stood empty for months in a very hard water area

mart.vader

Gastines2 wrote: »

Not sure if it is still available over the counter from chemists but I used to re-furb stores all over the country and one of my first jobs would be to clean the toilets and kitchen before I,or any of my workmates had to use them. I used to get a bottle of Spirits of Salts and pour it down the loo.Will shift anything.Don't inhale any fumes or get it on your skin.

Bought some spirits of salts yesterday from Selco - £1.69 per 500ml bottle.

vaio

another vote for coke

Avoriaz

choille wrote: »

Yes, agree, Cola works a treat - just imagine what it does to kiddies insides.

Nothing much physically.

The natural acids in human stomachs are more acidic than Cola.

Cola is between 2 and 4 pH

Stomach acid is 1.5 to 3.5 pH

Gastric acid is a digestive fluid, formed in the stomach. It has a pH of 1.5 to 3.5 and is composed of hydrochloric acid (HCl) (around 0.5%, or 5000 parts per million) as high as 0.1 M,[1] and large quantities of potassium chloride (KCl) and sodium chloride (NaCl). The acid plays a key role in digestion of proteins, by activating digestive enzymes, and making ingested proteins unravel so that digestive enzymes break down the long chains of amino acids.

Because of the high levels of acidity, your stomach lining renews itself every few weeks.

The sugar, useless calories and other additives in Cola are far more harmful than the acids.

googler

skivenov wrote: »

Lid off the cistern.
Flush it.
Hold the ballcock down.
Fill it with Rola Cola.
Flush and leave it for as long as possible.

Why do you need to introduce Cola into the cistern, and flush it into the bowl?

If the limescale is below the waterline in the bowl, surely that's the place to add the Cola/Cleaner/whatever.....

...and you hold the ballcock up, surely, to stop the cistern refilling with water?

dumpallhere

mart.vader wrote: »

Bought some spirits of salts yesterday from Selco - £1.69 per 500ml bottle.

Do they sell to retail customers? I was looking at their website and it says "trade only".

Chris25

If you stick a loo brush down the pan & keep pumping up & down, that should move most of the water into the U bend.

A pumice stone will help to get rid of some of the limescale.

Spirit of salts should def do the job - pay heed to Gastines advice, it's powerful stuff. Your local pharmacy may be able to order it for you.

Davesnave

dumpallhere wrote: »

Do they sell to retail customers? I was looking at their website and it says "trade only".

http://www.travisperkins.co.uk/p/spirits-of-salts-500ml/840383/3893397?acceptCookies=yes
:cool:

mart.vader

dumpallhere wrote: »

Do they sell to retail customers? I was looking at their website and it says "trade only".

Ah, yes, I forgot, that's true, you need to have an account, but in my local branch, it's no big problem whether you are public or trade.

I'm public, but I have an account there. If you need something, just ask someone who has a trade card to add it to their purchase, give them the money, and get the product when they've bought it.

Kernel_Sanders

googler wrote: »

Why do you need to introduce Cola into the cistern, and flush it into the bowl?

If the limescale is below the waterline in the bowl, surely that's the place to add the Cola/Cleaner/whatever.....

...and you hold the ballcock up, surely, to stop the cistern refilling with water?

Bit of a blunder from skivenov there, it's up, of course. But s/he's right about the flush, because limescale gets under the rim. Also ,I imagine it would take 3 or 4 2l bottles of cola to actually enable a flush.