Browse Forums Bathrooms and Laundry Re: Removing water? stains from an old toilet 21Jul 16, 2014 7:39 pm Thank you all AGAIN! More progress below. I'm 95% there. See new results from 6. onwards. Basically, removing as much water as you can (with a little washing powder scoop) gets best results (but what an interestingly foul smell!). 1. Gumption, Jif, Domestos - didn't work. 2. A cup of usual washing powder left to soak overnight/24 hours - got rid of heaps but not all. 3. McKenzie's Citric Acid (the 75 gm little container from the cake aisle, $2.30 Woolworths) added to bowl water, stirred to dissolve, left to soak 15 hours - got rid of some parts beautifully, but left stubborn stains down each side at the bottom where you can hardly see and some in the middle. Maybe I should have taken out more water and used bulk citric acid?? Hopefully the word "acid" doesn't mean it's giving the toilet bowl cancer or something. 4. Half a cup of vinegar in bowl water with generous dollop of Bicarb Soda, scrubbed with toilet brush and flushed immediately - no fizz and didn't work. 5. Used cup to get rid of lots of water then added vinegar and bicarb soda again, big fizz, left 10 hours, scrubbed with yellow sponge/green scourer thing, added more vinegar and bicarb to scourer and scrubbed away - removed even more, but still those stubborn stains remain! 6. TOOK OUT LOTS OF WATER! (Ugh - foul smell) Tried leaving bicarb of soda paste on for couple of hours, then scrubbing – didn’t really work. 7. TOOK OUT LOTS OF WATER Threw in vinegar and a heap of bicarb and soaked overnight, then scrubbed – made a significant difference!!!!! Now there are only brown/faded to grey stains left down the bottom on the sides, almost out of sight. Near enough is good enough. But it isn't! I’m determined to keep experimenting until I get rid of the last bit. I might give the Alka-Seltzer a go, or more citric acid in bigger concentrate this time, or another soaking of fizzy vinegar/bicarb. I haven't tried the CLR, but someone else did and only achieved 40% result. Whatever I do, I’ll scoop out as much water as I can. Re: Removing water? stains from an old toilet 23Jul 21, 2014 5:56 pm FIXED FIXED FIXED and something unbelievable happened at the end! Read to see! But to cut a long story short, citric acid finally worked for me, although other stuff helped along the way and also might have done the job eventually, but you have to scoop as much water as you can out of the toilet bowl (with a washing detergent scoop), plus try it more than once, plus leave it for 24 hours each time, plus scrub away as well (maybe with something else such as Domestos or whatever). And to Crazy K – you are darn right, I have become ocd about this toilet!! Here is the process I went through, if anyone is interested, but do go to the end for the final "happening". 1. Gumption, Jif, Domestos - didn't work. 2. A cup of usual washing powder left to soak overnight/24 hours - got rid of heaps but not all. 3. McKenzie's Citric Acid (the 75 gm little container from the cake aisle, $2.30 Woolworths) added to bowl water, stirred to dissolve, left to soak 15 hours - got rid of some parts beautifully, but left stubborn stains down each side at the bottom where you can hardly see and some in the middle. Maybe I should have taken out more water and used bulk citric acid?? Hopefully the word "acid" doesn't mean it's giving the toilet bowl cancer or something. 4. Half a cup of vinegar in bowl water with generous dollop of Bicarb Soda, scrubbed with toilet brush and flushed immediately - no fizz and didn't work. 5. Used cup to get rid of lots of water then added vinegar and bicarb soda again, big fizz, left 10 hours, scrubbed with yellow sponge/green scourer thing, added more vinegar and bicarb to scourer and scrubbed away - removed even more, but still those stubborn stains remain! 6. TOOK OUT LOTS MORE WATER! (Ugh - foul smell left) Tried leaving bicarb of soda paste on for couple of hours, then scrubbing – didn’t really work. 7. TOOK OUT LOTS OF WATER Threw in vinegar and a heap of bicarb and soaked overnight, then scrubbed – made a significant difference!!!!! Now there are only brown/faded to grey stains left down the bottom on the sides, almost out of sight. Near enough is good enough. But it isn't! 8. Finally, took out lots of water again, and threw in a 75 gm little container of citric acid from the cake aisle, $2.30, second time). Stir to dissolve (but use rubber gloves). 24 hours later, got yellow sponge with green scourer and scrubbed away with a jot of Domestos. Brownish water (I wonder why?). Flushed. Not bad at all!!!! Had another scrub and WHOA a big long thin chunk (shaped in a curve where it had stuck to the toilet bowl) of some brown grey stuff came away – it had been on the bottom largely out of sight. It was almost the same consistency as the toilet bowl itself, but a horrible brown/white/grey – I’m not sure what it was – porcelain or fecal matter or both. In fact, three bits were dislodged. I might take photos. What was left was a beautifully shaped smooth toilet bowl with no rough bits any more. My goodness, I don’t know what I have done, but I am happy. Might be a good idea to ring a toilet manufacturer first to check that citric acid doesn’t destroy toilets. Re: Removing water? stains from an old toilet 24Jul 21, 2014 7:45 pm Ew. Good to know the citric acid did the trick though! And getting rid of the water sounds key. Re: Removing water? stains from an old toilet 27Jul 21, 2014 8:51 pm Lol what a saga. I wouldn't want to be the first one in your household to leave a giant skiddie in the bowl now that it's cleaned... I'm thinking you might take a knife to the person responsible! Completed a knock down and rebuild in northern Melbourne. Handover completed 27/09/2013 and now moved in. Re: Removing water? stains from an old toilet 29Jul 23, 2014 8:54 pm You are all VERY VERY funny!!!!!!!! Thank you for your support. Citric acid, reduce the water as much as possible but still leave some in, and try more than once and leave it to soak over night and also have a good scrub. I regularly pop in there to have an admiring look. So white, apart from some grey shadowing that is the light only. I love the suggestion of the fossilised turd. But I'm thinking it's actually stained porcelain. But what was it doing loose there in the first place? Hi everyone, Have just put a shower in the laundry and after only using it 2-3 times have noticed staining on the grout. The tiles were glued onto a concrete wall after… 0 5453 6 11153 The best advice is for you to get a competent building consultant to guide you through your build 7 4689 |