DIY: How To Remove Hard Water Stains
Hard water stains can affect your home in many ways. Likewise, it’s one of those things people tend to forget when it comes to cleaning. There are plenty of prevention methods you can take to stop hard water buildup from forming quickly, like keeping your surfaces around water dry.
But if you live in a municipality with hard water, hard water buildup is inevitable unless you have a water softener.
Certain parts of the Pittsburgh area are more likely to have hard water than others. Hard water contains more calcium and magnesium ions. Stains can happen when this mineral-rich water evaporates and leaves surface residue. This is most commonly seen on metal, glass, porcelain or glass in your bathroom and kitchen.
How to remove hard water stains from your shower doors
Hard water stains on shower doors are some of the most common — especially if you are a new homeowner and your predecessor did not take proper care of their shower door hard water stains, it could be years of buildup accumulated, which could make for a tough job, particularly around the edges.
Let the juice soak in for a few minutes and overpower the stains. It really overpowers the stains with some time.
For tough stains around the edges, you can also make a paste with vinegar and baking soda. Baking soda is a versatile product, and cleaning tough stains is no exception.
Plus, it provides a bit of a science experiment with the solution it formulates with the acidic vinegar solution. Use some sort of abrasive material that won’t scratch the glass, such as an old toothbrush.
Use vinegar and water to spray and rinse. If you are looking for a store-bought solution to hard water stains, Barkeeper’s Friend is a good place to start.
Remove hard water stains from your toilet or tub
Pour a cup of vinegar and a half cup of baking soda into your toilet bowl and swish it around with your toilet brush. This will result in a small chemical reaction with fizzing. Give it about 10 minutes to do its work. DO NOT flush the toilet. You can also substitute borax for baking soda.
Remove hard water stains from your bathroom faucets and shower head
Get a rag from an old shirt and submerge it in white vinegar, so that it is completely soaked. Wrap this rag around the base of your faucet for one hour. Remove and use an old sponge to wipe off the buildup. Buildup on the shower head disrupting your flow? Same thing.
Remove your shower head and soak it in a bag filled with vinegar for 12 hours. Want better results? Use a rough surface for scrubbing, such as an old toothbrush.
Why does vinegar work so well on hard water stains?…
Vinegar works well against pretty much any type of hard water buildup. The reason for this is the acetic acid that acts as a solvent to get rid of the mineral deposits. Vinegar is corrosion-resistant and also light on your wallet.
Vinegar is strictly a temporary cure to a larger problem that will continue to return. The only way to get rid of these stains for good is to consider a water softener.
Likewise, some stains that may seem like hard water could be mineral buildup from other factors, such as low pH or iron. Get your water tested for FREE by Culligan today to find out what’s in your water, and what you can do to ultimately solve your stained bathroom fixtures for good!