Thursday, September 02, 2010

How to Remove Hard Water Stains

I grew up with a spotless home.  My mother was very good about keeping everything in tip-top shape.  I picked up quite a few pointers from her, but dealing with hard water stains was something I didn't know anything about.

If you have hard water, you've more than likely have seen stains appear in your bathroom or kitchen where there is a water source.  The minerals from the hard water build up over time, and are not easily scrubbed off.  I've found the best cleaner at attacking hard water stains is vinegar.

Here is my kitchen sink faucet before I started cleaning.


Yikes, huh?!


Here are the steps I took to treating this baby.

1.  I took a few paper towels,  soaked them in white vinegar and wrapped them around the faucet.


2.  I'd pop in with a toothbrush every 6 hours or so and scrub away the hard water stains and then reapply the paper towels.  After 1 day of letting the faucet soak, it looked like this.


It was looking much better already.  But it still wasn't clean enough so I reapplied the paper towels, added a little vinegar and let it soak for about 3 more days, still popping in with a tooth brush every once and a while.  Here's what it looks like now.


It looks much better.  Although, it's still not completely back to new, I couldn't deal with the vinegar smell anymore.  I've heard that you can mix a little lemon juice in with the vinegar to help it along.  Has anyone tried this?  If you have any pointers, I'd love to hear them.

12 comments:

Virginia said...

I know it's not exactly eco-friendly, but I've always had great luck with Clorox wipes. :)

Ashley D said...

I don't know if you're trying to be green, but I use "The Works", toilet bowl cleaner. It's cheap!(like $1). It also WORKS. We have hard water really bad where I live, and this stuff is amazing.

Just be sure to wear gloves!

Ashley D said...

Here is a link: http://www.theworkscleans.com/toiletcleaner.html#

You can get it at Walmart.

deb said...

Ashley- Do you use this on things other than your toilet bowl?

Ashley D said...

Yes! Be sure to wear gloves. I used it in the bathtub. You have to be careful though. It's really strong, so only use little amounts at a time.

It eats everything. Rust, hard water, etc.

Shannon said...

I LOVE Barkeepers Friend. Have you ever tried that? I don't know without looking on the can if it is for hard water, but it makes anything stainless steel look all sparkly shiny. I use it on my sink, pans, anything that I want to shine and it doesn't have a strong scent.

deb said...

I love hearing all the suggestions. Thank you so, so much!!

Pecancatcher said...

I use a single edged razor blade to scrape the crud off after soaking, works on the smooth surface stove top too.

Valerie said...

I use those Magic Erasers from Mr. Clean. They really get my stainless steel sinks super shiny. I haven't really tried them on hard water stains, but they were great on my gunky glass shower doors.

Dustin said...

Lemi Shine works on this too. You can check out their alternative uses at http://www.LemiShine.com

gr8skott said...

I use a product called Lime-A-Way. It comes in a bright green spray bottle in the cleaning products section. It removes calcium, lime, and rust deposits quickly.

Kaitlyn young said...

Just did this today at work with apple cider vinegar. Let it soak all day and it did the trick! Awesome stuff :)