Battling limescale in the bathroom is an ongoing nightmare – chalky taps, shower heads and grimy toilets repeatedly need to be tackled when living in an area of hard water.
While limescale is mainly comprised of calcium and magnesium compounds, the stain can appear brown inside of a toilet bowl.
These brown stains make it look as though you hardly clean around the home – even if you do! One woman, desperate to eradicate the “thick” limescale lining her toilet, wrote in to Mrs Hinch Cleaning Tips and Tricks Facebook group.
Sharing an image of her brown-stained loo, all of which is under the water line, the woman pleaded: “Anyone able to suggest anything to me?”
She continued: “My toilet has had thick limescale since we moved in last year… I have got the worst of it off with bicarbonate of soda and vinegar.
“Sadly this is the end result and no more will come off! It looks awful and I hate it! Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.”
The plea drew numerous responses with many cleaning enthusiasts suggesting one natural item – citric acid. One member of the Facebook group shared a helpful tip: “We used everything and literally the only thing that cleared it up is using citric acid.”
Echoing the sentiment, somebody else relayed her own success: “I had the exact same and couldn’t seem to shift it with baking soda and vinegar.
“What worked was removing as much water out of the toilet as possible and leaving it as long as possible with citric acid.”
Another person advised: “Empty the water out of the toilet, fill it with citric acid and leave it overnight and when you flush the toilet it will all come off. I did it to a toilet last week and I was so shocked by how easy it came away.”
Sympathising with the original member who asked for help, another woman said: “I live in a very hard water area and this can happen so easily if not kept on top of.
“But when it was that thick the only way I could get rid was to use citric acid and using it regularly has kept it away.”
An alternative suggestion was Black Harpic Power Plus, which is available in supermarkets, such as Sainsbury’s, Asda and Waitrose. A fellow cleaning enthusiast beamed: “Put it in overnight, it peels off the next morning. So satisfying!”
