How to easily clean a toilet and remove rust and limescale?

How to clean a toilet from brown deposits? What products can be used to remove stone and rust without titanic efforts? We will find out why plaque and rust form on the toilet and inside the tank, and also consider the main cleaning products, their advantages and disadvantages.

Why does plaque form?

To understand how to clean a toilet at home, you need to determine what type of contamination is most important in your case. There are few difficult-to-remove contaminants, usually they are the following.

• Urine stone. It consists of complex mineral salts that fall onto the surface of the toilet bowl and under the rim with urine. Often the problem appears in families where household members forget to flush the toilet or the toilet itself is rarely subjected to preventive treatment. If a urinary stone has already formed, it is difficult to get rid of it; conventional means do not cope well with it.
• Limescale. In homes with high water hardness, the calcium salts it contains eventually settle in the tank and on the walls of the toilet. Various other types of contaminants quickly accumulate on top of the limescale. To whiten the toilet, in this case, acid-based products are used.
• Rust. The appearance of rusty streaks is also associated with water quality. This could be old, rusty water pipes or water with a high iron content from a well.

Mechanical damage to earthenware contributes to the accumulation of dirt. There is no need to wash the surface of the toilet bowl and cistern with metal brushes or coarse abrasive materials. Also, you should not pour hot water into the toilet - this will cause microcracks to form on the surface.

To improve water quality, various filters are used or preventive agents are constantly added to the toilet cistern in the form of special blisters and tablets.

Household chemicals

The easiest way to properly remove urinary stone and rust is to use household chemicals intended for toilets. The industry offers many solutions and powders, but they can all be divided into four categories.

• Chlorine-based products. They perfectly clean and disinfect the surface, do not corrode earthenware and do not leave behind microcracks. They eliminate foreign odors, but they themselves do not smell very pleasant. Suitable for daily maintenance of plumbing fixtures.
• Alkaline products. These are liquid solutions containing caustic soda. Such products allow you to get rid of surface contaminants, they have virtually no odor, disinfect well and do not damage the surface of the toilet bowl. Alkalis dissolve fats perfectly, so it is recommended to wash plumbing fixtures with clogs of organic origin using these products.
• Acid based products. These chemicals go into battle against old deposits of urinary stones and rust. With their help you can remove limescale deposits in the toilet. Most often, the product contains oxalic, formic, orthophosphoric, hydrochloric acids or a mixture of them. It is not recommended to frequently wash earthenware and ceramics with acid, as it corrodes the surface to some extent, and in addition, acid vapors are bad for health.
• Cleaning powders. To remove stone from the tank and toilet, you need to flush and scoop out the water, and then scrub off the dirt with powder using a stiff, non-metallic sponge. With frequent use, such powders also contribute to the appearance of roughness on the surface of the plumbing fixtures, in which dirt will accumulate.

Advice

When choosing a toilet bowl cleaner, give preference to gels and cream formulations. Compared to liquid and powder products, they are more economical and easy to use.

As for specific brands, judging by user reviews, “Silit”, “Toilet duckling” and “Sanitary gel” cope with all types of pollution. Domestos and Breff remove rust well. Universal products intended not only for toilets, but also for ceramic tiles - “Komet Universal”, “Santry”, “Sanitol”, “Sarma”, “Gel WC 5+” - suitable for daily care, sanitation and removal of fresh deposits .

Folk remedies

To clean the toilet from urinary stones, you can resort to folk remedies. Water is removed from the toilet and cistern, the product is applied for about one hour, then the surface must be washed with a brush or a hard sponge. Don't forget to use rubber gloves - almost all compounds act aggressively on the skin of your hands.

• Vinegar essence. This is pure, undiluted vinegar and is sold in small glass bottles. Apply to contaminated areas, rub with a brush after an hour.
• Lemon acid. Two or three tablespoons of acid are poured into the toilet and water tank and left for several hours. Then you can simply rinse it off with water or clean it with a brush. Repeat several times until all plaque is washed off.
• Vinegar and iodine. Table vinegar (9%) in the amount of one glass is heated to a temperature of 40-50 °C. Add a little soda or iodine solution to the heated solution. Pour the mixture into the toilet without water, close the lid and leave overnight.
• "Coca-Cola" or "Whiteness". Using these products you can whiten the toilet and remove rust and stone. Pour 1-1.5 liters of product into a dry toilet bowl and leave overnight.

If the stains cannot be removed the first time, repeat until the desired result is achieved. Sometimes old deposits that have accumulated over the years do not respond to any effort. Then the “heavy artillery” comes into play.

We are taking tough measures

Complex stains are removed using concentrated acids. When working with chemicals at home, use rubber gloves, a protective gown or plastic apron, and a respirator. Do not close the doors to the toilet, and after treatment, thoroughly rinse the toilet and thoroughly ventilate the room as a whole.

• Dry oxalic acid. Technical acid is sold in powder form. It is applied to a piece of cloth and the dirt is rubbed off by hand. When washing the toilet this way, you need to take precautions.
• Electrolyte for acid batteries. This substance allows you to get rid of difficult-to-remove plaque. Contains concentrated acid. Cannot be used if sewer pipes are made of plastic. Pour it into the toilet, and after half an hour or an hour, wash it off with water.
• Hydrochloric acid. Sold in plumbing stores, usually used for cleaning water heaters in gas boilers, water heaters, etc. The principle is the same as with electrolyte. With its help you can get rid of all types of stone.
• Iodine monochloride. Liquid product, you can buy it in veterinary pharmacies. Perfectly removes all types of stone. The solution is poured over the contaminated areas and almost immediately washed off with water - the product eats away lime deposits and rust within a few minutes. Cannot be used in homes where sewer pipes are made of cast iron. Iodine monochloride is also aggressive to aluminum.

And finally, we note that it is undesirable to use potent products too often - they spoil the surface of the plumbing fixtures, leaving microdamages on it. After washing off the limescale and stone once, sanitize the toilet regularly. If you have bad water, install house filters or use special tablets to prevent the formation of plaque in the tank and toilet.