I live in an area where water is hard and has lots of chemicals. I do not have a water softener installed. I'm always struggling with yellow colored rings that develop inside all our toilet bowls - right at the water line edge. I tried several products to remove these rings without much success. Is there a procedure/product that is known to definitely remove these ugly rings ? I know for sure that these rings are caused by the water and not for lack of cleaning. Thank you for your tips !

 

If you can find this product sold in a quart plastic container called Santeen. It is hydrocloric acid and will get rid of most of the thickest mineral deposits. My big box store does not sell the stuff. I get it at the plumbing company. Too dangerous for liability at big box stores, probably. As deadly as this stuff sounds, you can actually leave it in a toilet for days, without wrecking it. It has removed in a few hours, virtually on it's own, the the thickest caked on lime you have ever seen.

But sometimes just that ring can be stubborn, even tho the rest dissolves. In some instances the china may have gotten etched. You can try the Santeen if you can find it, or you can assist it with a razor scraper. The razor will leave gray "scratch marks" which really are't scratches at all, in the bowl. Rather, the china is harder than the metal, and it is metal being deposited on the bowl. Santeen will remove it and sometimes bleach and other products will.

Big box stores also sell a pumice stick for cleaning lime from toilets. You physically get on your knees and start sanding away.

 

Hi, Muratic works great for most problems with toilets. I have however had a problem removing the rings you describe with acid, so I used a pumice stone and that took care of the problem.
Good Luck Woodbutcher

 

I'd recommend trying less toxic and hazardous means to remove the toilet bowl ring before bringing out the big guns. Some resourceful posters report using a pumice stone. Other tips include: scraping with razor blade scraper, CLR, Lime Away, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, vinegar, borax and lemon juice paste, and other tricks.

If ring is yellow, you likely have iron in the water. Bleach and cleaners containing bleach set iron and rust stains. Bleach will not remove mineral deposits.

The simplest and safest method is to use a pumice stone, which acts like an eraser to remove mineral deposits and stains. Turn off water to toilet supply line and flush to drain the toilet. Dump 1/2 gallon vinegar into bowl and let set over night. BarKeeper's Friend and ZUD (now in liquid) are both powdered cleansers that contain rust remover (oxalic acid) and can be used to make a paste with water and applied to stain and left to set. Whatever cleaner you select, give it time to dissolve the deposits. Depending on severity of staining, repeat applications may have to be made.

If you check the plumbing aisle, you will find several products for removing rust, like Iron Out, Rust Out, and others. Should you choose to use a commercial cleaner that contains phosphoric or hydrochloric acid, read label and proceed with caution. If you use bleach or a product containing chlorine bleach, do not mix with any other cleaner.

Giving the toilet bowl a swish with the brush every day helps minimize deposits, as does an extra cleaning of bowl each week. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

 

http://www.santeen.com/Prodloc/productloc1.htm

 

Home Depot here has RUST AWAY it will do the job for you

 

I work at a rest area and which has well water and the water is terrible. We have the same problem with yellow or black rings at the water line and sometimes over night yellow streaks running down the insides of the toilets and urinals.

We use a heavy duty toilet bowl cleaner that has hydrachloric acid (29% by volume) which does nothing for this problem.

The best way I found to remove the stains is to use a product we have called Liquid Creme Cleaner and a white scrub pad. I'm sure something like soft scrub will work but as mentioned in another post, punch all the water out of the bowel and scrub by hand. You'll also want to scrub under the rim because I'll almost bet you'll have yellow there as well.

Good luck.

 

most of the time stains cant really set into the porecelin so its just caked onto the surface...some mild abrasive cleaners also contain a little bit of bleach which may help matters

 

bleach for general cleaning and CLR for stains.
never had a problem with these 2 that they couldn`t handle

 

just like to add....never mix bleach or any clr type product with anything else...use in small amounts with adequate ventilation.

 

Big box stores, and even Wal*Mart do cary Hydrocloric Acid in its strongest form (10 Molar) it is just that for commercial use they call it muriatic acid. From the wiki

"Historically called muriatic acid, and spirits of salt, hydrochloric acid was produced from vitriol (sulfuric acid) and common salt."

You can also get sulfuric acid at the same big box stores.

 

Well, I got rid of the hard water ring around in the toilet with a razor blade but now have the gray ring from the razor. Used cleanser and removed quite a bit with REALLY HARD SCRUBBING. Still some left I can't seem to remove. Any ideas??

 

Try bleach.. It's a very strong cleaning agent....