Best way to remove heavy duty limescale
The Weary Wizard
that the toilet is encrusted with an appalling amount of limescale
around the rim etc.
I would be interested to know of your recommendations as to the best
stuff to use to banish it. What would be the best form of abrasive
for tackling this?
Thanks in advance.
Andy Cap
I wouldn't use an abrasive at all. There are LOADS of products on the
supermarket shelves for removing limescale. I would think the gel type would be
best but it will probably need several applications.
Andy
mark
"The Weary Wizard" <mark_ho...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:8ec0bfd8-ab25-417c...@s8g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
A product that contains phosphuric acid.
mark
Lino expert
wrote:
Harpic 100% Limescale Remover - does what it says on the bottle. Works
a treat.
Dave Liquorice
> I wouldn't use an abrasive at all.
Agreed the glaze will get damaged and make staining/sacle build up even
more of a problem.
> There are LOADS of products on the supermarket shelves for removing
> limescale. I would think the gel type would be best but it will probably
> need several applications.
Yep, don't expect a one hit wonder result. Scale will dissolve in mild
acid without damaging the glaze.
--
Cheers new...@howhill.com
Dave. pam is missing e-mail
The Natural Philosopher
I had a similar situation.
We bough shitloads (apt, as it turned out) of gel descaler, and a quart
of brick acid.
Both ate through the scale slowly, and I ended up knocking off lumps
with a chisel.
Every night the bowl was filled with acid and left.
The rim wasnt too bad, but round the bend was evil. It was about half
the diameter it should have been and not JUST scale., Layers of scale ad
shit. Years of scale and shit. Took about a week of acid, chipping, and
flushing for an hour after work each day, to clean it all up.
The good news is it all did clean up.
Thats when I decided to never be without brick acid and caustic soda
ever again. And the next house would have a softener..
Be VERY careful with gel cleaners on CHROME tho. It dulls the surface
permanentely. So does brick acid. I guess its chrome sulphate.
Abrasives are moderately useless. If a bog brush won't clear it, use a
chisel. Get a cheapo wood chisel with a sharp edge, and go gently.
What I found was thet the clingy gel stuff etched the edges UNDER the
scale, and chunks could be levered out..then more gel or overnight acid
would do the same again. Bit by bit the enemy was pushed back..and
mopped up.
Dave Osborne
Andrew Gabriel
The Natural Philosopher <a@b.c> writes:
>
> The rim wasnt too bad, but round the bend was evil. It was about half
> the diameter it should have been and not JUST scale., Layers of scale ad
> shit. Years of scale and shit. Took about a week of acid, chipping, and
> flushing for an hour after work each day, to clean it all up.
Acid isn't too effective on the shit part. What you can do
in this case is to alternate it with another powerful cleaner,
such as washing machine or dishwasher detergent dissolved in
hot water and left in the trap over night, which are both good
at clearing the organic debris.
When switching cleaning agents, flush the previous one well
away first, enough times to clear the sewage pipework too.
Mixing of different cleaners can cause violent chemical
reactions and production of toxic fumes.
--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]
RW
"The Weary Wizard" <mark_ho...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:8ec0bfd8-ab25-417c...@s8g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
Angle grinder
Stuart Noble
If you block the thing up with a rag, fill to the brim, and leave
overnight, even weak acid like citric will do it. Sulphamic (Fernox
descaler) is better (and easy to use) but I don't like the fumes from
hydrochloric (brick acid) indoors
The Natural Philosopher
> In article <120095269...@proxy01.news.clara.net>,
> The Natural Philosopher <a@b.c> writes:
>> The rim wasnt too bad, but round the bend was evil. It was about half
>> the diameter it should have been and not JUST scale., Layers of scale ad
>> shit. Years of scale and shit. Took about a week of acid, chipping, and
>> flushing for an hour after work each day, to clean it all up.
>
> Acid isn't too effective on the shit part. What you can do
> in this case is to alternate it with another powerful cleaner,
> such as washing machine or dishwasher detergent dissolved in
> hot water and left in the trap over night, which are both good
> at clearing the organic debris.
>
We did use a bit of caustic to reduce the smell, but in reality the
stuff was a matrix. Disslve the carbonate, and the evil stiff went with it.
> When switching cleaning agents, flush the previous one well
> away first, enough times to clear the sewage pipework too.
> Mixing of different cleaners can cause violent chemical
> reactions and production of toxic fumes.
>
Yes. Its great fun doing big sperriments in your loo bowl innit? With
the whole bathroom as a giant fan extracted fume cupboard.
The Natural Philosopher
works for stuff you can SEE, but not stuff 'round the bend'..
The Weary Wizard
>
>
> Harpic 100% Limescale Remover - does what it says on the bottle. Works
> a treat.
Sadly I used that - it hardly knocked a dent in it I'm afraid! :(
As for the other acid-based products mentioned in this thread, are
they things readily available in B & Q etc.?
Lino expert
wrote:
Arsebiscuits! Must be heavy-duty scale - good luck anyway.
The Natural Philosopher
Don't expect it all to go instantly.It takes time to dissolve decades of
urine, limescale and shit.
Someone mentioned phosphoric acid. I think thats 'jenolite' rust
remover. Brick acid is about 30% hydrochloric. Most descalers are
sulphamic, but any acid will ultimately crap all over carbonates, apart
from carbonic acid!
Other acids you can get are formic - I think Kilroc uses that..and
sulphuric. That's generally for specialised sanitary cleaning type
operations. Or car batteries of course.
Even vinegar (acetic acid) or rhubarb juice (oxalic acid) will do a bit
to scale.
The one poster who mentioned blocking the loo and filling it up with
acid had a good idea if its rim based stuff.
The Medway Handyman
> The Weary Wizard wrote:
>> On Jan 21, 8:57 pm, Lino expert <rumtruf...@tesco.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> Harpic 100% Limescale Remover - does what it says on the bottle.
>>> Works a treat.
>>
>> Sadly I used that - it hardly knocked a dent in it I'm afraid! :(
>>
>> As for the other acid-based products mentioned in this thread, are
>> they things readily available in B & Q etc.?
>>
> Builders mercahnts for brick acid, or a good hardware shop.
>
> Don't expect it all to go instantly.It takes time to dissolve decades
> of urine, limescale and shit.
>
> Someone mentioned phosphoric acid. I think thats 'jenolite' rust
> remover. Brick acid is about 30% hydrochloric. Most descalers are
> sulphamic, but any acid will ultimately crap all over carbonates,
> apart from carbonic acid!
>
> Other acids you can get are formic - I think Kilroc uses that..and
> sulphuric. That's generally for specialised sanitary cleaning type
> operations. Or car batteries of course.
Sulphuric can attack the glsae on a WC pan.
--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257
The Medway Handyman
Or the Tesco, Morrisons own label. Look on the label for the words
'contains hydrochloric acid'. As others have said, might take many
applications.
mark
"The Weary Wizard" <mark_ho...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:8ec0bfd8-ab25-417c...@s8g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
Dymashift is the product you want. About Ł10 for 5 litres. It has 25%
phosphuric acid and is used by commercial cleaning companies for cleaning
toilets for one.
mark
Andy Hall
I've never seen toilets for two. Do Doulton make them? ;-)
The Natural Philosopher
Howevr, it pays to be careful.
Andy Champ
http://static.flickr.com/32/55472471_824bf09a97.jpg
Andy