Bad Stain on Bath
Dave
A good friend of mine has a really bad stain on her enamel bath. She tried
soaking some metal shelves from the oven in her bath after scouring the
shelves with GIF and metal pan scrubber. After leaving them to soak, she
drained the bath only to find bright yellow staining on the bottom of the
bath. She has tried scrubbing the bath but she said it looks pretty
ingrained. Can anyone suggest anything that may get the staining out of the
enamel? I initially thought about her using caustic soda or such like but I
thought I'd ask the forum first in case it causes further damage. So, any
idea's? other than replacing the bath !!!!
Cheers in advance.
Dave
Andy Dingley
> Hi All, hope someone can help.
> A good friend of mine has a really bad stain on her enamel bath. She tried
> soaking some metal shelves from the oven in her bath after scouring the
> shelves with GIF and metal pan scrubber. After leaving them to soak, she
> drained the bath only to find bright yellow staining on the bottom of the
> bath.
In order:
Barkeeper's Friend (try a big Sainsbury's), which is oxalic acid
powder and barely a mechanical abrasive at all. Oxalic acid is good
for any iron-related staining.
Then a melamine foam sponge "magic stain remover" that looks like a
boring white foam block and costs a few quid for half-a-dozen. These
have been in America since the '60s under the name "Mr Clean", but
have only hit our shores (and Wilko) in the last couple of years.
They're not particularly powerful, but they're good at not damaging
things. Great for stains in the posh teacups, or for cleaning kitchen
whitegoods without hurting the white paint.
Bite the bullet and buy a "plumber's bath stain removing rubber" (5-10
quid from Screwfix et al). These will probably shift most shiftable
stains, but they can start to damge gloss if used aggressively.
Avoid caustic soda or acids. They're not likely to achieve much, but
some of the acids can start to show up previously invisible crazing in
enamel glazes and make it look worse than ever.
Dave
"Andy Dingley" <din...@codesmiths.com> wrote in message
news:13aa17ae-a508-40fb...@q30g2000prq.googlegroups.com...
In order:
Hi, thanks for that. I'll put the caustic soda on the ' NOT to do' list.
I'll work through the list and see what works.
Cheers
Dave
ransley
Even vinegar might help, you need a mild acid.
The Natural Philosopher
and if possible soluble, wthout damaging te bath.
I suspect common aor garden bleach may be as good as anything.
I have to say I get this a butlers sink all the time and use bleach
mainly to clean out stained microcracks. We have used caustic in it as
well. It survived. If the bath is actually a vitreous enamelled steel
then it will be fine: plastic and acrylic..well be more careful with those.
Dave Liquorice
> She tried soaking some metal shelves from the oven in her bath after
> scouring the shelves with GIF and metal pan scrubber. After leaving
> them to soak, she drained the bath only to find bright yellow staining
"bright yellow" doesn't sound like an iron based stain to me, they are
normal brown/red/orange not yellow, perhaps a chromium salt of some sort?
Bar Keepers Friend is good, Asda also stock it but not Tesco. Can you
still get scouring powders like Ajax or Vim? They are probably a bit more
agressive that BKF though.
Bleach might remove the colour but the base may well still be there to
trap muck.
--
Cheers
Dave.
Jon Fairbairn
> Hi All, hope someone can help.
> A good friend of mine has a really bad stain on her enamel bath. She tried
> soaking some metal shelves from the oven in her bath after scouring the
> shelves with GIF and metal pan scrubber. After leaving them to soak, she
> drained the bath only to find bright yellow staining on the bottom of the
> bath. She has tried scrubbing the bath but she said it looks pretty
> ingrained. Can anyone suggest anything that may get the staining out of the
> enamel?
I got good results with Ecover laundry bleach (Sodium
Percarbonate) on a bath that had had a kitchen sink draining
into it and been left for weeks. I damped the bath,
sprinkled the bleach on it, waited for a few minutes for it
to dissolve a bit, scrubbed it around so that the coating
was even, left it for about half an hour and then cleaned it
out in the normal manner. After that it looked cleaner than
it ever had since the flat was bought! This was an old
enamelled bath. The gunk was various, but probably didn't
have as much iron in it as yours.
In case anyone wonders, for presumably historical reasons
the kitchen sink drain went through the wall into the
bathroom, joined with the bath drain, did a bit of
circumnavigation and joined with a cast iron pipe that went
back under the kitchen floor. This got blocked, and since
the level of the bath was lower than the kitchen sink, the
sink emptied OK but came up in the bath. I wasn't there at
the time and the plumber SO called couldn't shift it before
she had to leave (his next step would have involved taking
the bath out), so it stayed there until we went back. Well,
the water seeped out slowly and all the washing-up gunk
(several goes) dried onto the bath.
--
Jón Fairbairn Jon.Fa...@cl.cam.ac.uk
http://www.chaos.org.uk/~jf/Stuff-I-dont-want.html (updated 2008-04-26)
Dave
"The Natural Philosopher" <a@b.c> wrote in message
news:123285250...@proxy02.news.clara.net...
Hi, just tried Domestos on the stain with a pan scrubber but no effect !!
Stain looks really engrained and deep.
Think I'll try vinegar next.
I'll keep you all updated as this problem may be interesting to solve.
Cheers for now.
Dave
Dave
"Dave" <merlin...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:5_ydnY_4Hsz9NObU...@bt.com...
UPDATE:
Neither bleach or vinegar has had any effect on the bath stains.
I've now found out more of what happened.
She scrubbed the oven shelf in a mix of washing powder/water in the bath and
using a Brillo pad.
What would be interesting to know is what kind of cleaning agent is used
inside the Brillo pad? and could it react along with the washing powder
against the enamel of the bath to produce a bright yellow stain??
Got to admit now that we are getting quite worried as she is only the tenant
of the property !!!! :-((
HELP !!!!!!!!!
Dave
John Weston
merlin...@yahoo.co.uk says...
>
>
> UPDATE:
> Neither bleach or vinegar has had any effect on the bath stains.
> I've now found out more of what happened.
> She scrubbed the oven shelf in a mix of washing powder/water in the bath and
> using a Brillo pad.
> What would be interesting to know is what kind of cleaning agent is used
> inside the Brillo pad? and could it react along with the washing powder
> against the enamel of the bath to produce a bright yellow stain??
> Got to admit now that we are getting quite worried as she is only the tenant
> of the property !!!! :-((
> HELP !!!!!!!!!
> Dave
>
stain remover, provided you test it first on a hidden part of the
bath... Was the Vinager clear or brown? The latter stains as it cleans
:-) The alternaive is re-enamelling...
--
John W
To mail me replace the obvious with co.uk twice
Rod
steel wool - which itself rusts. It is quite common to see rust marks on
things which have been cleaned with Brillo. (Mind, I haven't even seen a
Brillo pad in years.)
--
Rod
Hypothyroidism is a seriously debilitating condition with an insidious
onset.
Although common it frequently goes undiagnosed.
<www.thyromind.info> <www.thyroiduk.org> <www.altsupportthyroid.org>
Dave
>>
> Sounds like a rust stain. You want an acid, such as Oxalic, or rust
> stain remover, provided you test it first on a hidden part of the
> bath... Was the Vinager clear or brown?
Er, brown !!
>The latter stains as it cleans
Oh, dear, although the vinegar didn't seem to do anything at all. The stain
seems very deep (as though it is actually under the enamel). The bath was
okay before cleaning the shelf, so it was that which has caused the stain.
> :-) The alternaive is re-enamelling...
Oh bugger !!!! I hope not !!
Cheers
Dave
Preston
>
> > >
> > Sounds like a rust stain. You want an acid, such as Oxalic, or rust
> > stain remover, provided you test it first on a hidden part of the
> > bath... Was the Vinager clear or brown?
>
> Er, brown !!
>
> > The latter stains as it cleans
>
> Oh, dear, although the vinegar didn't seem to do anything at all.
> The stain seems very deep (as though it is actually under the
> enamel). The bath was okay before cleaning the shelf, so it was that
> which has caused the stain.
Use lemon juice according to
http://www.unilever.com.au/ourbrands/aroundthehouse/MoreArticles/Stain_R
emoval_home.asp
It probably won't work either, but at least it'll smell nice.
--
Preston
Dave
UPDATE:
I've had chance to see the bath for myself. The stain is bright ORANGE not
yellow as I was told.
Things tried so far;
Vim,
Bleach,
Pan scrubber,
Vinegar,
and finally, Barkeepers Friend.
None has worked so far.
The stain actually appears to be on the surface rather than underneath as I
first thought, and I can feel it as it is quite 'gritty'.
Only thing I can think that might shift it now is caustic soda.
Anyone have any more ideas that I can try before using caustic soda???
Please help, it looks a right mess.
Cheers,
Dave
The Natural Philosopher
> "Dave" <merlin...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:5_ydnY_4Hsz9NObU...@bt.com...
>> Hi All, hope someone can help.
>> A good friend of mine has a really bad stain on her enamel bath. She
>> tried soaking some metal shelves from the oven in her bath after scouring
>> the shelves with GIF and metal pan scrubber. After leaving them to soak,
>> she drained the bath only to find bright yellow staining on the bottom of
>> the bath. She has tried scrubbing the bath but she said it looks pretty
>> ingrained. Can anyone suggest anything that may get the staining out of
>> the enamel? I initially thought about her using caustic soda or such like
>> but I thought I'd ask the forum first in case it causes further damage.
>> So, any idea's? other than replacing the bath !!!!
>> Cheers in advance.
>> Dave
>>
>
> UPDATE:
>
> I've had chance to see the bath for myself. The stain is bright ORANGE not
> yellow as I was told.
as in 'chrome yellow'
Suspect its a chromium salt..
> Things tried so far;
> Vim,
> Bleach,
> Pan scrubber,
> Vinegar,
> and finally, Barkeepers Friend.
> None has worked so far.
> The stain actually appears to be on the surface rather than underneath as I
> first thought, and I can feel it as it is quite 'gritty'.
> Only thing I can think that might shift it now is caustic soda.
> Anyone have any more ideas that I can try before using caustic soda???
> Please help, it looks a right mess.
If its truly surface, try T-cut.
I.e abrasive, not chemical.
You can start with 620 wet and dry..
> Cheers,
> Dave
>
>
Andy Dingley
> The stain actually appears to be on the surface rather than underneath as I
> first thought, and I can feel it as it is quite 'gritty'.
> Only thing I can think that might shift it now is caustic soda.
If it feels gritty and raised, then it's likely to be some variety of
lime scale, so try sulphamic acid (limescale removers, some kettle
descalers) as likely to be more effective than an alkali like caustic
soda.
Dave Liquorice
>> I've had chance to see the bath for myself. The stain is bright ORANGE
>> not yellow as I was told.
>
> as in 'chrome yellow'
>
> Suspect its a chromium salt..
I said that ages ago... B-)
>> The stain actually appears to be on the surface rather than underneath
>> as I first thought, and I can feel it as it is quite 'gritty'.
Stained limescale I suspect. Try a limescale remover, vinegar isn't the
best at that though does work slowly. I'd start with one of the bathroom
scale removers rather than something intended for use in a kettle.
--
Cheers
Dave.
The Medway Handyman
> "Dave" <merlin...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:5_ydnY_4Hsz9NObU...@bt.com...
>> Hi All, hope someone can help.
>> A good friend of mine has a really bad stain on her enamel bath. She
>> tried soaking some metal shelves from the oven in her bath after
>> scouring the shelves with GIF and metal pan scrubber. After leaving
>> them to soak, she drained the bath only to find bright yellow
>> staining on the bottom of the bath. She has tried scrubbing the
>> bath but she said it looks pretty ingrained. Can anyone suggest
>> anything that may get the staining out of the enamel? I initially
>> thought about her using caustic soda or such like but I thought I'd
>> ask the forum first in case it causes further damage. So, any
>> idea's? other than replacing the bath !!!! Cheers in advance.
>> Dave
>>
>
> UPDATE:
> Neither bleach or vinegar has had any effect on the bath stains.
> I've now found out more of what happened.
> She scrubbed the oven shelf in a mix of washing powder/water in the
> bath and using a Brillo pad.
> What would be interesting to know is what kind of cleaning agent is
> used inside the Brillo pad?
They contain caustic soda IIRC.
--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk