How to remove encrustation from a toilet?

After enthusiastically adopted water-saving methodology as encapsulated
in the ditty:
"If it's yellow - let it mellow;
If it's brown - flush it down"
the toilet now has difficult-to-remove encrustation.

Nothing seems to remove it!
Has anyone succeeded?
What worked?
Acid or alkali?

Success stories and advice eagerly anticipated.
--
Chris

On Feb 26, 3:05*pm, Chris ] wrote:
How to remove encrustation from a toilet?

After enthusiastically adopted water-saving methodology as encapsulated
in the ditty:
"If it's yellow - let it mellow;
If it's brown - flush it down"
the toilet now has difficult-to-remove encrustation.

Nothing seems to remove it!
Has anyone succeeded?
What worked?
Acid or alkali?

Success stories and advice eagerly anticipated.

98% sulphuric acid shifts it fast. So does brick acid. Dilute HCl,
such as some patio cleaners, also work, tho not as quick. Best to
flush them I think, just use less water.


NT

"Chris" ] wrote in message
]...
How to remove encrustation from a toilet?

After enthusiastically adopted water-saving methodology as encapsulated in
the ditty:
"If it's yellow - let it mellow;
If it's brown - flush it down"
the toilet now has difficult-to-remove encrustation.

Nothing seems to remove it!
Has anyone succeeded?
What worked?
Acid or alkali?

The pan in the downstairs toilet of the house my son bought had that
problem. I threw it outside in November intending to replace it. When I
looked at it again in Jan all the encrustation had simply fallen off!!! I
have recently finished re-installing it into the newly tiled and decorated
room. Perhaps it was the frost, or being left dry I don't know what cleaned
it. I do know that nothing STWNFI tried to clean it with in situ worked.

Mike

On 26/02/2011 15:22, Tabby wrote:
On Feb 26, 3:05 pm, ] wrote:
How to remove encrustation from a toilet?

After enthusiastically adopted water-saving methodology as encapsulated
in the ditty:
"If it's yellow - let it mellow;
If it's brown - flush it down"
the toilet now has difficult-to-remove encrustation.

Nothing seems to remove it!
Has anyone succeeded?
What worked?
Acid or alkali?

Success stories and advice eagerly anticipated.

98% sulphuric acid shifts it fast.

I wouldn't mess with that stuff when there are relatively harmless acids
that work just as well

On 26/02/2011 15:05, Chris wrote:
How to remove encrustation from a toilet?

After enthusiastically adopted water-saving methodology as encapsulated
in the ditty:
"If it's yellow - let it mellow;
If it's brown - flush it down"
the toilet now has difficult-to-remove encrustation.

Nothing seems to remove it!
Has anyone succeeded?
What worked?
Acid or alkali?

Success stories and advice eagerly anticipated.

I used 23% hydrochloric acid, mainly because that was what I had to
hand, but it worked.

Colin Bignell

On 26/02/2011 15:46, stuart noble wrote:
On 26/02/2011 15:22, Tabby wrote:
On Feb 26, 3:05 pm, ] wrote:
How to remove encrustation from a toilet?

After enthusiastically adopted water-saving methodology as encapsulated
in the ditty:
"If it's yellow - let it mellow;
If it's brown - flush it down"
the toilet now has difficult-to-remove encrustation.

Nothing seems to remove it!
Has anyone succeeded?
What worked?
Acid or alkali?

Success stories and advice eagerly anticipated.

98% sulphuric acid shifts it fast.

I wouldn't mess with that stuff when there are relatively harmless acids
that work just as well

Me neither.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

In article , stuart noble
writes
On 26/02/2011 15:22, Tabby wrote:
On Feb 26, 3:05 pm, ] wrote:
How to remove encrustation from a toilet?

After enthusiastically adopted water-saving methodology as encapsulated
in the ditty:
"If it's yellow - let it mellow;
If it's brown - flush it down"
the toilet now has difficult-to-remove encrustation.

Nothing seems to remove it!
Has anyone succeeded?
What worked?
Acid or alkali?

Success stories and advice eagerly anticipated.

98% sulphuric acid shifts it fast.

I wouldn't mess with that stuff when there are relatively harmless
acids that work just as well


Which would you use?
Vinegar?
Citric acid?
Kettle de-scaler?
--
Chris

On 26/02/2011 15:05, Chris wrote:
How to remove encrustation from a toilet?

After enthusiastically adopted water-saving methodology as encapsulated
in the ditty:
"If it's yellow - let it mellow;
If it's brown - flush it down"
the toilet now has difficult-to-remove encrustation.

So now you know that water saving methodology is bollox :-)

Nothing seems to remove it!
Has anyone succeeded?
What worked?
Acid or alkali?

Acid. Something like Harpic or a supermarket own brand.Make sure it
says its a limescale remover. Weasel words like 'helps prevent' or
'reduces' mean its just a detergent.

You may need several goes to remove it.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

In article , "Nightjar
\"cpb\"@" "insertmysurnamehere says...
I used 23% hydrochloric acid, mainly because that was what I had to
hand, but it worked.

Which is, near enough, brick-cleaner, IIRC. That's what we use when the
limescale has got unsightly.

--
Skipweasel - never knowingly understood.

On 26/02/2011 16:24, Chris wrote:
In article , stuart noble
writes
On 26/02/2011 15:22, Tabby wrote:
On Feb 26, 3:05 pm, ] wrote:
How to remove encrustation from a toilet?

After enthusiastically adopted water-saving methodology as encapsulated
in the ditty:
"If it's yellow - let it mellow;
If it's brown - flush it down"
the toilet now has difficult-to-remove encrustation.

Nothing seems to remove it!
Has anyone succeeded?
What worked?
Acid or alkali?

Success stories and advice eagerly anticipated.

98% sulphuric acid shifts it fast.

I wouldn't mess with that stuff when there are relatively harmless
acids that work just as well


Which would you use?
Vinegar?
Citric acid?
Kettle de-scaler?

Whatever you have to hand or can nip round the corner and buy. I use
sulphamic crystals because I happen to have a tub of Fernox descaler.
Citric from the chemist works, but might take a little longer, as does
the kettle stuff.
For a total descale, block the toilet with a bunch of plastic bags, top
it right up to the brim, chuck your acid in, and leave till next
morning. Always assuming you have a second loo of course.

In article ,
Skipweasel writes:
In article , "Nightjar
\"cpb\"@" "insertmysurnamehere says...
I used 23% hydrochloric acid, mainly because that was what I had to
hand, but it worked.

Which is, near enough, brick-cleaner, IIRC. That's what we use when the
limescale has got unsightly.

Yes, just a small amount of brick acid (cheap from builders merchant,
Wickes, etc) left for a few hours or overnight, and it then just needs
one wipe with the brush and flush, and it looks like new.

Beware of using this regularly where it might harm the sewer, e.g.
cast iron pipework, or mortared joints, and for a one-off, flush
out with a few more flushes afterwards.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 26/02/2011 15:05, Chris wrote:
How to remove encrustation from a toilet?

After enthusiastically adopted water-saving methodology as encapsulated
in the ditty:
"If it's yellow - let it mellow;
If it's brown - flush it down"
the toilet now has difficult-to-remove encrustation.

Nothing seems to remove it!
Has anyone succeeded?
What worked?
Acid or alkali?

Success stories and advice eagerly anticipated.

The problem with anything you pour in is that it gets diluted by the
water in the pan.

I always empty[1] the pan and than use Cillit Bang directly on the
glazed surface.

[1] I use a pumping action with a toilet brush to push as much water
round the bend as possible, and then suck the rest out with an old meat
basting thing - the sort of thing with a plastic tube with a rubber bulb
on the end - emptying it into a 2 lb jam jar

--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

"Chris" ] wrote in message
]...
How to remove encrustation from a toilet?

Is that a French crab?

--
Adam

In message , ARWadsworth
writes
"Chris" ] wrote in message
]...
How to remove encrustation from a toilet?

Is that a French crab?

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=15048


--
geoff

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember John Rumm
saying something like:

[1] I use a pumping action with a toilet brush to push as much water
round the bend as possible, and then suck the rest out with an old meat
basting thing - the sort of thing with a plastic tube with a rubber bulb
on the end - emptying it into a 2 lb jam jar

I bet SWMBO loves you.... (or do you not stick it back in the kitchen
drawer after? ;-)

"This joint tastes funny."

On Sat, 26 Feb 2011 22:05:17 +0000, Grimly Curmudgeon
wrote:

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember John Rumm
saying something like:

[1] I use a pumping action with a toilet brush to push as much water
round the bend as possible, and then suck the rest out with an old meat
basting thing - the sort of thing with a plastic tube with a rubber bulb
on the end - emptying it into a 2 lb jam jar

I bet SWMBO loves you.... (or do you not stick it back in the kitchen
drawer after? ;-)

"This joint tastes funny."

And that's before it's been lit...

On Feb 26, 3:05*pm, Chris ] wrote:

After enthusiastically adopted water-saving methodology as encapsulated
in the ditty:
"If it's yellow - let it mellow;
If it's brown - flush it down"
the toilet now has difficult-to-remove encrustation.

Unless you have some medically remarkable calcareous urine (and kidney
stones like a *******), there's no relation. However your local water
supply is probably hard. Iron form local plumbing doesn't help either.

Use sulphamic acid (commercial limescale shifter) to shift it.
Sainsbury's own brand toilet limescale (blue plastic bottle) is
cheapest. Sulphuric acid (a great organic cleaner) isn't as good.
Hydrochloric acid is powerful on limescale, but tends to show up
crazing in glaze on toilets, so isn't advised.

On Sat, 26 Feb 2011 14:21:37 -0800 (PST), Andy Dingley
wrote:
Sulphuric acid (a great organic cleaner) isn't as good.

The problem is that calcium sulphate is insoluble. This is one of the
main compunds formed when sulphuric acid reacts with limescale, and it
quickly forms a protective layer over the scale. So when you use
sulphuric acid, you get a good fizz to start with, but it quickly dies
down and stops.

Hydrochloric acid is fine in this respect as calcium chloride is
highly soluble in water.

John Rumm wrote:
On 26/02/2011 18:17, Roger Mills wrote:

I always empty[1] the pan and than use Cillit Bang directly on the
glazed surface.

[1] I use a pumping action with a toilet brush to push as much water
round the bend as possible, and then suck the rest out with an old meat
basting thing - the sort of thing with a plastic tube with a rubber bulb
on the end - emptying it into a 2 lb jam jar

I bet SWMBO loves you.... (or do you not stick it back in the kitchen
drawer after? ;-)

Or the bathroom cabinet..that was your grannies DOUCHE you nutcase.

Caecilius wrote:
On Sat, 26 Feb 2011 14:21:37 -0800 (PST), Andy Dingley
wrote:
Sulphuric acid (a great organic cleaner) isn't as good.

The problem is that calcium sulphate is insoluble. This is one of the
main compunds formed when sulphuric acid reacts with limescale, and it
quickly forms a protective layer over the scale. So when you use
sulphuric acid, you get a good fizz to start with, but it quickly dies
down and stops.

Hydrochloric acid is fine in this respect as calcium chloride is
highly soluble in water.
+1

On 26/02/2011 22:01, John Rumm wrote:
On 26/02/2011 18:17, Roger Mills wrote:

I always empty[1] the pan and than use Cillit Bang directly on the
glazed surface.

[1] I use a pumping action with a toilet brush to push as much water
round the bend as possible, and then suck the rest out with an old meat
basting thing - the sort of thing with a plastic tube with a rubber bulb
on the end - emptying it into a 2 lb jam jar

I bet SWMBO loves you.... (or do you not stick it back in the kitchen
drawer after? ;-)


I did say OLD one! Perhaps DEDICATED would have been more accurate - I
think I bought it specially for the purpose - but NO, it doesn't get
used in the kitchen! g
--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

On 27/02/2011 7:32 a.m., ARWadsworth wrote:
] wrote in message
]...
How to remove encrustation from a toilet?

Is that a French crab?


I had French crabs once. Nasty business.