# How to get the inner stains out of a toilet bowl...and the tank clean! Also shower heads...



## romysbaskets (Aug 29, 2009)

For a *toilet bowl and tank,* Vinegar is like magic..it has so many uses! Shut off the valve to the toilet and drain the water by flushing. Dry the bowl and then tape off the opening. Pour a lot of vinegar into the back of the toilet and let it sit overnight. This will remove the stains all the way into where the inner part ends at the inner bowl base. This will keep a toilet bowl and tank smelling much better. 

*To properly clean a shower head*, remove it and soak it in a bowl of vinegar overnight or several hours. This will kill and remove the mold, mineral deposits etc....Then put it back on. This needs done at least every 6 months. Depending on your water quality and more if you see or notice a faint return of mold...can be red or darker colors.


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## sapphira (Mar 24, 2003)

Do not know what that much vinegar would do to septic tank. Also we use the pumice stone sold in Walmart here (Blue Ridge, VA) to scrub the toilet bowl super white again. I use Meiers Clean day for the kitchen white farm sink. Never thought about cleaning toilet tank !!


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## Witch's Broom (Dec 23, 2017)

Romy. Vinegar truly is da-bomb for so many things.

My mom used to wash floors using vinegar and hot water, which was recommended for the brand new vinyl/linoleum floors her and dad had installed one year, and sure enough, plain old vinegar and hot water preserved the factory shine of the vinyl just as the installer suggested.


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## AmericanStand (Jul 29, 2014)

Vinegar is a very mild acid it will not harm porcelain in any way.


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## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

"The Works Toilet Bowl Cleaner" used to be a miracle toilet bowl cleaner. It was 20% HCl (hydrochloric acid).

It would clean a toilet bowl in minutes without scrubbing.

But folks were making 2-liter Coke bottle bombs with it.

So the manufacturer dropped the HCl content from 20% down to 9.5% and it no longer can be used to make 2-liter Coke bottle bombs *and it no longer cleans toilet bowls*.

Folks who understand chemistry can still accomplish both ends (bombs and cleaning toilet bowls) with alternate, readily available sources of HCl. But they have to wear appropriate protective clothing and they have to be careful when mixing acid and water.

PS: I don't use pumice stones. I believe that over time it will damage the porcelain surface.

The old formula:










The new formula:


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

The Works is the only thing that got my toilet bowl clean before we got a new water softener. BUT it had to set in a nearly empty bowl for at least 6 hours. I'd pour it in before leaving for the day and scrub when I got home. It didn't work in the tank nearly as well.


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## oldasrocks (Oct 27, 2006)

The toilet in the shop was not flushing right so poured in some Drano Max Gel and let it sit. )did not drain water out) I don't have a water softner in the shop so it gets grungy looking. After the Gel sit there all night the toilet looked like a new one inside.


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## Witch's Broom (Dec 23, 2017)

oldasrocks said:


> The toilet in the shop was not flushing right so poured in some Drano Max Gel and let it sit. )did not drain water out) I don't have a water softner in the shop so it gets grungy looking. After the Gel sit there all night the toilet looked like a new one inside.


Was just reading the label on the bottle of Drano Max Gel we have, and it mentions, _not for us in toilets_.

Guess you blew that instruction out of the bowl, didn't you?

Good to know!


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Drano can dissolve your wax seals.


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## kotori (Nov 15, 2014)

HCl...I thought pool shock was that but i just looked it up and i was very mistaken; pool shock is calcium hypochlorite. bar keepers friend might work, since it's powdered oxalic acid -- apparently they do make a toilet cleaner. I believe thats the acid that eats clothes like it's nothing so take care. we used it for the soapstone in chem lab.. alcohol, acetone and that made the holy trifecta of cleaning


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