We have pretty soft water here in Cardiff, at least I thought so. The kettle gets only a sheen of limescale on it after years of use, but there is some brown stuff around the taps and plugholes.

I just cleaned the toilet though with gloves, some kind of acid based “professional” cleaner and a pan scourer. There was about a cm thickness around the U bend, which came off in great flakes as the cleaner softened it.

There was also a smell of sulphur and some bubbles.

So:

1) Does leaving wee in the toilet bowl cause some sort of reaction involving carbonates in the water and urea?

2) What was in the cleaner? It says ‘non ionic surfactants’ on the label like most cleaning products, but there’s also warnings about acid sensitive surfaces and a corrosive hazmat icon on it.

Usually mixing toilet cleaner(lime scale remover) with bleach results in chlorine gas , which can kill you.

I think its to do with the ketones in your wee which cause it. You get these if you’re following a ketogenic diet such as that popular one on here.

There’s a thread going at the moment about the downsides to this diet. Perhaps try posting in there, Im sure others have had the same problem!

Im sure others have had the same problem!

😯
BURN HIM!!

No cleaning products were mixed.

nicko74 – Member

BURN HIM!![quote]

Pee in his shoes!

To clean toilet the easiest way is to go PoundLand to buy one or two bottles of bleach, then pour the entire bottle into your toilet and leave it for the night.

Clean it the next day and flash the water away before you use it. It will be spotless …

Bleach just bleaches the scale doesn’t it?

Doesn’t Cola poured into the wc clean it as good as pretty much anything, never tried it but heard it a few times, and its shed loads cheaper than the branded cleaners

Have to ask, but how long for it to build up to 1cm thick?

molgrips – Member

Bleach just bleaches the scale doesn’t it?

No idea but no more skid marks ….

Or use plenty of bicarbonate soda which I think may de-scale all the limescale.

correct, bleach just bleaches the scale. The deposit will likely be mix of all sorts of stuff, turd based will be amines, proteins, etc. and wee is probably urea / other nitrogen compounds. This will key into the limescale and give you the nasty yellowy brown stain if you are disgusting enough to not clean it regularly.

Clean it properly – with a strong acid descaler (Harpic Power Plus is good in my opinion) Try and get the bowl empty first (of water) so the effect is close to neat and then get at it with a scourer / wire wool so every trace is removed. Then get some Power Plus tablets and use one a week so it doesn’t come back.

As for the ingredient labelling. In layman’s terms – it depends what level each ingredient is included at. Theres a sliding scale based on the hazard of each individual component, the regs tell you whether you have to declare them separately above a certain incorporation level – and then there’s an additive effect for all ingredients of a certain type. So your cleaner may contain two or more acidic ingredients each below the threshold for individual labelling, but combined they may still lead to the overall need to label it corrosive. This is a very good thing because it allows the chemist to assess the hazard of the overall product based on the additive effect of data that is already ages old (and which may or may not have been generated ages ago by putting it in bunnies eyes, sadly) but thus avoids having to run specific tests on another set of bunnies for the finished product.

Guess who used to have a job developing institutional cleaning products …….

We are fairly sloppy with cleaning but not that bad generally. The stains seem to have come from trying the ‘if it’s yellow let it mellow’ idea to save water (don’t). After they appeared they were very hard to shift, compounded by the shape of our bogs which means the only way to get at the nooks and crannies is to glove up.

I’ll check out power plus. We use Ecover which is fine for general cleaning but doesn’t touch the stains.

Thanks for the chemist input jonv 🙂

Or use plenty of bicarbonate soda which I think may de-scale all the limescale.

That’s no good, then you’d have a toilet full of lime. Which is only any use if you want to drink a large gin and tonic out of the throne.

Guess who used to have a job developing institutional cleaning products …….

Is there no job which isn’t covered by an stw’er? There’s a slow weekend thread there of trying to find a niche that isn’t covered

calcium carbonate becomes less soluble as you heat it. that’s why it does kekkles and hot taps.

So what’s the best solution?

I see skid marks appearing again … aarrrgghhhh … 😕

I thought it was soluble calcium hydrogen carbonate changing to less soluble calcium carbonate with heat that caused limescale in kettles and things?

So what’s the best solution?

I see skid marks appearing again … aarrrgghhhh ..

Try to reduce the frequency of large U-bend scraping turds by increasing the fruit and veg in your diet. Or minimise the impact by placing reams of toilet paper in the toilet pan before sitting down to evacuate your bowels.

HTH

I wonder if someone will invent teflon toilets?

Or some sort of ‘toilet’ brush ?

Brown stuff around taps and plug holes is likely to be discoloured scale. Or possibly fungal growth which comes from spores in the atmosphere which then latch on to the rough surface and grow. Not harmful but shift the scale with a bit of white vinegar.

Ernie I wish someone would invent a toilet brush that could access all the many nooks and crannies in my toilet bowl. And that my local shops would stock it.

The best solution I have found is to poo at work or friends houses and wee in the garden.

all the many nooks and crannies in my toilet bowl

Have you got a rustic toilet pan then ?

The toilet pans I’m acquainted with tend to be free of nooks and crannies. Well certainly not in reach of those pesky U-bend scraping turds anyway.

It isn’t rustic, but the shape of the u-bend appears to be fairly highly engineered, with lateral crevices just under the water line that are out of reach of our brushes. The limescale collects there.

lateral crevices just under the water line

How can you see if there’s skid marks up there ? How could they even get up there ? And why do you care ? Pour a bottle of bleach down your pan if you’re worried.

I don’t think your teflon toilet would make a huge difference to your problem – teflon coated kitchen ware still has to be washed/cleaned. Turds have a tendency by nature of being fairly non-stick, and the watery environment of your toilet is means they are very unlikely to end up being dried and burnt on the bottom of your toilet pan.

Oh for crying out loud. Does no-one know how to clean a toilet?!

Right – if it’s yellow let it mellow might be good for the planet – but it’s bad for the bowl. The yellow stains are your wee staining the lime scale.

PowerPlus won’t help – it’s just bleach. It is the biggest rip off ever – cheap supermarket thick bleach is as good.

Anyway – to clean your throne use Parazone Limescale Remover. Put LOTS of it in every day (and I’m talking third to half a bottle at a time). Make sure it’s spread under the rim and all the way around and don’t flush for as long as possible afterwards.

If you’re brave add bleach. It does make chlorine gas but unless you sit with your head down the pan you won’t die (probably).

Let the parazone do it’s stuff. If it’s turning out hard to shift don the rubber gloves and use a scouring pad to loosen the limescale. You need to get rid of all of it (as far round the bend as you can reach) as it’s harder for it to come back if there’s nothing to grow on or near).

Then just clean the bog more often.

I live alone (some may not be surprised). I clean my bogs at least twice a week with Parazone and then bleach them in between. I never have limescale or yellow stains.

Now go and get on with it. Dirty loos are just wrong!

And why do you care ?

Wtf makes you think I do?

I didn’t ask how to clean my toilet, did I?

PowerPlus won’t help – it’s just bleach

Not according to the interweb, it seems to be 10% HCl.

Does no-one know how to clean a toilet?!

Does no-one know how to read an OP? 🙂

Help, I’ve got me arm stuck round the u-bend…

“And why do you care ?”

Wtf makes you think I do?

I didn’t ask how to clean my toilet, did I?

Well I guess it might have been a bit presumptuous of me but I thought that you saying :

“Ernie I wish someone would invent a toilet brush that could access all the many nooks and crannies in my toilet bowl. And that my local shops would stock it.”

hinted that you did care.

Still, I’m glad to hear that you’re not bothered about what lurks behind the “lateral crevices” of your toilet pan. And you’ll be pleased to hear that I’m not either 8)

We use Ecover which is fine for general cleaning but doesn’t touch the stains.

I used to use that too but we have very hard water , lots of limescale and ecover was rubbish.

All I do nowadays is squirt bleach into the toilet every day and leave it for a while, don’t use toilet brushes as they are gross , don’t do anything except use bleach and my bowl is spotless

Why do you bother, ernie?

I’m seriously not going to get into the exact geometry of my bog and why limescale gathers in a place that’s visible but hard to reach.

Bleach does not remove limescale btw.

Anyway – to clean your throne use Parazone Limescale Remover. Put LOTS of it in every day (and I’m talking third to half a bottle at a time). Make sure it’s spread under the rim and all the way around and don’t flush for as long as possible afterwards.

If you’re brave add bleach. It does make chlorine gas but unless you sit with your head down the pan you won’t die ……..

I clean my bogs at least twice a week with Parazone and then bleach them in between.

I think you need to see someone about your toilet OCD.

Why do you bother, ernie?

I’ve been asking that myself.

I’ve been trying to help you to grapple with your problem and yet you’ve shown no gratitude.

I wish I hadn’t bothered quite frankly.

I wish I hadn’t bothered quite frankly.

Me too. I don’t have a problem, I simply had two chemistry questions.

Me too. I don’t have a problem

Well it wasn’t your problem which I came onto the thread to help tackle. It was chewkw’s desperate plea for help with his skid marks reappearing conundrum.

But I somehow got sucked into your toilet pan with the lateral crevices just below the water line issue.

Still my fault – I should have ignored your whingeing despite it being directed at me personally.

Or perhaps you should’ve just lightened up!

No I feel remarkably relaxed about your toilet pan with nooks and crannies and lateral crevices just below the water line molgrips.

It is you who appears to be agitated.

Which is why I wish I hadn’t bothered.

I am not in the least agitated, just a little put out by people suggesting that I was fretting about such triviality or that I was incapable of solving a problem when I hadn’t even asked about a problem.

I am not in the least agitated, just a little put out…..

I would ask you what the difference between being agitated and being a little put out is molgrips, but I really should let this otherwise fascinating subject go.