I discovered a neat way to clean off the hard water stains from all kinds of kitchen and bathroom taps, faucets and sinks in the easiest possible manner. The idea was actually an offshoot of a suggestion that someone told me about. I just made it better and way more effective.
Now you already probably know about using vinegar to remove hard water stains from surfaces of taps, faucets and sinks. But the problem with using vinegar is that it needs to be in contact with the surface for a long time for it to work.
The harder the stains, the longer it needs to be in contact for.
Owing to the low viscosity of vinegar, akin to water, just pouring it on a tap or sink will never work because it just flows off. So this was the original idea that was presented to me by someone several years ago. But since it was not a very effective one, I never tried it.
At least till now when, after some tweaking it because the easiest way to take of hard water stains from virtually any shape and kind of tap or faucet in the kitchen or bathroom.
I should mention that while there are other kinds of strong chemical cleaners that work quite well with cleaning hard water stains, vinegar is preferred because it is gentler on your taps and your skin. It doesn’t give off harmful fumes like other cleaners do.
Someone once told me that in order to clean their taps in the bathroom of hard water scales, they simply soak a hand towel in vinegar and leave it wrapped on the tap overnight. Sounds like a good strategy and it works. Reason? Because since the towel is wrapped around the tap, the vinegar stays in touch with the surface for hours and ranges to dissolve and loosen up all those hard water salts.
The reason it doesn’t work? Because a towel is thick and difficult to wrap completely around a tap to ensure that all the curves and surfaces come in direct contact with it. Think of a hot and cold mixer tap. There is no way you are getting a hand towel to cover all of that.
The Cotton Strip Trick
Since the basic strategy was sound, I made a small change to this technique to work around this issue. I took an old cotton t-shirt that was up for getting recycled. I tore it into thin and long strips. Can you guess the rest?
It was easy to wrap up the entire tap fixture with a thin cotton strip. And I cut them long so that I would not have to use multiple strips to wrap the entire tap. Unwrapping it would be that much cumbersome. With a long thin cotton strip you can start wrapping from one end of the fixture and then tie of the ends to completely cover it.
Once this is done you drip some vinegar on to the wrapped tap and leave it for a few hours or overnight, if required. Make sure to drop enough vinegar to douse the cloth but not to make it drip on the bathroom floor. A couple of capfuls is usually enough. The reason to avoid having vinegar drip on the bathroom floor is that vinegar is acidic. That is how it breaks down and dissolves the hard water salts.
If it drips on the bathroom floor and stays there from a few hours, it might eat into the top surface of your bathroom tiles or floor. You can also place an empty mug or bucket under the tap if the tap happens to be directly over the bathroom floor. The taps in your ceramic sinks should not pose this issue, although follow the same careful dosage of vinegar and wipe off any access that drips before leaving it to do its job on the hard water stains.
After a few hours or overnight when you unwrap the strips, you will find that all the salts have been softened up and as you gently wipe the tap off, they come off easily leaving your bathroom and kitchen fitting shining like new ones. Another advantage of using recycled cotton strips rather than a towel is that you do not get a towel dirty with whatever comes off the taps.
Be careful with your hands. Although vinegar doesn’t cause immediate and harsh harm, it definitely tends to irritate the skin. Sensitive skins will feel it’s effect more. So either wear gloves while touching vinegar soaked strips or at least wash your hands after contact right away.
Cleaning your taps and faucets and removing hard water stains is a wonderful home DIY hack because it is all it takes to make your fitting look like new again. The finish that new fittings have tends to become dull rather quickly. This happens with virtually all the bathroom and kitchen fittings. And they begin to look old. You might even get around to thinking that you need new ones.
But that almost never the case, unless they are leaking and are irreparable. Cleaning them from the effects of hard salts in water brings them back to a shine that you probably forgot they had.
As I said before there are other kinds of cleaners that also remove hard water stains. These are effective if you are short on time. But they tend to be strong chemicals and more expensive than just using any cheap kind of white vinegar you can find.
There are certain parts that can easily be removed, including shower heads. You an simply take these soak them in vinegar in a bowl or a mug for an hour or so and wipe them off. The cotton strip trick is specially useful for the immovable and unremovable parts.
Keep the taps and faucets clean for longer
Cleaning your taps of hard water stains, no matter how easily, is still extra work. And once we have them clean, we want them to stay like that for as long as possible. The easiest way to achieve this is by simple keeping a soft wipe in the bathroom and kitchen and wiping the fitting after a shower or a bath. This works is keeping them shining for a longer time.
Remember, once you take off the vinegar soaked strips, you will still have to wipe the taps. The hard water salts will have softened and will come completely off with a gentle wipe.
Hope this article helps and we would all love to have you share your tips and tricks for home DIY in the comments below.