How Can I Get Rid of This Stubborn Toilet Ring?
It’s not the most elegant question I get, but certainly one of the most common. “I’ve tried everything I can think of, but that stubborn, ugly toilet bowl ring won’t go away!” Or “It goes away, but just keeps coming back!”
Toilet bowls develop discolorations for many reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the housekeeping. In most cases, the toilet ring results from hard water conditions and water standing in a toilet that doesn’t see a lot of use.
While many commercial products out there promise to remove hard water stains in the toilet, ordinary household pantry items you already have can be just as effective—and much cheaper—to rid your toilet of the dreaded toilet ring without harsh chemicals.
What are those stains, anyway?
Toilet bowl stains that look like rust are likely due to mineral deposits and hard water. Green, orange or black streaks or rings may be mold. A bacteria called Serratia marcescens shows up as pink, or sometimes reddish.
Yellow stains in toilet bowls are due to a lack of maintenance. When your toilet bowl is exposed to urine for an extended period, yellow staining is bound to appear. You can prevent this by ensuring the toilet is flushed after every use.
Under most conditions, regular weekly cleaning prevents heavy stain buildup and reduces the appearance of any existing stains so the bowl can look pristine and white again.
And when none of that works? Don’t worry; I have the mother of all solutions for that too, in a bit. But let’s start with the easiest.
Solution #1: Baking soda and vinegar
When used together strategically, these two common, non-toxic, and harmless edible items are powerful for cleaning things, including hard water stains and toilet rings.
- Pour 1 cup of ordinary white vinegar into the toilet bowl. Using a toilet brush, swish it around. Let it sit for a minute or so.
- Sprinkle a cup of baking soda into the toilet bowl, followed by two more cups of vinegar. Get ready as this is going to create a fizzing action. Leave it be for about 10 minutes.
- Using the toilet brush, swish some more because you want to ensure this solution reaches stains above the waterline and under the rim. Still, do not flush.
- Let the solution sit for 30 minutes, occasionally swishing until the stains are gone. For any remaining stain, scrub it with the toilet brush or scrubby sponge. Flush the toilet to rinse.
Vinegar and Baking Soda Reaction
Baking soda, with its chemical formula NaHCO3, stands as a base, the counterpart to an acid. That’s why it’s a star player in both baking and cleaning tasks. On the other hand, vinegar, known chemically as acetic acid (CH3COOH), boasts high acidity, showing off a low pH level. This acidity makes it a superhero in cleaning, especially when it comes to tackling tough debris.
But here’s where the magic really happens—when you mix the two, a chemical dance takes place!
NaHCO3 + CH3COOH = NaC2H3O2 (sodium acetate) + H2O (water) + CO2 (carbon dioxide)
It’s science in motion. When vinegar and baking soda come together, there’s fizz, there’s bubble, and there’s definitely a reaction going on. Some of it turns into water, some into playful carbon dioxide bubbles, and the rest forms a salt, which tips slightly towards the basic end of the pH scale. So, while they don’t exactly cancel each other out, they do get pretty close to neutralization on the pH scale.
It’s like a chemistry party in your kitchen—baking soda and vinegar join forces, fizzing away to get the job done, and then gracefully bow out once the mission is accomplished.
Source: Chemistry Cachet
Solution #2: Borax and vinegar
Borax is a more robust, yet common, household multi-purpose cleaning product that can be used to clean hard water stains in the toilet. You can find borax in the laundry aisle of most supermarkets, online or in stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s.
- Sprinkle 1/4 cup of borax into the toilet bowl and swish it around with a toilet brush.
- Add 1 cup of vinegar, swish around again, and let the mixture sit in the bowl for about 20 minutes.
- Finish by scrubbing the bowl with a toilet brush to remove the stains. Flush to rinse.
Solution #3: Dishwasher pod
Drop an automatic dishwasher pod (any brand) into the toilet bowl, allow it to sit for a few minutes. Scrub the stains away with a toilet brush. Quite amazingly, I’ve discovered that a pod will dissolve in the room temperature water of a toilet bowl. However, experimenting with automatic dishwasher powder did not prove as effective for me because, unlike the pod, it didn’t dissolve well.
Solution #4: Denture tablet
Porcelain fixtures respond well to the cleaning agent in denture tablets. Drop a denture tablet into the toilet bowl. Allow it to fizzle away for about 30 minutes or even overnight. Use a toilet brush to easily remove tough stains, flush, and enjoy that sparkle!
Solution #5: Bleach
If non-abrasive options don’t do the trick, you may have to use bleach but with several precautions. Porcelain is sensitive material, so bleach should be a product of very infrequent, if not last resort.
- Carefully pour 1 cup of liquid chlorine bleach into the toilet bowl water—not into the tank. Let it sit for 10 minutes max if you are trying to get rid of stubborn stains.
- Do not use cleaners containing bleach because, believe it or not, these products do not contain surfactants to power through the stain, they can instead harden and make the stain permanent.
- Scrub the inside of the toilet thoroughly with a toilet brush. Make sure you get the space up under the rim.
- Flush the toilet to rinse away the bleach.
Solution #6: When all else fails
Sadly, after all attempts, you may conclude that the stains have become permanent. But dry your tears! I have a solution for even those stains. Here it is, the mother of all solutions because some stains and toilet rings are so stubborn, they’re beyond baking soda, borax, vinegar, or bleach: pumice stone. Just be very careful. Overuse, or using the wrong kind of pumice product, can damage the surface of the vitreous china, which that toilet bowl is made of. Careful use, albeit infrequent use, is like magic!
Pumie Pumice Stone Toilet Bowl Ring Cleaner
I recommend Pumie Toilet Bowl Ring Remover. As pumice stones go, this one is soft and, when used infrequently, will not harm the surface of the toilet bowl. Pumie comes with a handle that makes it easy to use.
Clean regularly
You do not need to use strong, costly chemicals to prevent hard water toilet stains. Borax, baking soda, and vinegar do a great job of cleaning and disinfecting—and preventing hard water stains from building up when used regularly—at least once a week. But every day is better.
Seriously, if you keep a clean, attractive toilet brush in sight and handy, a once-a-day clean is a simple habit to establish. You don’t even need to add cleaning product every day—once a week is sufficientf for that—but just an intentional swish around bowl with a good brush once a day is going to do wonders to help keep toilet rings away and sparkly clean toilets a given.
Easy maintenance
For regular maintenance and to help keep your toilet clean and free of hard water buildup, do this weekly, or as needed:
- Sprinkle 1 cup of borax into your toilet bowl before you go to bed. Get it on the sides of the bowl, under the rim, and inside the bowl itself.
- In the morning, scrub quickly with a brush, and flush. The borax loosens up everything you can see and not see, making scrub time much faster. Toilet rings, odors, and stains will flush away easily and with hardly any effort at all!
Septic systems
Ammonia products are safe for use in septic systems, in reasonable amounts. Vinegar (both white vinegar and apple cider vinegar), Borax, OxiClean, and baking soda are septic-system safe. Oxidized bleaches are septic-system safe alternatives to chlorine bleach.
Warnings
- Make sure you protect your hands with rubber gloves.
- Never mix bleach with anything that contains vinegar or ammonia because doing so can cause dangerous chemical reactions!
FAQs
Why do I have a pink-ish red ring in my toilet?
A red ring in your toilet is usually caused by a specific bacteria called Serratia marcescens. While this bacteria isn't generally harmful to the body, it can potentially cause medical issues if it infects wounds or leads to pneumonia. To effectively control the presence of this bacteria in your toilet, it's best to regularly clean it with a chlorine bleach solution.
What causes stubborn toilet rings?
Toilet bowl rings are typically formed when water is left in the toilet bowl for an extended period of time. This allows the hard water minerals of iron and manganese in the the water to settle and form a ring around the inside of the bowl.
How often should a toilet bowl be cleaned?
Daily prevention is such a great idea. It takes maybe 30 seconds to grab a good toilet brush, run it around the inside of the bowl along the water line, shake it off and rinse it of in the sink using hot water. Then once a week clean the bowl with a good cleaning product (see post above) to kill any bacteria that may be trying to take up residence. If you follow this cleaning schedule, you can be sure you'll never have to deal with a stubborn seemingly inmovable ugly toilet ring!
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In your first solution, do you drain the toilet bowl first before pouring in the white vinegar. I did not that mentioned and wanted to make sure i do it correctly.
Just add it to the water already in the bowl and then the baking soda.
Just wanted to say there is very hard water in my area and I had black lines coming down the inside toilet rim that I could hardly get out. Did some googling and someone said to pour vinegar down into the open tube (not sure what it’s called) in the tank and leave it sit several hours without flushing. Evidently it gets into the top rim of the toilet where mold grows and kills it. I did it and it worked really well. I repeat it every couple months and no more black lines!!
A group of women who volunteer to do cleaning at our church were discussing the ugly stains in many of the toilets in the restrooms. They lamented that they had tried every method with no luck.
I assured them that I knew the trick to fix that problem. I showed up on the next cleaning day with a bucket, two disposable cups (one large, one small) a hand held scrub pad and my favorite cleanser called Barkeepers’ Friend. Donning gloves, I proceeded to remove ALL of the water from the bowl using the two cups and pouring it into the bucket. Next I poured in some of the cleanser, swished it all around with my scrub pad, dumped the bucket full of water back into the toilet and flushed leaving a beautiful, shiny toilet bowl for the ladies to admire. As a cleaning lady for many years I ‘invented’ this method a long time ago. Try it ….. you will be amazed!
My toilet stain is blue. I have tried most of your suggestions and none work. Any idea what causes blue stains?
What brush do you recommend? The bristles on those have used seem to flatten out on the top. Is there a choice out there that stands up to frequent use?
I have https://amzn.to/47k6gZh in each of my bathrooms. I turn them so the brush is at the front and that makes them about as attractive as this kind of thing can be. Very happy with them. I just checked, and they’re nearly 5 years old now. Look like new and trust me they get used regularly.
My problem is the bowl has etched at the water line, so no amount of scrubbing will fix that, as far as I know. It always looks like a stain, but it is really just that the minerals in the water has etched the bowl. Would the pumice stone help, or only make it worse? Thanks.
I suggest you try it. Pumice is a perfect product for what you describe. For sure, it won’t make it any worse.
I have brown stains in my toilet bowl below the water line. No issue above the water. I clean the toilet daily so not an issue of not cleaning.
Strangely, the only thing that I have found (have not tried pumice stone yet) is hydrogen pyroxide. I add about a tblsp each night and the brown staining in the bowl under the water is slowly disappearing. Not quick, but only thing that has had any impact on the staining at all.
I really wonder if the “porcelain”/”ceramic” used in modern toilets are the issue. I never had this issue until I had to replace my toilet 2 years ago.
Hydrogen peroxide also removes stains from toilets.
Every day, almost, I put a few pumps of hand soap and swish the brush around. I’ve never felt the need for heavy duty cleaners. Ordinary soap bursts the cell walls of most bacteria and viruses. And when needed the pumice stone. I didn’t know it was best to use the pumice stone every now and then, I’ll start with Bar Keepers Friend more often.
In an area with water restrictions? Think about ways to capture every drop of clean water instead of letting your $ flow down the drain.
While waiting for my shower water to warm before climbing in, I place a bucket under the tap until it runs warm enough to shower. This water can be used for flushing the toilet, watering plants or even adding to the clothes washer so now it uses less water.
Toilet bowl stains? Pour a small capful of mouthwash, generic Listerine works well, into the toilet bowl. I pour some in once or twice a week just before going to bed so that it can work overnight. Much less scrubbing!
When I was in college, I worked on the cleaning crew. They actually trained us to use a pumice stone the correct way. The key is to keep your stone and surface wet. As long as both are wet, the pumice stone will not scratch the porcelain.
Thanks Wendy
Mary…I can’t seem to remember how to print just certain portions from your post. Please give us all the “how to” instructions once again. Thank You
Scroll to the bottom of any post. You will see a large orange PRINT button. Click on it. Now hover over any paragraph and you’ll see a tiny trash can. Click it to remove that portion, sentence, paragraph, word from what you want to print. For images, photos, pictures—click on them one at a time to removed them. Just keep doing that until only what you want to print, remains. Again, you eliminate what you don’t want (rather than select what you do want). Try it. If you mess it up, just start over. You cannot break anything!
the base for most toilet cleaners is diluted hydrochloric acid plus something to make it smell nice,
hydrocloric acid can be purchased at hardware stores for as little as $10 per gallon and half a cup poured into toilet and left a few hours will remove all stains old and new it is cheap no work involved and does not damage the toilet vitreous china
Citric acid is amazing and is very environmentally friendly. It may take a few goes but it works. I had the worst limescale stain and it is completely gone. Now using it regularly it has never returned.
Thank you so much Mary Hunt for all that you share with us! You are so very helpful and I appreciate this post and all that I have read from you!!! You make my life better! Have a wonderful year ahead! Sincerely, Gail.
Ah, thank you Gail!
CITRIC ACID and hot water is the easy solution no one is really talking about it’s amazingly strong, while still safe.
Extremely thick urine scale from someone trying to save water came off in sheets like magic here.
Left it for a few hours. It was astonishing.
For maintenance pcs of ‘bath’bombs would be a great way to clean a toilet with less scrubbing .
Hi Mary, I was very sick for over a year and the hubs had to do EVERYTHING in the house plus provide my care. Needless to say, cleaning the toilets was at the bottom of his to do list. The rust stains and the toilet ring were beyond description due to infrequent cleaning and the hard water from our well. I tried all your solutions and finally settled on ordering the Pumie cleaner. I held out little hope for success. Low and behold, the Pumie worked like magic! The bowls look like new again and I am one happy healthy camper. Thank you for your column and all your great suggestions!!
Pumie is a kind of last resort, and a good one, as you’ve proven! So happy to know you are recovering well and back on your feet. Stay well …
I live in California where most counties are experiencing severe drought and wildfires. There are even areas here where homes don’t even have water enough to drink or bathe, let alone flush! Flushing the toilet is one of the biggest users of water in the home, especially if your toilet/s are not low flow.
While I agree with most of the responses for products for cleaning, I completely disagree with your suggestion to flush after each use. Remember the saying, “if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down?” So what if your toilet bowl gets a bit icky. Get over it! With the IPCC’s paper just issued yesterday, saying the planet and humanity are in a “code red” state of emergency I say everything is connected, even our toilets and water use. It’s high time we start to think differently about how we live and the resources we use.
I use Clorox Toilet Bowl Cleaner. I squirt it under the lip of the toilet when the whole bowl needs to be cleaned or on a spot if there is only a small stain. I rarely have to use the brush. The cleaner takes care of everything.
I poured some Blue Dawn liquid into my toilet bowl when I was going to be gone all day and it did a fantastic job of getting the bowl clean. First time I’d tried it but it worked. Ran the toilet brush around the inside and was pleased with the result….
Hi Mary, I am seeking information/recommendations for a personal alarm; these can usually be put on a key ring; there are quite a few available, but many are useless. I hope this e-mail reaches you. Terri Printz
a related question- how do I clean the toilet brush and container? I used to use disposable scrubber pads and am trying to reduce plastic usage, so I bought a brush but not sure how, or how often to clean it. thanks for all you do!
I keep my toilet brush in a gallon mason jar half full of water with a table spoon of polmolive dish soap. My brush stays clean. I use the soapy water to clean the bowl on the toilet every day and change the soapy water in the mason jar out every two weeks. I never have toilet rings or dirty brush. Dawn would work too but I’m allergic to it to wash my dishes with. Gives me a rash. Polmolive is what I buy, the clear colored one with no scent.
The maintenance instructions to keep the toilet bowl clean are really funny.
I personally don’t know ANYONE whose toilet doesn’t get flushed several times a night.
I know people with only one bathroom and small children. Guess what the odds are that would ever work…..but I do appreciate the good laugh I had when I read it.
A small amount of Lime-away spray works for me. Brush and flush, rinse brush. (we have very hard water)
Are all these cleaners safe for all septic systems?
Thanks in advance!
Nothing but water should go down the drain when you have a septic system -BUT, in small amounts vinegar, baking soda and/or Dr Bronner’s soaps are safe.The goal with septic systems should be to have them work so efficiently that they NEVER need to be pumped!
Kind of on a similar note. even with a soft water system, I see the rust trying to creep in. I use Bar keeper’s Friend every couple of weeks (and clean with comet cleanser afterward) and it works very well. So grateful to know these other great tips too. Thanks, Mary.
I discovered a wonderful product for this problem. It’s called Iron Out. It is available in a spray gel or granular format. I use the concentrated powder. Just pour (or spray) into the bowl and let it sit for 10-20 minutes or so and then use a toilet bowl brush to clean the whole bowl.
BE CAREFUL though it is really strong. I wear gloves and a mask (we all have plenty of those now) and I open a window when I apply it, then close the door and leave to let it work its magic. It works fast and you will be amazed at the result.
Hi Michelle … Your comment proves the purpose of this post, that you can do the same job for a lot less $ and no chemicals or toxic fumes 🙂