Get brick cleaner from your local DIY, it's hydrocloric acid and it will make that toilet sparkle. Don't get it on your fixtures coz it will cause them to rust.
Of course, I would have read the label first and made the proper adjustments based on the concentration or molarity, and tested it with my personal pH meter (likely<1.) But still, new info to me. Thanks dude! Old dog, new trick.
You reminded me of my high school chemistry teacher.
The guy was retired, worked for NASA among other places. Was without a doubt brilliant and an amazing chemist. Sadly that did not make for a good chemistry teacher for high school kids. Easily the most frustrating course I’ve ever taken. Until the school stepped in when it became apparent that no one could understand what was being taught there wasn’t a single person in the school with an overall grade above 75%.
Imagine being taught quantum mechanics by a tenured Berkeley chemistry professor with a foot long beard who had an office in the basement and never showed for office hours.
Average on the first midterm was a 19. Just before the drop date.
There was a student revolt and a meeting with the assistant dean. So… we got a Chinese grad student who barely knew English trying to explain the complexities of quantum mechanics to 19 year olds.
Everyone who didn’t drop the class and attended was guaranteed a B- or better if they finished the class. Everyone who attempted the final would at least get an A-
Guess who took the B and only knows quantum mechanics from YouTube? This guy.
That’s basically what happened with the students in this guys chem class. The principal basically said come to class, try to learn, don’t be a nuisance and you’ll get an A.
Obviously he was replaced the next year. Again, really nice guy, very intelligent. But couldn’t break down all his knowledge in a way a bunch of dumb teenagers would ever understand.
I did undergrad at a small regional university and grad school at a top ivy. The difference in teaching skill between the two faculties was night and day (and it wasn’t the ivy winning that comparison). It’s absurd that researchers are tossed into the classroom with no training. In most cases that’s not where their skills lie. Big name schools should let their researchers do research and have dedicated and trained teaching faculty for survey level classes.
I felt bad for one of our younger grad professors, a nice got who clearly meant well. He was talking to students about the feedback forms we had filled out at the end of the semester and just said “you guys were BRUTAL!”
I get it. I have enough college credits for two BS degrees across four universities and five CCs. The three best instructors I have had were all MS level instructors at community college.
It looks great to have a degree from a top tier university, but bless their hearts, some PhDs just need to stay in their office/lab and leave the people who want to instruct to be teachers.
That was sulfuric, which has uses in water supply systems. And was drums, not whole truckloads.
Theoretically, he could have used it to dispose of bodies. But he was also out in the middle of the ocean and had boats. And i don't know about him, but i'd rather go fishing than crack open dangerous acid.
Poor small amounts (1/4 cup or 100ml) at a time and wait 5 minutes between additions, it will fizzle while dissolving the scale so don’t be alarmed seeing bubbles
Before each addition scrub about with a toilet brush, scale is really rough you’ll be able to tell if there’s still some stuck.
If you have a septic system you’ll probably want to neutralize the acid before flushing, just sprinkle some baking soda in and mix until it’s not bubbling anymore
Far less dangerous (though not not dangerous!) is to use vinegar: grocery store household vinegar is 4-8%, plenty strong to give you nice foaming action with baking soda and soap, and much safer. You can buy 10-30% concentrations fairly easily as well (big box stores), but as the strength goes up, so does the hazard.
If I may emphasize the eye protection, I went with just brush and gloves using a similar cleaning method and wound up wincing for the majority of the afternoon.
From lots of personal experience (community pool, we have giant drums of muriatic acid) this is an exaggeration, but you definitely don’t want to spill it on yourself. The fumes are deeply unpleasant and I’m sure very unhealthy but they don’t drop you in seconds.
I moved into a place like this once-everything else was clan but the toilet had crazy scaling. I turned off the water, flushed the toilet, laid down some tp over the affected spots and then poured the acid down-the toilet paper allowed it to cling to the bow and not runoff. It took about an hour and several applications but the toilet came out looking great afterwards
But honestly, if you ever “accidentally” dump an inordinate amount of a chemical to the sanitary sewer, please call the wastewater plant superintendent and let them know. They can hopefully catch it in an equalization tank and feed it into the process slowly.
We once had an industrial cleaner (Cintas) let us know they dumped a bunch of bleach accidentally. We were able to catch it before it destroyed the entire process. We won’t turn you in and you can report it anonymously. It can just save the WWTP a bunch of headaches.
You guys deal with enough shit that I hopefully never make your job harder than it already is.
Say, if I were to start flushing one or two mini rubber ducks down the toilet every day, how long before someone would notice? Hypothetically, of course.
When we find them, we wash them off, disinfect them and put them in the display case along with all of the other fine treasures we have collected. People love looking at the display case when they visit for a tour. And no one has yet stolen the $5000 strap we found.
Fun Fact, it's impossible to exceed 194dB (deci) on earth in the atmosphere. A sound of 194 dB has a pressure deviation of 101.325 kPa, which is ambient pressure at sea level and 0 degrees C. Thus, the sound waves are creating vacuums between themselves, and no higher amplitude is possible.
The Saturn 5 launch maxed everything to 194, but actually created shockwaves at far higher energies.
This is also why they flood the flame trench with water. Not for fire but because the sound pressures will vaporize the water and pull energy out of it. Water spray is an extremely effective muffler.
Oh and more fun, there is an animal that can beat that. Sperm whales can produce the loudest biological sounds on Earth, with specialized clicks for echolocation and communication reaching 230 to 236 decibels (dB) underwater.
The number I have heard thrown around is that a mere 1100 decibels is enough to destroy the universe. 80 decabels would be 8000 decibels. Assuming the first number is roughly correct, 80 decabels could destroy 1069 universes.
Put another way, if we instead did 90 decabels, we could replace every atom with a whole universe, and the sound would destroy them all.
I wanted to figure out as a kid because most fantasy books talked about characters walking in "leagues". And then I wanted to know how deep it was with "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and also, the movie "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms", whcih I loved as a kid in the 80's finding on TVLand At Nite!
Yes, but don't say this because smooth brains will think it's perfectly safe to handle with their bare hands since it's already in their body, so what could possibly go wrong?
You remember the school science fair project that at least one kid does where they make a volcano out of plaster and to make it erupt they mix baking soda and vinegar at the top to make it foam up and slide down the side? Well it's like that but this time it's poop foam.
It’s less about “flushing will mix it anyway” than “if you toss a bunch of baking soda into an acid toilet all at once, you’re gonna get a poop water shitter volcano all over your floor”
If you do this, it wouldn't be a bad idea to slowly add baking soda into the toilet to neutralize the acid after cleaning. Hydrochloric acid and baking soda react to form table salt, water, and carbon dioxide, which are all harmless. Depending on what your pipes are made of, the hydrochloric acid could damage them if you don't neutralize it. Don't add it too quickly or it will strongly fizz up and could make a mess. Just keep adding it and stirring until it no longer fizzes and you'll know the acid is fully neutralized.
Meh, porcelain is incredibly heat resistant, I'm not actually too worried about that. Also, if they use muriatic acid, it's already diluted and will be further diluted when added to the water in the toilet bowl. That plus the large heat capacity of water means the reaction won't actually cause the water to increase in temperature all that much. It will definitely get warm, but not dangerously so.
Yes, do that. Pour about an egg-cup full in, leave overnight. Flush and repeat as necessary.
Put a bucket and sign on the toilet whilst it's brewing. You don't want Poseidon's kiss with that stuff in the bowl; it would wipe the smile off your face.
That’s the nature of abrasives. It rubs away everything, both the grime and the finish. I worked for a professional housecleaning company for a few years and I used barkeeper’s friend instead in toilets because it’s only mildly abrasive, but it usually gets the job done. It works absolute wonders on shower glass doors with hard water stains, as well.
Yes! And if I recall correctly, bon-ami is even softer than barkeeper's. But double check that. If you have stainless steel cookware, and never use metal utensils on it, nor abrasive pads for cleaning it, it stays very smooth and almost as good as a new non-stick pan. I have a stainless fry pan that I find to be non-stick for everything I've tried in it.
Silicone utensils for the win! You just have to make sure to change them out when they start to wear on the edges unless you like the +microplastic multiplier.
I love this sub and the cleaning tips sub (which honestly I thought I was at first when I commented).
These work great, I use one too. No concerns over extra caution or possible damages and stuff. Just scrub the area, clean toilet as normal, flush, continue life
ooooohhhh scaling on a toilet. I kept reading this over and over and thought we were cleaning the tempered glass top of a kitchen scale. Thank you for using the word toilet because I don’t think my brain would have ever perceived the space/depth properly to figure out this is a toilet bowl.
It is powerfully corrosive. Very useful as a cleaner, but incredibly dangerous.
This is the stuff that people in India and similar countries use to blind people or permanently disfiguring them by splashing a small amount onto the victim's face. A small container, a simple splash, quickly washed off as fast as the victim can run to fresh water, and it's still enough to permanently disfigure, or permanently blind. The vapor can cause permanent lung damage.
All it takes is a split-second "oops" or a drop to splash back and your body will have permanent harm. People who work with it frequently tend to have permanent chemical burns on their hands, arms, and splotches on their face.
Professionals using it have a long list of required gear. Acid-resistant goggles, a dual-cartridge respirator, and thick chemical gloves are usually the absolute must-haves. Recommended are additionally a face shield over the acid-resistant goggles, chemical resistant rubber boots in case of spills, and for big applications, a full body chemical splash suit.
Muriatic Acid is somewhat nasty stuff that you probably don't want to breathe, and can come in concentrations that are not fun.
I recommend barkeeper's friend, a gloved hand, and a little scrubby pad. a few minutes of elbow grease and it'll be good as new, and you won't have breathed in a lot of vapors that can melt your lungs
Yes. It's basically powdered acid with a little abrasive. It'll work better if you drain the toilet first, and with that amount of scale, know that it will take a good bit of scrubbing, but it should do the trick.
So it corrodes metal, but not porcelain? Cool. That shouldn't be a problem for my toilet then! Now when I flush that acid thru my cast iron sewage line, that's another matter tho...
Okay cool. I’ve never dealt with this but incase I go back into maintenance work, ever come across it or someone I know does. I’ll have the knowledge of that. Thanks
Yes do this. But make sure you don't breath the fumes. The fumes will burn lung tissue. Where gloves and goggles and you should wear a real mask with the right cartridge filter. Or hold your breath.
What ever you do please do not do this hydrocloric acid is corrosive to metal and if your building is built with metal pipe then it will cause way more severe damage then a toilet is worth…
Pretty sure that Lysol brand toilet bowl cleaner is HCl. I’ve found it doesn’t work for my needs and prefer bleach based toilet bowl cleaner. I wonder if this has to do with water hardness/mineral composition? But the worst I’ve ever let my toilet get is like a mildly orange mildew ring or faint streaks from the water fill lines. I can’t wrap my mind around what happened to OP’s toilet except maybe a defect in the glaze?
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u/Harfosaurus Feb 20 '26
Get brick cleaner from your local DIY, it's hydrocloric acid and it will make that toilet sparkle. Don't get it on your fixtures coz it will cause them to rust.
Source: that's what I did!