I saw this tip in a video on the internet and had a chance to try it out on an old faucet that had years of calcium buildup on it.
To remove calcium deposits on a faucet, wrap a cloth or small towel, that is soaked with white vinegar, around the faucet and let it sit for several hours. It will remove most of the calcium deposit. Afterwards, scrub with steel wool or a scrubbing pad to remove any that remains.
In this case, I wrapped the vinegar soaked towel around the faucet and poured more vinegar on the towel and let it sit over night. I was surprised at the results when I removed the towel.
I didn't have time to do any scrubbing with steel wool, but you can tell the difference just by looking at the photos that the white vinegar removed most of the calcium deposit.
I really didn't think it was going to work and I was so amazed at the results that I didn't think to take a picture of the towel on the faucet.
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We have dreadfully hard water here in West Michigan. That leads to the dreaded lime scale build-up and unusable shower heads. Cleaners like CLR and KABOOM! require using rubber gloves because the product is so strong.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
My kitchen chrome faucet is stained with white marks, like drips or something. The metal polish cleans the chrome, but does not remove the spots. I tried baking soda, vinegar, and steel wool. No luck. Can someone help?
By sue from Deptford, NJ
I think these would be hard water deposits. Have you used vinegar by itself? Try it. It should just dissolve these stains. No scrubbing should be necessary.
Try Lemi Shine or powedered Lemon aid. The Lemi Shine is straight citric acid and for some reason works great on hard water spots. The lemon aid works ok too, but it's not as strong.
Today I used NOXON 7 to remove hard water/soap scum deposits from high-end Grohe polished brass bathroom fixtures. Works like as charm!! We have extremely hard water with iron/sulphur content. The water softener has not eliminated the spots on shower fixtures.
A washcloth and WD-40 works very well. Remove the WD-40 with Formula 409 and add a light coat of car wax.
I tried backing soda and vinegar to remove water stains on stainless steal sink. They didn't work. I tried lemon juice and it did the trick.
A poster below suggested using a magic eraser to remove hard water spots. I just tried it on my axor hansgrohe shower fixtures and the magic eraser easily removed spots. It works!
Did NOT work at all. I scrubbed and scrubbed with it. Nada. :(
I had too turn on a room fan since the air was so thick with vinegar.Sorry friends. It did not remove or even effect the water spots. Bummer. I tried vinegar mixed with cornstarch (so it sticks to the surface, heated in the microwave for 2 minutes, stirred a few times.
What can I use to remove my shower head? Due to hard water deposits years ago, we cannot get it off nor can we remove the hot and cold faucets in the tub either.
You could spray the head and faucets with WD-40 every day for several days. You may be able to loosen up the deposits enough to remove the fixtures.
There are several products that taunt their ability to take care of this but since I have not used them, I'm not sure how good they work.
The products are located in the cleaning and plumbing supply departments of most large stores like Walmart, Lowe's, Home Depot and Ace and True Value hardware stores. Lots of names like; Lime Away, etc.
Please be sure to turn off the water supply before attempting to remove any of these items? If you do not know where the main supply cut off is located than please find out this before you start.
I have never used WD40 as Judy suggested but it certainly may work if you spray it several days.
I have used white vinegar by wrapping a wash cloth over/around the shower head and faucets and keep it wet with vinegar but it does take a few days.
Be sure to find the water supply first.
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
To remove vinegar deposits that accumulate on faucets from hard water, fill a bag with vinegar and tie the bag to the faucet.
How do you get hard water stains off a faucet?
Does anyone know how to remove calcium water marks on polished brass shower doors and faucets? I don't want to ruin the finish, as I am sure you can understand.
For hard water spots vinegar is often recommended because it works. I've taken this a step further. I mix 2 Tbsp. of cornstarch to about a 1/4 cup of water.
Stubborn hard-water stain on my chrome faucets. Any ideas? I tried a rag soaked heavily in white vinegar for hours, no effect at all.
