Cleaning hard water stains - need more than vinegar

[ChristieB]

We have really hard water, and I'm not the most timely house cleaner. So, we have some hard water stains that just won't respond to a vinegar wash. I also tried oxygen bleach, which works quite well in the toilet. But it didn't do much for my sink. I even filled the sink with water and let the oxygen bleach/water soak in the sink. It really didn't do much.

So, what would you use for hard water stains (or maybe it's something else there?) in the sink and on the counter around the sink and on the faucet? It's discouraging to wash it all and have it look mostly the same afterward.

I realize that if I cleaned more often that would help prevent this. I just can't always get to it when I should. Plus, having a young child makes the problem worse, because there's more water splashing and sitting on the counter and faucet.

[eirual]

We have hard water too.

I find spraying a bit of vinegar to let it soak, then following with a baking soda paste afterwards really helps most stuborn hard water stains. It takes some srubbing/scraping sometimes, but usually works. If it's still not coming off, repeat that a few times in a day and maybe leave vinegar on it to work on disolving it. What about keeping a spray bottle of vinegar to use after using the water for the sink or where ever just for a few days/week while you attack it.

As for the toilet, I don't worry about mine much, but my SIL has massive hard water stains and my mom recomended draining the bowl, then pouring in vinegar. To drain it, turn off the valve on the intake line, give it a flush, treat, let sit, turn water back on and flush whenever you need to next.

I would assume you could use vinegar and maybe a few glugs of hot water and baking soda for some extra umph.

[Melhow36]

I wet a rag in vinegar and put it on the stain and leave it there for a long time 4-6 hours minimum usually it wipes away after that...

[mamaheids]

Shaklee Scour-off paste- this stuff works wonders. PM me if you have any questions!

[Bad Horse]

I use Bon Ami for harder water stains & it works great. Super cheap, too.

[DaMajha]

Have you tried to gently use a pumice stone on it?

[ChristieB]

Thanks for all the ideas. I'll try soaking rags in vinegar and see how that works. I've tried spraying the vinegar, but it's so dry here that it evaporates too quickly to do any good. And I'll keep the other ideas in mind, too.

Where do you get Bon Ami?? We used to use it, and really liked it, but we haven't seen it in years.