There`s a friend of mine, who owns a little cleaning company, she`s been doing this for more than ten years, so she`s really great at this. But as she does it as a business and she needs the work to be done as quickly and easy as possible, she often uses aggressive cleaning detergents, and of course she laughs at me when I mention baking soda or citric acid.
But I don`t need to clean a thousand year old toilet or a tile that had seen gazillion shoe soles. I need to clean MY taps. So citric acid is just fine for me and for the ecology. . .
The minerals like to lurk in all sorts of awkward places, the faucet`s spout is one of them, so I`ve left my washbasin tap spout unwashed for a couple weeks to show you how to easily clean the limescale and rust off it. Even pliers were needed to screw it off.
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A cleaning solution of hot water and citric acid for the tap and the washbasin
For the faucet and the sink I made a cleaning solution of 2-3 teaspoon of citric acid and 1 cup of hot water in a spray bottle, sprayed it all over the dirty surface while the solution is hot and left it to soak for about 15 minutes. The area is not that much “limescaled”, so once is enough. But if you haven`t cleaned your tap and sink for awhile, consider to repeat this step several times. You will see, hoe the limescale is dissolving every time you spray the hot citric acid solution on it.
Then I brushed the whole surface thoroughly. Again, no scrubbing is required. But after the solution had worked, the big limescale particles will just fall of when you scrub them with the plastic head of the toothbrush. Then I just rinsed it.
A cleaning solution of hot water and citric acid for the aerator
For the aerator itself, I filled a cup with hot water just to cover the spout and added 2 teaspoon of citric acid, stirred the solution till the citric acid dissolved and left for about fifteen minutes. Then I got out the aerator and brushed it with an old toothbrush and then submerged the aerator back into the cup. This can be repeated as many times as many limescale layers cover the spout (usually 3-4 times). Here`s a video on how the magic happens to another faucet:
The result:
When the spout is finally shiny again, just rinse it and brush it with the help of the same old toothbrush if needed. And then screw it back to the faucet.
Finishing touch
To make things perfect, you can use a CLEAN dry microfiber cloth to absorb the water after rinsing and you will see your pretty and pleased reflection in all of the surfaces.
Making limescale removal part of your regular cleaning routine will also save you a lot of hard graft in the long-run, so it’s worth making as often as you can.
P.S.: The featured pic is our shower mixer tap, only it was clean when I was writing the post 🙂
You can also watch a video guide on how to easily descale your kettle here.
