CHEMISTS ! uric salt bio film clean up :(

[steptoe]

Looking for anyone with chemical knowlege of uric salt sludge build up forming on white ceramic toilet pans due to the drought saving " if it's yellow - let it mellow, (if it's brown , flush it down)" , nothing sold for cleaning bogs cleans this stuff off - even combined

Even tried the Bio natural solutions wee off biological urine stain and odour remover the ducks guts of cleaners - considering hydrochloric acid now. With a dry bowl I did find some random household stuff not recorded as to what it was that lifted this stuff that almost etches itself to the porcelain. When dry it is hard as.....

Dr Karl often quoted if you filled a standard bath with pee, let it evaporate, the crystals that remained you could smash with a hammer to get sparks fly from under the head on impact

[Gannon]

I have the same problem, even hard scrubbing with a combination of bleach, ajax and shower power wont remove all of it.

As for dried urine making sparks, i once read somewhere that matches where once made by repetitively dipping small sticks in horse urine until a layer of phosphorus built up on the end

[AlpineRaven]

We had the same problem here as well after countless of chemicals, mother natures ideas etc - ended up replacing whole loo! but I wished tried heavier chemicals such as paint thinners, brake cleaner etc but wife said time to get it out before i could try!
Cheers
AP

[TOONGA]

that is correct urine contains uric acid aka urea, red phosphorus, nitrates , other phosphates and salts (hence the meth labs called pee labs)

the old favourite caustic soda will remove these stains as will acetic acid (strong vinegar) I would be careful using hydrochloric acid in a toilet as the vapours are quite toxic in an enclosed space

a paste made from salt and vinegar applied to the stain then left for a few hours will when scrubbed off remove said stains

as will a paste made from caustic soda (rather dangerous though)

remember to wear safety glasses and gloves

TOONGA

aka doctor boom

[GOD]

Look for MSDSs for industrial waterless urinal cleaners to find their ingredients. AFAIK they're based on organic enzymes which means the closest thing you'd be able to get your hands on would be yeast. Throw in a handful and see what happens*.

Pretty sure some urates will react with acids. If you have some rust converter (phosphoric acid) lying around, pour it in (by itself, not with the yeast). If you have a source for hydrochloric acid, try that too (again, by itself) and see what happens**. Don't leave it there long enough or concentrated enough to attack the glaze on the porcelain.

Industrial pipe anti-scalants might also be worth a look (probably hard to get in less than 200L though)

Dane.

*This rxn is likely to yield ammonia gas, which is unpleasant at best.
**This could yield HCl gas, which is even more unpleasant.
I'm just some wanker on the internet, not a chemist. Uric scale is a variable and complex biological product, so its composition and reactions are difficult to predict. Experiment at your own risk. You are responsible for your own toilet bowl.

[steptoe]

Need some sort of trough lollies to leave in cistern

someone also suggested CLR but that was no good either.
Have though new pan will be cheaper in long run

[Alex]

you guys must have potent piss

[d_generate]

Have you tried spray on oven cleaner? One of the best things for getting rust & red dirt stains out of car paint & it was the only thing that would clean the black crap off the glass on my wood fire

[thatsgoodsquishy]

I moved into a cheap rental about 12 months ago, came with a scale stained dunny. In my case its mineral deposits, it grows on every tap outlet, clogs the shower rose etc. My dunny is now as white as non pissed on snow. The old cheese put me onto plain old vinegar, and it just dissolved the scale away. Pour it down before going to work so it has a few hours in there and when ya flush it next some of the scale just flushes away. Cost me stuff all (3 litres of home brand ) and zero effort, got to be worth a try?

[steptoe]

brown or white

half the problem with uric salts is the lime scale from water used to flush. uric salt is insoluble in water

[steptoe]

I even tried denture powder or tablets dissolved with boiling water poured over a tea towel jammed in bowl - Shannon Lush remedy did not work. Now, where's that tea towel ????

[steptoe]

OK, have removed the bowl water, emptied basic brand of carb soda 500g into near dry bowl, then added the best of two litres of white vinegar from ALDI, did it froth and bubble up or what, no nasty toxic fumes so far. Will leave it to do whatever magic it is gong to for 24 hours or so.....

watch this space

[d_generate]

I hope you dug a hole in the back yard;)

[dibs]

well when we bought this house it had bad stains in the bowl i just put some hydrocloric acid in it for a few hrs and they disapered but gota watch it with septic tank to strong will kill the bug in the tank. or you could lick it clean lmao
dibs

[TOONGA]

so why bicarbonate of soda with vinegar?

as bicarbonate of soda is used to neutralise most acids

so wouldn't that just make your toilet a neutral PH zone ?

I remember saying a paste of salt and vinegar or a caustic soda paste

not bicarbonate of soda

TOONGA

[steptoe]

OK, OK you remind me I dipped out of chemistry and physics coz I looked at my older mates text books - looked too hard. Then before that, my first grade teacher marked a report that I tend not to try things that looked difficult - I had a problem (deeply concerned) with how we would write the date come the year 2000 fortelling the Y2K bug by nearly thirty years.

I dunno, they are both cheap cleaning ingredients ?

Steptoe 's off to the supermarket for another dose of vinegar

[steptoe]

Well, a 2 litre bottle of plain white vinegar replaced the water in the bowl for some eight hours....more of this dark crusty stuff disappeared. It does not wear down but this seams to have dissolved in places. It is almost like paint - chip away at an edge with a blade or screwdriver and it will break away in flakes as if it has a hold on the edges of it but not entirely under its surface.

Thought it was all gone so flushed and found there is still some crud further back so it has been drained and refilled with $1.09 2lt vinegar from Woolies again. Will give it 24 hours or more, and again it looks to have done away with more crusty stuff.

[steptoe]

Well, after tried all sorts of things, identified or not, white vinegar left for a 24 hour period and a good scrub with nylon dunny brush is the scond best thing to remove the crusty crud build up, the first was random and unidentified and removed a small patch or two.

The bowl was drained of water first - work that one out on your own !

No longer do you have to drive through fog to attend a book signing by Shannon Lush, nor line up like an idiot to ask her what to do to fix, don't have to buy her books at $20 a pop, or even try her suggestin of dneture powder applied with boiling water and a tea towel stuffed in bowl to help reduce water content - sort of worked , sort of didn't.

This was not a rusty water stain, nor a yellow stain but a layer of hard to shift crud built of from not being flushed with every use due to water saving attempts

I hope this method shows up next time someone googles how to clean a crusty toilet bowl slash pan that is slash as in / not the other slash, well, actually.....yes, that slash too.

I also nearly bought a new pan over this......

plain old white vinegar over 24 hrs, only dilution was what little water remained in pan at application time.

Sort of figures, I used to use 50/50 water and white vinegar to clean the cement glue residue look on floor slate before sealing it.

Thanks heaps for the vinegar suggestion. I have tried it before but not for the 24 hours, that seems to be the secret.

[1111giles]

It does seem that 'all things come to those who wait' (24hrs that is) hehehe:)

[Gannon]

Cool i'll give it a go