Regular cleaning sometimes doesn’t prevent water spots from appearing on your shower door. No matter how often you clean or how hard you scrub, the faint, white stains stubbornly remain. But you can remove water spots and prevent them from returning.
What Causes Water Spots?
Hard water causes most water spots. When you shower, take a bath or heat water for another purpose, the minerals in hard water leach out. The resulting white, scaly deposits are called limescale. Transparent glass or plastic shower doors are perfect for showing limescale deposits, though they also appear on whatever surface hard water contacts, such as faucets, sinks and basins. Soap scum builds up on limescale, making the cleaning problem worse.
Home Remedies
Vinegar, lemon juice and dryer sheets are effective home remedies for removing water spots. Limescale is a tough alkaline substance that regular bathroom cleaners can’t penetrate or break up. The acids in vinegar and lemon juice dissolve limescale, and some elbow grease helps remove it. The National Water Council advises customers to apply lemon juice to a sponge and rub the stains, or you could try soaking paper towels in distilled white vinegar, spreading them across the water spots and leaving them for 15 minutes. Remove the towels, and scrub the spots with a non-abrasive nylon mesh pad. Alternatively, wet dryer sheets and wipe them over your shower doors.
Cleaning Products That Remove Water Spots
Certain cleaning products are specially formulated to remove water spots from shower doors. Before using cleaning products, read the instructions on the label and follow them carefully. The cleaning company, One Way Clean, recommends products containing phosphoric acid, which dissolves limescale. Regular products for cleaning showers you can buy at the grocery store contain four to six percent acid phosphoric acid, but products for professional use contain eight to 12 percent acid. The higher concentration products work faster, but you must rinse the surfaces thoroughly immediately after applying the liquid.
At The Manly Housekeeper blog, the writer tested a range of products that their manufacturers claimed removed water spots from the shower door. He found the best-performing product was Bar Keeper’s Friend, closely followed by CLR and Lime Away.
How to Prevent Water Spots
Once you’ve cleaned away water spots and have a clean, shiny shower door again, take action to prevent the spots from returning. Wipe away water droplets with a squeegee or towel after every shower to stop limescale deposits from appearing. You can also apply Rain-X glass treatment, which works just as well on glass shower doors as it does on windows.
Water spots on a shower door make it look dirty, and that’s annoying when you know you’ve cleaned it thoroughly. Hard water is to blame for the problem, not your cleaning skills. Try home remedies to remove water stains, or cleaning products formulated for removing limescale.
For answers to your questions, contact the Pink Plumber today.
