Cleaning a dirty white sink (again)

[user 26]

a while back i had mentioned using baking soda paste to clean a discolored white sink. i think it's porcelain but it's hard to tell. anyway .. it's also got little scratches from pans. this sink just wouldn't come clean with the baking soda left on and then scoured. tried some old fashioned scouring powder. no.
what worked was about one tablespoon of dishwasher detergent. i applied it to the damp sink with a paper towel and let it sit a bit. no scouring needed. rinsed and it looks great. then i did the deep sides. looks great.
i realize the dishwasher detergent has chemicals in it, but that sink just looked so bad
they have iron or something in the water and use filters for drinking water
thought i'd share.

 

[Joey Camb]

You know what is fab for cleaning discolored toilet bowls? Cola we buy the really cheap own brand kind pour it down leave for 24 hours and sparkling white again. It makes you dread to think what they put in it. It also can be used to clean pennies should you ever wish to.

 

[Samster]

You know what is fab for cleaning discolored toilet bowls? Cola we buy the really cheap own brand kind pour it down leave for 24 hours and sparkling white again. It makes you dread to think what they put in it. It also can be used to clean pennies should you ever wish to..

Hmmm....I never heard about using cola in the toilet. That's a good tip!

 

[Joey Camb]

You know what is fab for cleaning discolored toilet bowls? Cola we buy the really cheap own brand kind pour it down leave for 24 hours and sparkling white again. It makes you dread to think what they put in it. It also can be used to clean pennies should you ever wish to..

Hmmm....I never heard about using cola in the toilet. That's a good tip!
.

another good tip is you know how if you have cups or mugs with white insides with the coffee and tea? if you put laundry powder in them (about a spoon full) and fill with water and leave over night they come up like new.

 

[Copperhead]

Our own H elo ise hints thread we have going here.
Thanks for the tips!

 

[user 26]

i've heard about the coke but i don't want to have brown water in the toilet (haha) seriously, i never buy it anymore. in florida, the folklore was to kill fire ants with it. i don't know if that's true, but it took a rust stain off the pavement next to the ant hill. if you drink it, at least use a straw i think.
i've used the dishwasher detergent in mugs to get rid of the tea and coffee rings ... i don't know why i didn't think of using it ON the sink before. i am still wondering why the baking soda stopped working but that is okay.
another thing i did today was something i learned a few years back. the chambermaid had dumped bleach in the old porcelain tub and forgot it and LEFT ... left work, left the area. i had someone checking into that room in a few hours and was frantic. scrambled online and found out that the blue toilet bowl cleaner, the thick kind, smeared all around in the porcleain tub and left to sit a while, then rinsed, took away the brown stains! thank goodness! so, i went up into the bathroom here just now and tried it on the tub stains up there, worked like a charm.
again ... these aren't 'green' cleaners and i really do try to minimize chemicals. but i also want things to look nice. and i think they need some filters on all the faucets and taps because these stains must be from their water, their pipes, don't you think? i think this old house must have lead pipes, cast iron pipes or something like that.

 

[scrambled_eggs]

I just use straight bleach if I have a really bad stained sink. One white sink is always turning brown but none of the other are. The reason it is staining is because it is 60 year old and the finish is wearing down on it. I bleach it and it always looks like new but it sure if a pain to always have to do that. Otherwise I am using baking soda and vinegar to clean and it works well.

 

[NW Natterbug]

You know what is fab for cleaning discolored toilet bowls? Cola we buy the really cheap own brand kind pour it down leave for 24 hours and sparkling white again. It makes you dread to think what they put in it. It also can be used to clean pennies should you ever wish to..

Hi Camberly, does the cola work on lime scale? that's the difficult one here.

 

[NW Natterbug]

You know what is fab for cleaning discolored toilet bowls? Cola we buy the really cheap own brand kind pour it down leave for 24 hours and sparkling white again. It makes you dread to think what they put in it. It also can be used to clean pennies should you ever wish to..

Oops double post.

 

[Proud Texan]

You know what is fab for cleaning discolored toilet bowls? Cola we buy the really cheap own brand kind pour it down leave for 24 hours and sparkling white again. It makes you dread to think what they put in it. It also can be used to clean pennies should you ever wish to..

n. It makes you dread to think what they put in it. It also can be used to clean pennies should you ever wish to.

It's phosphoric acid.
Many years ago I remember that the printing company I worked for used to chemically etch printing plates.

 

[Sanctuary]

Dishwashing detergent has many uses other than for the dishwasher. I also use it as seashanty mentioned, and it works great for cleaning a pan that has hard, baked-on crud (just fill it with water, sprinkle some dishwasher detergent in it and let it sit overnight). I also keep it in the bathrooms and pour some in the bilge shower sumps from time to time - that cleans them without me ever having to touch them.
As for phosphoric acid in coke...yuk!! Just last weekend, I was using phosphoric acid to clean the inside the seawater side of one of my engines. Eeeekkk, the thought of drinking that, even a drop of it. That's some nasty stuff, but it made the inside of my heat exchanger smooth as silk.
Other non-traditional uses of ordinary cleaners - did you know that Windex is a great spot cleaner for carpet? Yep, even cleans up pizza from white carpet. I use liquid Tide to clean the bilges - partially fill them with water, turn off the bilge pumps, pour a gallon of Tide in there, go for a boat ride to slosh things up, come back, turn on the bilge pumps...all done and smells so nice! Got a spot of discolored wood around a leaking window that you've not yet had time to repair? Spray some W-D 40 on it and it will blend in perfectly with the others (this is for varnished wood, not painted trim). Diesel fuel makes a most excellent hardwood floor polish - learned that one by accident - but, some will find the smell objectionable.
...I could go on and on, but I've got to get some work done outside before the storms arrive. Happy July 4th everyone!

 

[Joey Camb]

You know what is fab for cleaning discolored toilet bowls? Cola we buy the really cheap own brand kind pour it down leave for 24 hours and sparkling white again. It makes you dread to think what they put in it. It also can be used to clean pennies should you ever wish to..

Hi Camberly, does the cola work on lime scale? that's the difficult one here.
.

only below the water line I am afraid.

 

[Don Draper]

This week I was trying to deep clean the inside of the dishwasher. It was getting a lot of mold down at the inside corners of the door and I couldn't scrub it out, couldn't get anything to reach down into that small space. I remembered the the Clorox we have for our HE washing machine is very thick, almost like a gel consistency. So I filled up both of the soap trays in the dishwasher with the HE bleach and ran it on the hottest cycle. I couldn't believe how clean it was, the entire inside was sparkling white and smelled fresh (not bleachy, I guess the rinse cycle got rid of the smell). I try to minimize bleach use but I will be doing this periodically from here on in to keep the dishwasher sanitary.