How to remove stains from bathtub?
Sources
Answer
Here are the best methods to remove various types of bathtub stains:
General Cleaning
- Make a solution of warm water and a few drops of dish soap. Spray or apply generously to the tub and let sit for 5-10 minutes before scrubbing and rinsing1.
- For more stubborn stains, make a paste with 2 parts baking soda to 1 part hydrogen peroxide. Spread it on the stain, let sit for 10 minutes, then lightly scrub with a soft sponge or brush before rinsing1.
Red/Rust Stains
- Cut a lemon in half, dip the cut side in coarse salt, and rub it on the rust stains. The citric acid in lemon helps dissolve rust while the salt provides abrasion. Rinse well1.
- Spray a 50/50 mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water on the stains, let sit for 15 minutes, then scrub with a nylon brush or sponge before rinsing1.
Black/Mold Stains
- Make a paste with baking soda and water. Apply liberally to the mold stains, let sit for 30 minutes, then scrub with a nylon brush or sponge before rinsing1.
Blue/Green Stains
- Use the same lemon and salt method as for red stains1.
Pink Stains
- Spray a 50/50 mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water on the stains, let sit for 15 minutes, then scrub with a nylon brush or sponge before rinsing1.
Yellow/Brown Hard Water Stains
- Fill the tub with a 50/50 mixture of white vinegar and water to cover the stained area. Let soak for several hours or overnight. Drain, scrub with a brush or sponge, then rinse thoroughly1.
References
1. How To Clean Bathtub Stains - Family Handyman2. How to Turn Your Bleach-stained-red Bathtub White Again3. How to Remove Stains From a Bathtub - YouTube4. How to Clean a Bathtub So It Sparkles—with Minimal Scrubbing5. 3 Ways to Clean a Bathtub with Bleach - wikiHow
Author: Hoosier Tool Guy
Key insights
- Using lime away to remove rust stains from the tub seems to work the best, especially if you have rusty water from a well.
- 🧼 It's important to make sure the bristles of the drill brush are not too hard to avoid damaging the tub.
- 🧼 Spraying the affected areas with the cleaning solution and letting it sit can help to remove rust stains.
- 🧼 Using a drill brush can make cleaning rust stains easier and more efficient.
- The key is to let the solution sit for about four hours to effectively remove rust stains from your shower or tub.
- Changing the direction of the drill can ensure that all rough spots are properly cleaned.
- 🧼 "I'm gonna hit it one more time with the lime away in spots where I can see a little bit of rust still hit it with the brush rinse it out again and then not to clean the rest of the shower."
- Some rust stains may be mistaken for hair dye stains, so be sure to differentiate between the two.
Video Full Text
- Hey guys today I'm going to show you how to get these nasty rust stains out of your tub. Let me show the few things that I use first off lime away removes rust. This seems to work the best. There are some other things. I use sometimes this oven fume. Free oven cleaner sometimes I'll spray that on there and let it sit for a long time but flying white seems to work the best um. You get rust stains like this because uh. I'm on a well and we've got rusty water and I over time it'll do this and then but it went really fast for me this time because I ran out of water softener salt. I didn't pay attention but first thing. I do is I try to get it as dry as possible.Read More
- So the chemicals will stay on there and they won't be too watered down so it doesn't have to be pregnant be wet. But I like to dry it out a little bit and my tub has like a texture on the bottom. So I gotta make sure. I get into those spots. So you dry it out. Then you go ahead and get your lime away oh. I forgot to say also use a drill brush. You can get these. I got these at a home depot um or you can just go on amazon. They got all kinds of them just got to make sure you're not using. They have different um stiffness of the bristles you know. They have soft medium hard whatever you just gotta make sure you're not using the ones that are gonna mess up your tub.Read More
- So I'll just go ahead and take this lime away. This one's a spray has a spray nozzle that makes it like foam. So it'll stick a little bit better and I got looks like that rust up here too but we'll go down here where it's really bad and it does you spray it all down actually. I go ahead and put the plunger down. So all those chemicals stay in the tub anywhere. You see a little bit of rust spray it down. It's already taken some this stuff from up there. It's coming off all right so you spray it down.Read More
- Then you don't need a drill brush which just clips right into your drill and it just spins around so you don't need. One of these you can just use a regular brush and scrub it around. But this just seems to make it easier so once you get the chemical in there. I use this to spread it around and hopefully make it stay a little bit longer on the area to let it do its work necks and crannies the texture. That's on there let's get covered over the whole thing all right so once you get it all scrubbed in there where you need it to be and just let it sit let it sit for an hour or two then come back.Read More
- We might have to do it two or three times but we'll see okay now let it sit for about four hours. You don't need to let it sit that long um so what I'm gonna do now is. I'm gonna rinse rinse that out see what it looks like it looks like it needs some more. I'll go ahead and spray some more um lime way on there. So let's go ahead and rinse this out real quick rinse all the lime away down. Out of there. It's already a lot better than what it was the problem is. I've sprayed it all up there. So I have to hit that with the brush probably to get that off of there all right so we rinse it and then we'll take that brush again.Read More
- We'll give it a little drill brush over it. All the way and you can once you start doing that you can see where there's still some rough spots that might not have got hit what I like to do is. I'll hit it uh in one direction with the drill going in one direction and then when I'm done with that. I'll do it. I'll turn it to where it spins the opposite direction and hit it like that all right. So as you can see.Read More
- It's a it's got most of the rust um stains out of there. Uh there are some pink stains pinkish purple stains in my tub. My daughter likes to dye her hair so if anybody has a way to clean hair dye out of your tub. Lying away doesn't work and I don't think the oven cleaner works that well either. So if you have an idea please leave it down in the comments so I can get that out of my tub too so what's going gonna happen is I'm gonna hit. It one more time with the lime away in spots where I can see a little bit of rust still hit it with the brush rinse it out again and then not to clean the rest of the shower. But that's for later all right so.Read More
- I sprayed some more lime away. In there. Let it sit for another half hour. Uh hit it well hit it with a drill. Then let it sit there for half an hour to scrub brush. Now we're going to rinse it out looks like. I got all the rust out um just rinse all that chemical out of your tub and down the drain all right. There we go it looks like all the rust is out there. I still have like. I said a pink stain in there but that's from hair dye. My daughter likes entire hair so let's get a closer look at that. So there we go. It went from all rusty in there from my rusty water. Now it's clean if anybody else has any um other ways. They work around that to get the rest out please give us a comment let us know what's going on and like and subscribe thanks.Read More