Even if you take good care of your toilet bowl, yellow stains are inevitable sometimes. This may be due to urine staining after prolonged contact, from rust, or because of hard water. Whatever the underlying cause is, you can remove this stain with bleach, vinegar, or borax paste.
Follow these uncomplicated hacks to get rid of the yellow stains on your toilet bowl.
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Dislodge yellow toilet stains with the classic bleach method
Bleach is quite harsh when it comes to removing stains. This characteristic is advantageous when yellow stains are making your toilet look untidy. The usual bleaching effect of the typical household bleach, sodium hypochlorite, will slough off the yellow stains and take your porcelain toilet back to its former unstained condition.
- Directly pour the bleach in your toilet bowl. Focus on the yellow stained areas.
- Let it sit for quite some time. The longer duration, the better.
- Scrub the toilet bowl. This step is optional since bleach alone removes the yellow stains without further agitation.
- Flush your toilet twice to make sure that no bleach is left.
When doing this method, make sure that you use rubber gloves to avoid skin irritation when your hands come in contact with the chemical. Bleach also has toxic vapors, so it’s a good idea to cover your nose or use a face mask throughout the process. You should also open the window or turn on a fan for added ventilation.
Wash away yellow toilet stains using vinegar
Distilled white vinegar is helpful in removing toilet stains because of its acidic property. This alone can remove the adhering yellow stains on your toilet bowl to make them easy to flush.
- Flush your toilet first to cleanse the inside of the bowl.
- Afterward, fill a spray bottle with distilled white vinegar.
- Generously spray the vinegar on the yellow stains.
- Leave it for a few minutes.
- Then, start scrubbing the yellow stains rigorously. Use a clean toilet brush when doing this step.
- Again, flush the toilet bowl with water and see if the stains are gone.
If the yellow stains are still there, repeat the whole process, but make sure to extend the time to fifteen minutes or longer for the white vinegar to sit on the stained surface.
Eliminate toilet stains with lemon and essential oil
Lemon extract is known to remove yellow toilet stains because of its ability to bleach surfaces. This is an alternative for more potent bleach products. In this method, you will need citrus-based essential oils to work together with your lemon extract at fighting toilet bowl stains.
- Fill a clean spray bottle with one cup of lemon extract and 15 drops of citrus-based essential oil.
- Replace the spray bottle lid and mix the solution by shaking it.
- Afterward, you can start to spray the solution on the yellow toilet stains generously.
- Allow 15 minutes to elapse before scrubbing the stained area.
- Continue scrubbing the area using a nylon brush or regular toilet brush until stains are removed.
- Flush your toilet as a final rinse.
Remove stubborn yellow toilet stains using borax paste
Borax powder paste is recommended when yellow stains on the toilet are stubborn and are hard to remove using other methods. This stain remover also possesses a bleaching characteristic and is also a good disinfectant. When it is mixed with vinegar, the cleaning effectivity is increased. You can find this product in the nearest hardware shop.
- First, make sure that you drain your toilet before starting this procedure.
- Gradually add vinegar to a bowl containing a half cup of borax powder to form a paste.
- Cover the yellow stains on your toilet bowl with the borax paste.
- Let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Then scrub the stained area with a toilet brush.
- Rinse the toilet bowl to remove the paste by flushing your toilet.
Get rid of light toilet stains using soda
This sounds weird, but you heard it right. In addition to quenching your thirst, you can also use coke and other sodas to clean your toilet. Since this method does not require scrubbing, let the soda have a longer contact time to allow it to lighten the filthy toilet stains. This method can be a pre-treatment approach to any other toilet stain removal techniques.
- Pour one to two cans of soda in your toilet bowl, focusing on the stained areas.
- Leave it overnight.
- Flush it the next day
This three-step procedure is beneficial for light stains. But when dealing with a stubborn stain, you will always go back to methods that employ scrubbing.
Common questions about toilet stains
Can I use baking soda to remove toilet stains?
You can use baking soda in cleaning your toilet, but it is not helpful when you use it alone. You can always combine baking soda with white vinegar to effectively remove toilet stains. The fizzing action, when vinegar is added to baking soda, agitates the toilet stains. After this, light toilet stains will be easily removed by simply flushing your toilet.
How to remove toilet stains using trisodium phosphate?
Trisodium phosphate can reduce the integrity of toilet stains, causing the stains to be easily removed from the toilet surface. This product also has antimicrobial properties that make it the best choice when cleaning toilets. Although helpful, this is not the method of choice because it is not eco-friendly.
- In a bowl, dissolve a tablespoon of trisodium phosphate in a gallon of warm water to make a solution. Mix well.
- Soak a sponge in this solution and use it to scrub the toilet stains.
- Rinse by flushing.
Can I use sandpaper to remove yellow toilet stains?
Although not recommended, the sandpaper method is also a useful hack in removing yellow toilet stains. This method is extremely easy to do because it only requires medium and fine grain sandpaper and manual effort in scrubbing your toilet.
In some instances, excessive scrubbing will cause scratches on your porcelain toilet bowl, so only follow this method as a last resort if toilet stains are really stubborn.
The Bottom Line
Don’t think about removing toilet stains as a gross chore because letting them set in is way more disgusting than cleaning itself. There is no way you can clean your toilet without getting closer to it because scrubbing is part of an effective stain removal process. It’s either you tolerate the process of getting rid of the stains or do your business in a filthy toilet bowl. You probably wouldn’t want to sit on a dirty toilet bowl, would you?
