Introduction
The hard water stains can easily be removed using common household items: white vinegar, a spray bottle, and a sponge.
What you need
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Fill the spray bottle with mixture of water and white vinegar (approx 50/50).
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Congratulations! You now have a sparkling clean glass shower door!
Congratulations! You now have a sparkling clean glass shower door!
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Cal Poly, Team 12-5, Green Winter 2015 Member of Cal Poly, Team 12-5, Green Winter 2015
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I've found that making a solution of 80% White Vinegar and 20% Dawn detergent works well. I keep a gallon batch handy. When needed I heat 1 cup in the microwave to 150-160 degrees (F) and transfer it into a 1 quart spray bottle, that has been insulated by wrapping it with a hand towel, secured with two large rubber bands. Before using the heated Vinegar/Dawn solution, I first spray the room temperature solution onto the glass block walls of the shower, and scrub gently with a green scotchbrite sponge. I leave the lathered glass block sit while I heat the cup full. Then, I hose down the glass with scalding hot water. Next, I spray a liberal coating of the hot solution (top to bottom) & let it sit for 5-10 minutes, before rinsing it off with scalding water. The detergent helps the vinegar-foam cling better to the glass surface. It also works on fixtures, stone and ceramic surfaces. BONUS! It works wonders on windshields after a winter of salt and sanded roads too!
This is bullshit. I have tried this on my shower doors that had not been cleaned for 3 months and it did not do anything.
Maybe this works if you have not cleaned them for a few days but once the hard water is ground in I am not sure what to do.
Most people don't know that there's a difference between Stage I Corrosion (a mineral buildup on the glass) and Stage II Corrosion (etching and damage to the glass). I've written a blog post about it that gives a very thorough explanation of what it is and how to get rid of it because I couldn't find this information anywhere on the internet without flitting between like 20 different web forums. http://pristinecleaning.com.au/2018/01/2...
I had shower doors with five years of hard water deposits. Spend over $100 trying various methods and products to remove the hard water deposits. Nothing worked!
One of the many sites I visited recommended I buy some industrial grade vinegar (30%). I tried that with bad results. They recommended letting it sit on the door for 5 minutes and wiping it off. That didn’t work. I was in the process of buying new doors and thought I would try something radical.I had nothing to lose. I took the 30% vinegar and sprayed the doors and let it sit overnight. The next morning I took a wet Brillo pad (the steel wool pad with soap) and gently washed off, in a circular motion, the hard water stains. The hard water deposits disappeared before my eyes with hardly any effort. The glass doors look like NEW! Not a single trace of the hard water deposits.
These doors, on the bottom half, were impossible to see through. They are now crystal clear. I’ll definitely never let them get in this bad shape again. Squeegee doors every time!
My shower doors apparently hadn’t been cleaned in a long time when I moved into my house. What eventually got the job done was a combination of Lime-away and a Magic Sponge. A scraper helped at some points as well. It was a long and ugly job, and the Lime-away fumes are nasty (ventilate!)
Well, that removed the deposits, anyway. Now I am left with the etching to deal with. The Pristine Cleaning article linked by Jay Rawcliffe has some good ideas; I have some glass polish that I never thought to use. Will give that a try.
But I’ll live with the etching if I have to; the most important thing was to remove the coat of mineral deposit. Now I squeegee religiously.
