How Water Softeners Prevent Brown Toilet Bowl Stains for Good

“It’s not what you think! I cleaned the toilet just today, honestly.”

How often have you wanted to say that when someone used your bathroom? It’s not a great feeling, is it?

We feel your pain.

Brown toilet bowl stains are one of the more embarrassing and frustrating problems you can have in your home. After all, it’s one thing to have a poopy toilet bowl. What’s worse is to have brown stains you can’t scrub away with regular bathroom cleaning supplies.

That seems like cruel and unusual punishment, and we’re here to help you right this wrong!

Instead of struggling to scrub these stains away, why not keep them from occurring in the first place? You can do this by fixing the root of the problem: your water.

This post will explain why hard water is likely causing those brown stains and how a water softener can prevent them from occurring. We will also help you clean any brown marks and explore some alternate solutions if a water softener isn’t right for you.

Of course, if you already know that you want a water softener, we can help you with that. Visit our water softener page below to learn more about the water softener services we provide.

For the rest of you, let’s jump in and learn how to make those brown stains history!

The Brown Stains are Actually Hard Water Stains

The first step to fixing a problem is identifying its source. Despite what you might think, these brown stains aren’t mysterious marks left by some cruel deity to torment you. In reality, they’re the natural byproduct of hard water, which contains high amounts of calcium, magnesium, iron and manganese.

There are two ways these minerals can infiltrate your water:

1. Groundwater naturally collects them as it flows through the earth.
2. Old iron pipes leach particles into the water as it flows to your home.

Either way, these elements make your water hard. And when that hard water slides down the porcelain bowl, the iron and manganese particles etch the sheen and stain the porcelain brown.

So, next time your guests accuse you of having unspeakable things in your bowl, you can drop some science on them by explaining it’s actually rust stains from iron and manganese.

Of course, you don’t want there to be a next time. So, let’s get to work getting those stains gone!

How to Get Brown Stains Out of Your Toilet

First, we’ll start by removing that unsightly brown toilet bowl stains from the bowl. As you may be aware, there are many methods for how to clean a stained toilet floating around the web. And trying to sort through all those methods is enough to give anyone a headache!

For this reason, we’ve tried to simplify the process for you by breaking it down into five best practices:

1. Prep the toilet
2. Use an acidic solution
3. Give it time
4. Scrub carefully
5. Be persistent

Let’s take a closer look at what we mean by each of these items.

Step 1: Prep the Toilet

The first step to getting those brown blotches gone is proper preparation. You can accomplish this by doing the following:

• Turn off the main water valve on the back of the toilet.
• Remove all water from the bowl by fishing it out with a bucket or soaking it up with a sponge.

Removing the water is key because it will make room for adding the acidic cleaning solution next.

Step 2: Use an Acidic Solution

As we mentioned above, most regular bathroom cleaning liquids can’t remove brown stains. The reason for this is the liquids aren’t acidic enough. What you need is an acidic solution to cut through the iron and manganese stains and loosen them from the toilet.

Of course, we wouldn’t recommend using just any acidic solution for this job. The most effective acidic solution is muriatic acid, but this solution is far too dangerous for in-home use. It can burn skin and cause serious gastrointestinal problems if inhaled. So, we would strongly urge that you leave the use of muriatic acid to the professionals.

Instead, we recommend treating brown toilet bowl stains with any of the following acidic liquids that are safe for in-home use:

• Citric acid
• White vinegar
• Equal parts baking soda and vinegar
• A combination of vinegar, borax and salt
• Coca Cola
• Household cleaners containing diluted muriatic acid
• Acidic cleaners like Lime-A-Way and CLR

Any of these solutions, yes even Coca-Cola, should be able to break up the brown stains over time when poured into the bowl.

A couple of liquids that will NOT work are bleach and ammonia. Not only will these fail to remove the stains, but they can cause serious health problems if inhaled at high concentrations. So, we recommend sticking to any of the solutions in the list above.

Step 3: Give It Time

Here’s where getting rid of brown stains can be inconvenient and test your patience. Whatever acidic solution you use will need to sit in the bowl for at least half an hour to be effective. In fact, the longer you can leave the liquid in there to do its work, the better. For this reason, a great option is to add it to the toilet before bed and let it sit overnight.

Of course, this may not be realistic if you only have one toilet and may need to use it during that time. So, you will probably have to settle for a half-hour to an hour at most before moving on to scrubbing.

Step 4: Scrub Carefully

Once you’ve let the acidic cleaner sit for as long as you can, the next step is to scrub away at those brown stains. But don’t just grab any scrub brush and start scrubbing hard to vent your frustration. Scrubbing too hard can damage your toilet and make it so those stains are even harder to remove!

Instead, here are some pointers to follow for gentle scrubbing that should effectively remove the stains:

• Avoid using toilet brushes with wire bristles. Plastic or rubber bristles will be much gentler and more effective.
• You could also use a pumice stone. Just make sure you submerge it in water to soften it before you start scrubbing.

Once you’re done scrubbing, you can flush the toilet, and hopefully, the brown stains will completely flush away.

Step 5: Be Persistent

Unfortunately, brown toilet bowl stains don’t come off easily. So, your first try probably won’t get rid of them completely. Instead, you will likely have to repeat this process and maybe even try a few different acidic cleaners before your porcelain is white again. So, persistence is key.

But who wants to exert this type of effort every time they clean their toilet? Certainly not us! So, let’s look at how a water softener can ensure you won’t have to go through this annoying process again.