Day to Day Adventure: Removing hard water deposits

Monday, March 28, 2011

Removing hard water deposits

We have hard water.   It is just a fact of life.  We don’t have a water softener for various reasons but it creates problems with cleaning.

Things seem to get cemented on and I cannot “clean” them off with normal human effort. 

I had a “Duh!” moment yesterday.  I was looking at the spill catch underneath the water dispenser on the front of our refrigerator.  It was “GROSS” and I wasn’t looking forward to spending an hour scrubbing it with baking soda to get the discoloration and build up off of it.  However I couldn’t ignore it any more. 

Then I had a thought.  Steve used vinegar to clean out the humidifier that we use in the kids rooms when they are sick.  It seems to collect those hard water crystals super fast—probably the process it goes through to cause the water vapor.

So I went out to get the big jug of vinegar out of the garage.  I filled up the spill catch & walked away for a few minutes to do something.  When I returned—WOW!  I couldn’t believe it.  The scum was gone almost gone & I was kicking myself because I didn’t take a “before” picture.  Anyway you’ll have to take my word for it.

However there is one other place that was developing a bit of a sick look.  It is around the drain in our main bathroom—where I shower.  ICK!  I convinced Elizabeth to go and try out my cure for hard water deposits!  I went with camera in hand to check it out a few minutes later.  Here is what I found.

P1110461

Kinda gross huh?

But after my magic(ha!) cure?  Here is what I had to look at.

P1110462

Sometimes it is the small things in life that make me happy.  I don’t like using chemicals around the house so using something this simple just made my day!  Not to mention that vinegar is SO much cheaper than any other cleaner I have tried on yucky water deposits!

What other “homemade solutions” do you use?  Please share!

Linked up at

Raising Homemakers

6 comments:

  1. I love using vinegar to clean the tub...and adding baking soda first...cleans the drain :)
    and foams up like a volcano :)I am following you from the hop...please stop by and say hi Areyouamom.com
    Have a great day!
    Maureen

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  2. Okay, I am going to try this TODAY!

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  3. Great Solution, I'm trying this, I have hard water as well! I would love for you to link this up at my homemaking party.

    www.dontwasteyourhomemaking.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Why have I enver thought of that! We do not have a water softener eitehr and I use vinegar all the time in the coffee maker! Duh, I will go use this on my drain right now!!!!

    I just wanted to come by since I haven't in a while and send you an invite to link up to my weekend hop open tonight thru Sunday!

    http://tawnasplan.blogspot.com

    Have a great night!
    Tawna

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  5. What a good idea! We recently moved to a place with hard water, and I've been trying to think of ways to take the spots off things..thanks so much for sharing!

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  6. Great idea. I'm going to try this for my shower drain.

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