It is easy to get irritated by hard water stains in your bathroom and kitchen. Plastic faucets, tubs, sinks, and toilets can easily sustain colors from hard water because it has a higher concentration of certain minerals. You will find an abundance of calcium and magnesium minerals in hard water.
Eventually, as you use the plastic frequently with hard water, you will start to notice stains on the plastic. The color of these plastic stains can vary from blue, white, or orange. Hard water stains can ruin the appearance of your plastic appliances and dishes.
It can give them a cloudy appearance. Overtime minerals remaining from the hard water can also clog the drain and pipes of your washroom and kitchen.
how to remove hard water stains from plastic?
It is not impossible to remove these hard water stains from plastic. You can use some simple homemade remedies to clean such hard water stains. To remove such stains, you can use everyday food items in your kitchens, such as baking powder or vinegar. You can also get your water softened.
A unique water hardness test will tell you about the ph levels of the water supply coming to your home. If this water supply is above a certain level, you’ll need to install a water softener. Some of the effective ways of removing hard water stains are given below.
Using vinegar to remove hard water stains from plastic
Vinegar is a powerful cleaning agent. You can remove hard water stains from objects such as plastic with vinegar as the vital ingredient. Vinegar is a safe and all-natural cleaner.
- The first step is pouring a little vinegar into a container. You can also use a spraying water bottle for cleaning stains.
- You can squirt vinegar from this container or spray bottle on any surface you want to clean.
- While cleaning hard water stains from plastic with vinegar, the critical thing is to let the vinegar settle on the colors. You can wait for five to fifteen minutes before wiping the vinegar. You have to wait for the vinegar to attack the mineral deposits of the stain.
- If you notice the vinegar drying on the stain, you can sprinkle some more vinegar on the stain. For effective cleaning, you’ll want to keep the color damp.
- If you want to clean large areas like doors, you can use tissues or paper towels to clean the stains and keep them damp.
- After you have soaked the stains for a considerable time, you can rub them with a toothbrush. Ideally, you should use a toothbrush with stiff bristles.
Using baking soda to remove hard water stains on plastic
- For each cup of water, you will require about 6-8 tablespoons of baking soda.
- Mix the solution of water and baking soda, so no lumps or solid particles are left in the mixture.
- You want to avoid lumps in your mixture as they can leave scratches and marks on the plastic when scrubbing it off.
- Apply the baking soda to a piece of cloth.
- Wipe or scrub at the stains manually using this cloth. You need to wash the stains as if you are washing dishes.
- Ideally, you should use mineral water to wash the baking soda off. If you wash the plastics with hard water, then there are chances minerals will again deposit on the plastic.
Soften your water to mitigate hard water stains on plastic
This is more like a permanent solution to your problem. Water stains appear on plastics because they have extra chemicals in them. You can eradicate the hardness of your water supply by installing a water softener in your home.
Water softeners run on the principles of ion exchange. Through this process of ion exchange, all the excess chemicals in your water will be extracted before it reaches your taps. Typically, the magnesium and calcium ions are taken out from the water, and instead, sodium ions are put into it.
Related: WaterBoss Water Softener Review 2022 | Best Morton Water Softener Reviews 2022
Hard water not only prevents damaging your cutlery, appliances, and more, but it also prevents damage to your body. Bathing in hard water can affect your skin and hair, especially if you have sensitive skin.
Use lime water or lemon to remove hard water stains on the plastic
- Lime water or lemon extracts are acidic, similar to vinegar. This acidic composition allows lime water to attach the chalky white hard water stains to plastic.
- Another advantage of cleaning plastics with lemon juice or lime water is that they act as disinfecting agents. However, you will have to put in a little more effort to scrub the stains off.
- Extract the juice from some lime and store it in a container.
- After extraction, also add some water to the lime extract.
- Stir the mixture and then put in a water spray or a container.
- Pour this solution onto hard water stains and then let it rest for 10-15 minutes.
- After some time, get a hard scrubber to remove these stains from the plastic.
Using denture tablets for removing hard water stains on plastic
Using denture tablets is among the unconventional ways of removing stains from plastics. The purpose of a denture tablet is to remove food stains from fake teeth.
This cleaning property makes these denture tablets a great cleaning agent. In addition, denture tablets are effective against calcium deposits and stains.
- You need to find the plastic container or object with hard water stains.
- Next, you can keep a denture tablet inside or on the hard water stains.
- Let the denture tablet fizz there for about half an hour.
- After the time has elapsed, try rinsing the container with warm water.
- You should see the hard water stains fading away.
Will bleach destroy plastic?
Bleach is a chemical agent that damages plastics. Bleach will not disintegrate the plastic upon a single exposure. Instead, this chemical agent will slowly erode the plastic. Therefore, the damage done by plastic is irreversible.
If you continue to expose plastics to bleach, you’ll slowly start to notice its damaging effect on the plastics. The reason why bleach is harmful to plastics is that bleach is an oxidizing chemical.
Bleach will oxidize the top layer of the plastic, and then it will slowly have a continuous effect on the plastic.
Does WD-40 ruin plastic?
Whether WD-40 harms plastic or not depends on the type of plastic. Some types of plastic will slowly lose color and their integrity when exposed to WD-40.
If these plastics are exposed to this chemical for a more extended period, it will start breaking down the chemical structure of the plastic. In addition, you’ll find that amorphous plastics are not safe from exposure to WD-40, whereas crystalline plastics are not affected by this chemical.
The shear viscosity of WD-40 as a chemical can penetrate through the structure of the plastics and can disrupt them. The reason why you should avoid using this chemical on plastics is that this chemical breaks the composition of the plastics.
How do you prevent hard water stains?
Hard water stains are a source for homeowners across the globe. Unfortunately, the homeowners feel helpless because there is pretty much less they can do about the water supply coming to their homes. However, there is stuff that you can do to prevent hard water stains.
- Keep all surfaces in your kitchen and washroom as dry as possible. If you keep these surfaces dry, you will directly cut down the mineral deposits.
- Use water softeners: These are special devices that will reduce the hardness of the water supply in your home. The primary agenda of a water softener is to remove the excess minerals from the water. This water softener will remove these minerals before the water reaches your faucets and taps.
Conclusion
Tackling hard water stains on plastic is an issue of significant concern, I hope this guide regarding how to remove hard water stains from plastic helped you. The majority of houses in the U.S. have a supply of hard water. Even if you have the most beautiful home, hard water stains can damper the look of your house. Hard water has no significant health impacts, but it will not make your house aesthetically pleasing.
