Hi Friends! Hope you had a wonderful weekend. I’ve got a great trick to share with you – How to Remove Hard Water Stains. A couple of months ago when we replaced our kitchen faucet I ran into a cleaning dilemma. The area around our old faucet had hard water stains and our new faucet came with a smaller faceplate showing all of those icky hard water stains now. I couldn’t believe how easy this was!
How to Get Rid of Hard Water Stains
Gorgeous new faucet surrounded by hard water stains… not so pretty! If you have hard water you know the struggle is real! I started by trying various cleaners and nothing seemed to make it budge. So I figured, why not try vinegar! Now just to warn you… if though I had no issues with using vinegar on my faucet, I’d recommend testing a small area on my back to make sure your metal can handle vinegar.
I took a couple of paper towels and soaked them with basic white vinegar and wrapped it around the base where the hard water stain was and left it overnight to soak and work it’s magic.
In the morning I used those same paper towels that had been wrapped around the faceplate to rub off those hard water stains. Most just rubbed right off. A couple areas took a little more work, but nothing to break a sweat over.
Amazing right? Such a simple and cheap way to get rid of those hard water stains.
Well friends… I hope that tips helps you.
Thanks for stopping by!
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Thank you for the tips. I find that the job of cleaning the stains can become easier when the stains are tackled when they are still fresh.
My handyman told me about the vinegar soak for my kitchen sink. It ruined the finish on the new nickel finish faucet. Worked on the stains from hard water, if you don’t mind ruined nickel finish! So sad!
Very hot vinegar works best.
Do not leave on for more than 30 min tops. Thats why your finish and countertops are getting ruined. Dont need to leave on overnight or several hours. Same for toliet and tub.
You all do not need to leave on overnight or several hours, thats why its ruined your finish and countertops. Only leave on for 30min. tops. Same with toliet and tub!!
If you are all leaving this on overnight or even for several hours thats why its ruined your finish or countertops. You only need to leave it on for 30 min tops. Even the toliet and tub!!
Love this idea. It worked perfect for me. On the harder spots, I just let it soak a little longer. Thank you.
Didn’t work for me 🙁
I had the same problem. Try two tablespoons of citric acid (like what you use for canning) in four cups of very hot water. Make sure it’s dissolved. Good luck!
While the vinegar worked. It let my marble on my counter tops dull . How can I restore shine to marble counter tops?? Help!!
There is a marble polish you can buy to make them shiny again.
Marble polish. Usually comes in a glass bottle. Rub on with clean, dry cloth. Let sit a few minutes. Wipe off with second clean, dry cloth.
I have terrible hard water stains on the outside of my kitchen window due to sprinklers hitting the window. I have tried several treatments of the vinegar – baking soda & lemon juice & I still cannot get this window clean. Help……any advice out there?
try Borax…just read that it is terrific on tubs.
I also put vinegar in my washing in place of the fabric softener. It really works and it keeps the machine clean as well.
I do this all the time and a lot cheaper than fabric softener.
I did this last night, before reading the comments. It did remove the stains, however, it removed the finish on my faucet. Please post warning!!!!!
I had the same problem. Bought stainless steel faucets, expensive, but worth every cent! No more corrosion! My water is hard too.
We have iron stains in our toilet, tub and bathroom sink. Vinegar doesn’t work not bleach. Iron out is the only thing that we found that works.
I use The Works for the toilet. For the bathtub I use Barkeepers Friend. It is in a container like Comet is in. Wet the tub, sprinkle the cleanser & let stand no more than 2 minutes. With a sponge scrubber wipe the cleanser all over the stains. You will see the stain disappearing before you eyes.
the works, is the best stuff, i have ever used for Iron stains. you don’t even have to scrub. just put in tolit and swish around with a brush, and it is as whit as brand new!!
What I worry about, if it does this on the outside of our faucets, what is it doing inside of our pipes? HARD WATER?
It also ruined my faucet as it did some of the other posters. It is like a film or finish is coming off the faucet which is brushed nickel but now has pits and whitish areas.
Do not need to leave vinegar on there
that long, Also try lemon juice on granite. You should be able to just pour or spray some on the hard water stains, let sit a few minutes, then rub until it is removed.
Many less expensive, and a few expensive faucets have a protective coating on them so you can’t really scrub them or use most cleaners on them. Just always keep them dried after using so hard wTer and other deposits are rubbed off all the time. Use a soft or microfiber cloth. A lot of modern faucets are basically PVC plastic with a metal overlay. They do not last as long as real metal ones.
Is vinegar safe to use if you have granite countertops?
Yes. Vinegar is safe and works great! It cleans granite, disinfects and leaves it shinny. I have a spray bottle with straight vinegar and wipe with paper towels. Only thing I use on my granite! Do not use it on marble though.
Be careful doing this if u have chrome faucets it ruined mine.
Such a great chemical-free solution, Maryann!
Oh my goodness, so easy and so cheap. I have quite a few hard water stains around my sink and in the bathtubs. I am absolutely going to be trying this. Thanks for sharing and for linking up to Thrifty Thursday.
What a great idea!
This is so ironic that I came across this, because I actually clean my stainless steel refrigerator– near the water and ice is black, and I clean it with white vinegar. I let it sit there for a few minutes, then wipe it with paper towels. The paper towels were soaked with the vinegar. … so I decided to let it sit around the faucet. Came off clean just like this! Isn’t it amazing when we find something that is so harmless…. but works so great! Thank you for sharing! And, great pics!
Just a warning, I have the same hard water problems and a brand new chrome faucet. The vinegar ruined the finish on my faucet!! Do not use it if you have chrome!!
MY PLUMBER TOLD ME TO DO THIS WITH MY FAUCET AND IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM. THANKS RODNEY.
gonna try this today!!!!
will try
Good to know – what a great tip! Love your tap too! 😀
I am so glad that it worked! I MUST TRY this as the hard water stains around my drains are driving me crazy to look at them!
Tami Michel
Great tip! I’ll try it this weekend. Jo @ Let’s Face the Music
very easy and cheap method. Thanks for sharing with us.
Regards,
venkatesan.
I have tried vinegar on the hardwater spots… let set.. then tried vinegar with baking soda..let sit.. and sit NOPE..the worst part is the accumulation under the tap .. it rotates.. down is off.. up is on and totally white.. so unless i turn the water off totally are there any more suggestions for removing the hard water buildup ??????
Same here. I have tried the vinegar ‘solution’ several times along with every other magical solution I can possibly find and absolutely nothing resolves the problem for me either. sigh.
When I moved into my new house there was hard water build up all over my sinks and taps. I used the solution where you heat approx a 1/2 cup of vinegar in the microwave, then pour into a spray bottle and add a squirt of blue dawn dish soap. I sprayed it on and let it sit for a fair amount of time, then I scrubbed it off with a magic eraser. Nothing was left behind. This worked for me after plain ol’ vinegar spray did not.
I’ve tried vinegar with no luck either but I recently found Bar Keepers Friend, the soft scrub version worked amazing for me!!