How to Remove Hard Water Stains and Soap Scum from Glass Shower Doors
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- Опубликовано: 20 янв 2022
- In this video I use a DIY bathroom cleaner to remove limescale, soap scum, and hard water stains from my glass shower door. I also teach you how to clean a shower and glass doors using vinegar and rubbing alcohol. This vinegar bathroom cleaner is incredible and super easy to make at home; let me know how well it works cleaning your bathroom in the comments below :)
My limescale remover recipe:
20% vinegar
5% rubbing alcohol
1 (small) squirt dish soap - don’t overdo it about 3 mls is plenty (1% or less)
Struggle no more with soap scum removal, removing hard water stains, and keeping your shower glass doors sparkling clean!
Full recipe (plus a whole lot more!) on my new website: cleaninghow.to/how-to-make-an...
This is also the cheapest cleaning vinegar I could find - amzn.to/44CenzW
I couldnt find many options on amazon for rubbing alcohol but this should be perfect - amzn.to/3VFoTCL 
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Full recipe (plus a whole lot more!) on my new website: cleaninghow.to/how-to-make-an-eco-friendly-homemade-bathroom-cleaner/
This is also the cheapest cleaning vinegar I could find - amzn.to/44CenzW
I couldnt find many options on amazon for rubbing alcohol but this should be perfect - amzn.to/3VFoTCL
Cleaning vinegar is 6%, whereas regular cooking is 5%. It looks like only a 1% difference, but it's a 20% difference in strength. Which percentage are you using to clean limescale in your video?
@@jamiv531 cleaning vinegar is just distilled more - how are you extrapolating your percentages ?
Amazon has a 99% IPA, I've seen it.
@@jamiv531if you stop the video at 1:10 and zoom in you will see the vinegar is a food grade barley malt 5% vinegar. Can't tell the %of the alcohol though. The link suggests 70%.
I would be a lot easier if you added specific quantities not percentages of a solution to put together the cleaning cocktail.
For those in the West, I do 4 oz. of vinegar, 2 oz. rubbing alcohol to 14 oz. of water. And of course a bit of liquid dish soap.
Thank you!!
lol, I should’ve read the comments…I had to go n figure out how much 100 ml n the rest were but it all worked out
Tip on using vinegar in spray bottles: If you do this, do not keep the vinegar in the spray bottle long term. The bottle itself will be fine but the spray nozzle with get slowly eaten away by the acid. You can buy spray bottles specifically designed to handle acids or just rinse the bottle and nozzle out after each use.
yup! thanks for mentioning it :)
Thnx
Know of any good bottles that store vinegar well on Amazon or other source?
I keep vinegar in a regular spray bottle and have never had a problem. Been doing it for over 30 years.
I find the best thing is to buy a spray bottle of a commercial product of something that's similar and then reuse the bottle.
So for diluted bleach a commercial bleach spray bottle will last years whereas a generic water spray bottle will die within weeks.
For this I'm using a shower cleaner spray bottle which was sold as being for limescale. That's bound to be acid resistant.
Great cleaner mix by the way. I used it the other day and it is absolutely the best so thank you very much.
FYI for people wanting to keep shower doors clean…keep a squeegee in your shower, and always (ALWAYS) squeegee your glass at the end of your shower, and cleaning, when needed, will be minimal. This combo looks like a great way to clean between squeegeeing.
Yes! We are a squeegee household. It's so worth the few seconds a day.
Yup! Stops this happening in the first place!
I use one
I always wipe water drops after shower and I almost never need to clean my sink or shower. It still looks brand new after months of usage.
That is a very good advice! We are doing it after every shower. As we have very hard water in Southern California, it still needs about 2 general cleanings a year, but that is down from 5-6 without a squeegee
Gonna try this. Thanks!
Also, just wanted to add a small technical correction, as a chemist. A solvent can be basic or acidic as well as polar and nonpolar. To be charitable, I believe what was meant by solvent was an organic, nonpolar compound, like the soap added to solution or something like WD-40, which is mistakenly used to lubricate when it is too volatile to be a good lubricant and in fact removes protective oil coatings, so don’t use as a lubricant.
There are 3 different definitions and ways of classifying acids and bases in chemistry. Not all acids are protic acids concerned with hydrogen protons, such as nonpolar organic acids/bases. In chemistry, like dissolves like, which refers to whether a solvent (anything that dissolves another compound into solution, e.g. water, the universal solvent) and the solvate (the substance being dissolved into the solution) are polar or nonpolar. This is why soaps made from hydrocarbons can dissolve oil and grease, both are nonpolar hydrocarbons and like polarity dissolves like. Sometimes, like in your recipe, you can create solvent mixtures that are more versatile or more effective as there can be both polar and nonpolar regions on molecules. The dish soap is great for dissolving the nonpolar compounds of the soap scum, the IPA is amphiprotic, meaning that it is a polar molecule that can act as both a weak acid or a weak base. This works well with the acetic acid in the vinegar to dissolve the polar mineral build up in soap scum from hard water, and possibly to help emulsify the solution (maybe, have to refresh on the emulsification part).
Excited to try this recipe! Thanks again!
Thanks for taking the time to write this, I really appreciate it but I don’t understand a lot of your explanation; could you put it in laymans terms? :)
What should you use for a good lubricant?
Sir….. I’m in awe!!! I’ve tried for years to clean my glass shower doors, and nothing worked! You have changed my cleaning world for life! 😊
You’ve made my day, thank you 😊
After spending years trying different cleaners, I went back to good old glass grade steel wool. Use it on any surfaces like glass, stainless steel, etc. for scratch-free clean surfaces with very little effort. Simply allow the surfaces to dry and then rub with the steel wool (glass grade 0000). Super easy and way more effective than cleaners. Will bring surfaces back to brand new.
Ajax or Vim will do the same thing but better and safer. For getting finger marks and smears off stainless nothing beats WD40
@@yann664 baby oil also works well on stainless steel. Rub on, buff off.
I have the glass wool, I didn't think to use it dry I might try that!
Mr sheen multipurpose spray is better and won't attract dust unlike oil
Helping a friend preparing her home for sale i volunteered to clean glass shower doors with the pricey, purpose specific cleaner she brought. We both thought it would be easy... I was worn out and had to do it over a couple of days (was a double shower to boot). You, Sir have made a friend for life.
Not to mention those fumes are awful on those cleaners.
I used your formula on glass shower doors and the tile inside the shower and WOW, the results were amazing. I had been using a product specifically marketed for water mineral and soap scum build-up, but the vinegar/alcohol mixture was SO much more effective. (Confession: When you said to use IPA as an ingredient I nearly rushed off to the store to buy a beer...glad I listened more carefully! 😃)
I researched this topic pretty well before making my mixes; the off the shelf products usually lack the solvent to break down grease which the acid is really bad at; the two combined however is super effective. I’m quite proud of myself 😆
with enough IPA everything would look clear !!!
That’s funny.. I’m Mexican wife Irish…i understand
@@CleaningHowTo the hard water build up is not visible when the glass is wet. for true test, you should have let it dry and then show us. Nevertheless, I will try your recipe at home.
I will try your concoction tomorrow for sure..I'm having a really bad situation present so respond and I will tell you my results ok..
Haven't tried it yet, willing to give it a go . Not completely convinced because the glass always looks good when its wet , its after its dried that the limescale still dhows up.
YES! I Agree! I thought it was just me. Every time it dries.
I would squeegee the glass after rinsing 👍
Agree. Cant use vinegar with marble. I use syntex a marble polish for hard water spots. If glass not etched, you will get squeegee clean. Do rinse immediately if you have marble since it is acidic.
You haven’t used vinegar before? Soak shower heads, dishwashers, etc.. it will take care of it.
It may be glass cancer. If it feels smooth and clean after cleaning but still has the ‘haze’, then probably glass cancer. Gets that way from too harsh chemicals over time or/and inferior quality glass.
Thank you very much.
This is such important information, especially during this Recession.
Best wishes mate.
I just finished trying this and wow it worked great.
Wow thanks for the chemistry lesson which I would have took that class in school. I didn’t know how useful it would be today. I’ll apply this acidic, alkalinity, solvent technique to everything I clean!
would you use this mix for blocked drains as well? and love this cleaner recipe, it is the best!
I tried your shower cleaning hack and it’s the best yet I’ve tried to date - sharing this tip it’s all I know 😁😁😁
This 100% works... just tried it... Awesome... Thanks
Awesome thanks for sharing this with us,looks good
Works really well. Just used it and found it works great on chrome shower fittings and aluminium trim as well.
Thanks very much going to try this.
I leave a dedicated pouf for cleaning and a small bottle of Dawn and after each shower I quickly clean the glass and walls, spray down, squeegee and we are both clean and streak free 😊
Thank you! was very skeptical, have used several expensive products and none have worked as great as this cleaner. Cut through water stains and soap scum so easy. Thank you once again! AWESOME!!!
This is amazing. Just came across your video while browsing. Went straight to kitchen. Made up the mixture and then cleaned my shower screen!!!!! (Same as yours ). What an amazing transformation. I’ve tried various cleaning materials in the past and none have shifted the soap scum. We don’t have a build up of limescale here.
This is brilliant. I’m going to share it with family and friends. Thank you. (I had the rubbing alcohol for my crafts.)
I would have liked to have seen the glass dry after. Once soap scum is removed most glass looks good when wet. Its usually those fine calcium spots that stick out when glass is dry. I will try your mixture for removing the soap scum though. Thanks
Yes exactly what I was thinking. I restore glass for work and you are correct - once you remove soap scum it will look clean while wet, but the hard water reappears when dry.
Thank you, i had scum that would not come out. This works works works. Thank you so much my friend. ❤❤
This worked really well! all the grease and dirt comes right off
Solution worked perfectly on my shower doors and even my shower walls (marble).
Worked great, ty for the tips!
You had me cleaning science and environment friendly! Thank you! It works!
Worked nicely, my bathroom is now limescale free, more or less!! I recommend using a spray bottle spray the shower guard and then leave for no longer than 10 minutes before scrubbing, it makes it easier to get those marks off. A bit confused by the 500ml of water comment, as surely it would depend on how much you're making, so I just worked out how much I was making, calculated 20% and 5% (vinegar/alcohol) of this total and then filled the rest up with water. I would also recommend looking at the full recipe, as it is definitely a good idea to use some scented essential oil, to take the edge off the vinegar. @Cleaninghowto mentions the cost benefits of this solution but there are also health benefits, as companies don't test all the ingredients in their products over long periods of time, so that could potentially lead to health issues after years of usage.
Holy mackerel I've done this and it truly works, we've tried everything and this is the best
That recipe worked perfectly. Thank you for a great and useful video!
Great to hear!
I can’t believe how well this worked, oh my goodness. Thank you so much!
Happy to help :)
I completely agree. I myself mix washing powder, bleach, harpic x2, washing up liquid, etc. It cleans everything from carpet to smoke stained equipment. Yes, vinegar, ipa, lemon or lime juice, will also do. Thank you for the video.
I've just tried this solution and it works brilliantly on my shower cubicle. Thank you for sharing this.
Made it, used it. Bloody brilliant mate. Thank you. Sooooooo easy and works quick.
Thank you 🙏
Works great, thank you
Holy sheet! I just tried this and it worked really well! I’ve tried so many different store bought but cleaners with virtually no results. And now I try this dirt cheap method and it blows them out of the water 😂 I wish I’d found this video sooner. Thanks so much for the advice!
good video with very good advice. thank you.
Thank you 😊
Worked like a charm!! Thanks man!!
Lovely stuff!
fantastic, thankyou
Cascade dishwasher detergent diluted or denture tablets work well too!
This works absolutely brilliantly for the shower doors and the tiles!
It sure does :)
Thank you!!!! Yes!! Throw out all the scam "cleaning" products. Just get these few things. I have hard water built up on my exterior windows. I'll try this!!!
I’ve made this solution as per your vid, holy hell, the result is amazing. Cleaning the cubicle weekly takes like 2 mins.
I was seriously impressed with it and it's all I use now. The stuff is epic :P
Brilliant. Thanks lad 👍
I tried it and it WORKS!!!!!!
Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge!
It’s all I use now and I love it :-)
Genius!!!! Barely had to scrub! Thank You!
Your cleaning mixture has worked a treat! I did not know which components to use but after watching your video, mate you have made it so easy for us! I used a very fine steel wool lightly to clean first followed but wipe off with a paper towl.
Glad I could help
I mixed it up and put it in a squirt bottle and it worked so perfectly and easily, I couldn’t believe it! No scrubbing at all. It easily wiped clean with a magic eraser sponge as in the video seconds after being sprayed on. I feel like I have a new shower! And didn’t use expensive, bad chemicals. Thank you for taking the time to share this. I will forever use it from now on! WooHoo! I love clean!
So happy to hear this :)
WooHoo
gonna try this next week when my Isopropanol turns up 👍👍
I have this stuff on my rear window of my pickup truck, nothing I tried has dealt with it. So I appreciate you info! Thanks Man!
thats an odd place for limescale! sure it's not road film?
Love that bottle!
It’s called a Kwazar :)
Wow.
Thank you.
You're welcome
wow ❤
And many thanks!
Tried this on our shower screen now which has had 20 years of soap/calcium accumulation thanks to the previous owners. I can see some improvement but still has quite a coat of soap/calcium marking. I might need to give it another go and try using with fine steel wool instead of the magic eraser.
Thank you! I am going to use this recipe!!
Let me know how it goes :)
@@CleaningHowTo Wow! Just used this at my last cleaning job. The glass looked frosted it was so full of limescale. In 30 seconds it was like brand new! Amazing! And I didn't have to use crazy elbow grease either. I love this concoction. Thanks for sharing!!!
@@nat2968 love this :)
Thanks so much for your mixture plus the magic eraser Omgosh I’ve been struggling with this shower for sometime. The amount of cleaning products I’ve used has been ridiculous and hazardous ☢️ I’m glad I found your channel 🙌
You’re welcome :)
Have you tried it with just a cloth (not magic eraser)?
Wow! This works better than any commercial product out there and it's cheap and environmentally friendly, thanks so much! 👏
I love the stuff :)
Thank you!
This was what I wanted! Thank you. Perfect video!
You're welcome!
It works. Thank you.
You're welcome!
Brilliant!!! Thanks! 😃👏👏👏
Glad you liked it!
Great video! Where can I get that pump spray cleaning solution applicator in the USA? I am obsessed!! ❤😂🎉
Greetings from Tucson, Arizona USofA.
Just discovered your channel and subscribed.
When I remodeled my house I had the back wall of the shower removed and installed a 3'x5' window.
I've not found ANYthing that would clean off the scale without damaging the marble and I'm gonna mix up your solution today.
Don’t use it if you have marble; acid dissolves the calcium in it and etches it!
Many thanks 🌻❤
Thank you sir.. I have tried everything on the market and nothing worked. This worked amazing. So very happy I found your video.
Love this, awesome!
Good grief! It works! I used surgical spirit instead of isopropyl alcohol. Cannot believe how many years I've spent and then suddenly find something that works with no damage to my neck for which I'm truly grateful.
Great video!
Thank you :)
Thank you!
You're welcome!
Well if you clean shower screens weekly they will be clean all the time all you need is automotive glass cleaner and paper towel,
I have a shower screen that’s 12 years old and it looks as good as the day I installed it…
Or you can apply edura shield on it and the water beeds right off
Great video , my comment was based on the wingers and winers of this video
Thank you :)
Nice one!
Thanks!
ok need to try this..... looks amazing
It's so good!
I just tried it this morning. impressed@@CleaningHowTo
It worked ! Just need to do a few applications.
A longer dwell time can help :)
Thank you!!!! I've been trying to keep our shower doors clean using just vinegar. Never happy with results. I was so interested in your method that I IMMEDIATELY threw the ingredients into a small bucket, grabbed the scrubber sponge and went to it. Amazing results!!! It works people! I opted to try a scrub sponge first as our Kohler doors have a film that is supposed to minimize build up (mmmm...no...) and I didnt want to run the risk of possibly micro-scratching it with a white eraser pad.
Will use the eraser and a bigger bucket to do the tile and the rest of the shower tomorrow.
thats awesome :)
I'm going to try this tomorrow I been trying and buying everything natural and store-brought. Wish me luck!
Did it work? :)
i substitute the vinegar with citric acid as it breaks up the limescale and doesn`t have that stong smell to it like vinegar has. i like the idea of combining it with isopropanol, thanks
Clean my space channel already made all these products. I use vinegar, hand sanitiser, dish soap and thin the mix with water. Spray, leave on for 30mins and wipe away
Very nice. The water in East Anglia, UK, is very hard. I bought a water softener and hardly have to deal with lime scale anymore. But this idea will work well in the kitchen for sure. 👍🏻👌🏻
Thanks for sharing
This really works.
It's incredible how adding alcohol up the game so much. I have always used vinegar + dish liquid to clean shower glass but there's only so much it can do. I tried using your mixture today and the result was mind blowing. I wouldn't say it removed 100% of the stains I had, but it removed 90% of the water and grease stains I had, with minimal effort.
I tried the mixture on my glossy shower tiles but it didn't work.
Do you have a magical mixture to remove water and grease stain from shower tiles?
Holy s*** so cool information!
I've been searching and experimenting for years to get hard water stains off of every surface in my house that comes into contact with water. Some work pretty well indeed (like oven cleaner) but that's expensive over time and has a lot of chemicals. The best I've found is Apple Cider Vinegar. Seems to work better on lime and calcium than anything else. So, I'm going to try this to see if it takes off the last bits I've had to spend hours scrubbing. No easy way to let a glass shower door sit with vinegar of any kind on it without having to pay more money to cover it in cling film. So much waste.
I never thought to add alcohol, though chemically, it makes total sense. I've pre-emptively subscribed because I understand the chemistry. If this works as you demonstrated, I'm only listening to you from now on.
There's someone I follow that advertises themselves as being the best cleaner in the world. Yes, she has great techniques, but some products she uses aren't available to me locally. Also, she uses some expensive chemicals like oven cleaner. Yes, it works, but costs almost $5 US for a can of oven cleaner and all of our wet surfaces have to be cleaned of scale. That gets expensive when our shower doors take an entire can in one go, not to mention feet of cling wrap to keep it in place on a vertical surface.
Can you tell me who it is I’d like to listen to her….tnx
So the pump spray bottle. Just purchased a 2L and tried this approach. I did not remember to get the Magic Eraser which I think would put it over the top with polish. I used a hand held scrub brush which was good too.
The SOLO 418 2 Liter One-Hand Pressure Sprayer that I bought literally changed my life as far as spray bottles. That is the only way to go for all house hold sprays. I'm buying two more in different sizes.
Thank for the post.
You’re welcome :)
Hint: Buy a cheap squeegee. After you shower, before getting out, use the squeegee to remove the water on the glass. That will keep the glass cleaner longer. it takes less than 30 seconds even if (like me) you have 2 doors to do.
Great tip :)
I just use Purple OXI Clean shower cleaner. Does a great job.
I’m not familiar with it; is it acidic?
Oh wow, thank you, thank you, thank you
Any time!
thank you! this worked like a charm. my buildup was dark stains that i couldn't get rid of with cleaners on their own. it did take a couple tries and leaveing it on for 10+ mins but buildup was removed with a stiff brush with your solution. I'm glad I cleaned up with household ingredients!
edit: i reduced the water ratio and i think that helped with penetrating the tougher stains.
Fantastic!
I need to try this, our water is so hard, fed up looking like I’ve thrown milk all up the shower doors.🤣
OK just tried this one out. The combination of IPA + Vinegar + Magic Eraser is a very effective combo. I had a shower stall that I had been hitting with just vinegar with little effect. But this combo did a number on the scale. If you're in an enclosed environment you probably want to wear a respirator because the smell is really, really strong.
The ipa is hard on the lungs so I’d sponge it on in an enclosed space :)
Yeah, um, so how did it work with just the magic eraser ™ and water?
@@randalalansmith9883 Not quite as effective. More scrubbing, less results.
Can you please say how many parts alcohol to how many parts vinegar and then water? I dont know how to convert mils. Thank you.
@@barbarawayland2424 use Google to convert mL to whatever units you like
I was first introduced to vinegar as a cleaner back when cleaning glass in a kiosk. Just a bit of neat vinegar dropped on newspaper. The paper is mildly abrasive. No water used
Ive used it to clean mould from the walls of my 150 yr old house walls as well.
I use a water and vinegar spray to neutralise smells from my dogs on my concrete patio and ceramic tiles esp the grouting.
It’s good stuff!
OMG this works, I have been using strong vinegar alone for years with limited results. The addition of the alcohol it the magic ingredient.
Yup! The alcohol dissolves the fats in the soap scum and allows the vinegar to penetrate and do its job :)
Worked for me!
I usually have magic erasers but didn't for some reason. Originally I tried a wet rag and that did NOTHING. So instead, I used a dish scrubber and kept scrubbing in gentle circular motions while keeping the solution wet and constantly reapplying over the limescale. The solution needs time to dissolve the limescale and pairing it with a lightly abrasive scrub-down worked for me. Keep it wet while scrubbing and with enough patience, the limescale melts off.
Thanks, nothing has ever worked for me before up until now.
If you leave it to dwell for at least 15 mins it should just wipe off! Keep the area wet while you do it!
I bought two 5lt bottles of white vinegar from amazon dirt cheap.
I use it for everything. On the shower screen, I filled an old daily shower screen bottle to spray it, use vinegar to fill the kettle and descale it AND put the vinegar back in the bottle so there's no wastage. When the house is empty I remove the water from the toilet with a sponge then fill the bowl with vinegar and leave it as long as possible. Result is a shiny limescale free bog! The shower head goes into a bowl of vinegar for an hour and comes out sparkling and with the jets running straight. The vinegar then goes back into the bottle for reuse.
I use it to clean and descale the iron too. I did wonder if the house would smell like a chip shop but no it doesn't. It's far better than chemical cleaners and much cheaper.
@CleaningHowTo Those seem to be some quite high quality gloves you're using here. Having trouble finding those, could you share a link, please?
You are my new best friend, never in my life has cleaning my shower door been so easy and comes out perfect 🥰
Thank you! Watch this space I'm still experimenting :)
I like that pumping bottle you have, what is the actual product name. I am now a subscriber. I just bought a house and have glass shower doors that I want to keep clean. I'm using a squeegee to remove the daily water drops, but you always miss some, so this will be good to get them all nice and shiny.
I want that sprayer
Bicarb and dishwashing liquid! Also work really well on your stove top.
Have a look at my tutorial on turning bicarbonate into carbonate/washing soda. It’s even more powerful :)
You rock!
Why thank you :)
I made this to clean my bathroom and wooow my faucet looks soo shiny ✨
Yup! They’re great :)
I just use a mixture of dishwashing liquid, vinegar and water and basically use everywhere. it seems to work just as good as any of the specific cleaning products you can buy. I keep a spray bottle in the bathroom and one in the kitchen. And so much cheaper!
Thats what I use for maintaining :)
Soap and vinegar neutralize each other alkaline vs acid.