They work well and they’re easy and cheap to make with ingredients that you most likely already have in your cupboards or are easily obtained at your local store. If these matters really concern you, the logical step is to have a go at making DIY toilet bowl cleaners. Since the chemicals that enter the sewers from your home ultimately find their way into lakes and rivers which are home to aquatic creatures and often a human playground too, we need to think twice about what goes down those pipes. You may have started wondering if there are any alternative, more planet-friendly (and, frankly, human-friendly) ways of getting this essential job done. You’ve probably got the message by now that there are some pretty noxious nasties among the ingredients of toilet bowl cleaners. The best way to keep that sparkling white porcelain looking great is to use a toilet bowl cleaner regularly. The smooth, shiny surface is also easy to clean and it sparkles in a very satisfying way to reflect your hard labor. Added to that, porcelain is nonporous, so it’s less susceptible to build up of bacteria than other materials. Have you ever wondered why porcelain is used all around the world to make toilets? That’s because its smooth surface means there are no imperfections or crevices where particles can get stuck and become a breeding ground for germs. If you're having issues with clogging, using a plunger before cleaning might do the trick. There are magical products out there, though, which will dissolve even the toughest stains and leave your toilet bowl sparkling clean and smelling fresh. If your toilet cleaning regime slips a little and you allow the build-up of mineral deposits, stains and/or mold, those areas will become the biggest breeding ground for germs. Very little elbow grease is usually required to get exceptional results. And toilet bowl cleaners do that job with a few enthusiastic swishes of the toilet brush. Of course, it’s not just about aesthetics hygiene is most people’s greatest concern when it comes to toilet cleanliness. Trust us when we say that your toilet is unlikely ever to look anything like this gallery of horror, showing the grossest toilets ever! Visit our PLUMBING page for other related blog posts on this subject, or go to the INDEX for a complete listing of all our articles.We all know just how quickly a toilet can become really gross. Plumbers also recommend not using the tablets based on their experience replacing deteriorated plastic, metal and rubber flush mechanism parts-especially the flapper.Īlso see Why is there sand in the bottom of my toilet tank? and What are the minimum clearances around a toilet? and Why is there mold inside my toilet tank? Toilet manufacturers responded to the problem by adding stickers to the inside of their toilet tanks, like the one shown below by Kohler, as a consumer warning that “use of in-tank cleaning products voids warranty, as they can destroy parts and cause water leaks that may lead to property damage.” Here’s an example we saw recently in a house that had been for sale and empty for several months.
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When a cleaning tablet is left to dissolve completely without any flushes, the water in the tank becomes intensely blue and chlorinated. Unfortunately, it is not practical for a consumer to fish the tablet out of the bottom of the tank before leaving home for an extended period. Clorox denied any wrongdoing, but has since added the statement “tablets should be used in toilets that are flushed daily” to the product packaging. The Clorox Company responded to a class action suit claiming damage to toilet mechanisms, even though the manufacturer claimed that their Clorox Automatic Toilet Bowl Cleaner “does not damage toilets,” with an $8-million settlement. One of the problems the manufacturers discovered with the new product was that if a homeowner left on vacation or, even worse, installed the tablets in a seasonal home, the concentration of the chemicals would intensify in the tank to corrosive levels as the tablet slowly dissolved without any toilet flushes to dilute it.
![toilet bowl cleaner toilet bowl cleaner](https://www.thetford.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/30338AK_ToiletBowlCleaner.jpg)
Toilet manufacturers noticed an immediate surge in leakage complaints for their products after the drop-in tablets were introduced in the early 1990s. But, because they dispense a disinfectant chemical into the tank instead of the bowl, the flush mechanism is exposed to the chemicals, which often includes chlorine bleach.
#Toilet bowl cleaner install#
Toilet bowl cleaner tablets that sit in the bottom of the tank have two advantages over the older type that hang of the side of the bowl: they are easy to install without having to touch the toilet bowl and not visible when in place.