How to clean a bathroom faucet

The appearance of the mixer, as well as its technical condition, depend not only on its proper care, but also on the quality of the water inside the pipes. White stains are often visible on faucets. They are not always left behind by soap stains. Often this can be due to salt deposits.

Water particles along with salt settle on the surface, after which they dry out and turn into a dense coating. Soap traces are very easy to wash off with water, but deposits need to be removed with detergents and some effort.

How to clean the outside of a faucet from limescale: general recommendations

Chrome is a very beautiful material, but it becomes unusable too easily if it is not used correctly. Mechanical damage and exposure to chemicals spoil the appearance. If you follow simple recommendations, you can extend the life of the product:

1. To remove plaque from a chrome-plated surface, under no circumstances should you use products made from rough material. No metal brushes or scrapers, graters or hard-bristled sponges.All this can cause significant damage to the surface: scratches will appear, and then oxides will appear in their place. Subsequent exposure to water forms rust at the oxidation sites.
2. Cleaning products containing abrasives and chlorine are not suitable for cleaning; acid-containing substances are also harmful. Despite the fact that they remove plaque from the surface well, they also leave black spots on the metal. It will no longer be possible to fix this. If you look closely at the information on such cleaning products, you will see a warning that it is not recommended to use them with chrome. So... Sometimes reading instructions is useful.
3. After the contamination is finished, the entire surface should be polished. This can be done using a regular napkin. Polishing will keep the shine longer.
4. Places that are difficult to access can be cleaned with a regular toothbrush or a bottle brush can be used for this purpose.
5. Using damp aluminum foil is a good way to remove rust. When aluminum comes into contact with a damaged surface, a reaction occurs, causing the stains to disappear.
6. Professional cleaning compounds should not be applied to the surface for a long time.
7. If you use vinegar or other chemicals in your work, you should always ventilate the room. All these substances are harmful to the body and often cause allergies.

Traditional methods

When plaque has just formed, it can be easily cleaned. And it is quite easy to remove it with substances available in the kitchen of any home. It's not at all difficult to find:

• vinegar essence;
• baking soda;
• table salt;
• soap;
• citric acid;
• glass cleaner;
• microfiber cloth.

Vinegar essence

Vinegar is not used on its own, but diluted with water.. The solution ratio is one to one. The resulting composition is applied to the surface with a spray or a regular sponge and wait for half an hour or an hour. Here you need to look at how polluted everything is. After this, everything is wiped with a sponge and washed off.

Very often, a vinegar compress is applied to old stains. A hot vinegar solution is poured onto a cloth, which is applied to the desired location. After an hour, the compress can be removed and washed with water. Vinegar vapors do an excellent job of removing lime, after which you don’t even need to rub anything. But if the first approach with a compress did not bring any special results, it can be repeated again.

Attention! Care should be taken when working. Fumes can harm the mucous membranes.

Baking soda

Apply baking soda to a soft-bristle brush and rub the surface of the product. To make rubbing easier, you can dilute soda with water and make a kind of porridge and then rub the mixer with a sponge. You should act carefully, without making unnecessary efforts. Then rinse everything off with water.

Salt

Regular salt also works well for cleaning. The coating will shine again, plaque and soap stains will dissolve. Having diluted the salt with water to a porridge state, it should be applied to the surface areas that are contaminated. After about twenty minutes, you can wipe everything off and rinse with water.

Laundry soap

Every housewife has laundry soap in her daily routine. If you grate a quarter of this piece and dilute it with water to make some kind of cream, then you can treat the faucet with this composition. The composition is applied to the problem area and left in this form for 15-20 minutes. Then, by wiping the tap with a sponge, the soap can be washed off.To make the effect stronger, you can add a spoonful of soda.

Lemon acid

Citric acid also works great for cleaning. And in any of its manifestations. Cleans both powder and natural juice, even concentrate. Citric acid is used like vinegar.

Glass cleaner

This product is used to clean windows and mirrors, but it also does an equally good job of cleaning chrome surfaces. If you add ammonia to it, the effect will become stronger.

Microfiber cloth

Newly formed plaque can be easily removed with this material. You don't even need any chemicals for this. All that is required is simply to wipe the surface. In this case, there will be no scratches, no streaks, not even lint.

Industrial products

If there is no trust in folk remedies or they simply did not cope with their task, you can use what is available on store shelves. Almost every well-known manufacturer has compositions specifically designed for cleaning faucets. But when purchasing, be sure to double-check that the product is specifically for the faucet, and not for the bathtub or toilet.

The most popular are Cif, Sillit, and SunClean. You can also buy something more expensive, for example, Ravak, Grohe or HG.

Comprehensive cleaning: how to disassemble and clean the inside of the faucet

Before you try to disassemble the faucet, you need to understand what type it is.

The most common are:

• with two valves and crane axle boxes;
• with cartridge and one lever;
• ball mixers.

It is these models that can most often be found in the assortment of stores.

We disassemble a mixer with two valves

Many people have a mixer tap with two valves in their bathroom.

It is not very difficult to disassemble such a mixer:

1. We need to turn off the water.The shut-off valve can be found either in the toilet or in the bathroom itself. In any case, near the place where the pipe enters the apartment.
2. After this, the mixer must be removed. First, unscrew the nuts that secure the housing to the eccentrics. You will need to act carefully, because excessive force can crumble the nuts.
3. We get rid of the plugs on the valves.
4. There is a screw under these plugs. It needs to be unscrewed, after which the valve can be removed from the valve axle rod.
5. We unscrew the valve axle and remove it from its seat.
6. In the second valve we carry out similar procedures, after which we can work on the switch from the shower to the gander. In the same way, remove the plug, unscrew the fixing screw, pull out the lever, then unscrew the crank.
7. Now you need to unscrew the gooseneck from the mixer. This can be done by unscrewing the union nut.
8. Now unscrew the shower hose. It is better to do this manually so as not to scratch the chrome surface.
9. Everything that has been discussed must be remembered. Otherwise you won't be able to collect it. You'll have to run to the store for a new faucet.
10. Once you disassemble the faucet, you can start cleaning it. First, all gaskets must be removed. This is important, especially if the crane axlebox is old. The gaskets in them are short-lived.
11. We assess the condition of the gasket. If it has ceased to be elastic, then it is better to change it to a new one.
12. New models of cranes have a crane axle box with ceramic plates. It is better to replace such a part. It's inexpensive.
13. We remove and check the condition of the gaskets at all connections. Those that have become unusable are replaced. We remove the aerator, which is installed at the end of the gander, and take out the mesh. This mesh needs to be cleaned of everything that has accumulated on it.

We clean the device body itself from rust and lime deposits.Cleaning products for faucets will help you cope with this.

Prevention of plaque formation

Even old plaque will not be able to resist household or store products. But the faucets have a complex shape and are very inconvenient to clean. To ensure that such headaches occur as rarely as possible, listen to some tips:

1. Clean your faucet often, don’t wait for dirt to accumulate.
2. Perform preventative cleaning by disassembling the faucet and cleaning all internal elements.
3. Apply a moisture-proof coating. On sale you can find compositions that not only clean the surface, but also protect it from moisture.But they are difficult to find, and compositions from professional series are expensive. You can cover the surface with cosmetic oil or regular vegetable oil. Treat the surface with a sponge on which oil has been applied, and then polish with a napkin. This will not prevent plaque from forming, but it will be much easier to remove. Water does not linger on the oil and flows off, so there won’t be much of a deposit.
4. Use wax polish. Chrome-plated parts of cars are often treated with such compounds. Not the best option, but there are benefits. The main thing is to make sure that the composition is safe.
5. Install a main filter to make the water softer. You can find a variety of options for such devices, which differ not only in design, but also in cost, as well as efficiency. The most effective are ion exchange and reverse osmosis devices.

Eliminating the cause of its occurrence will solve the problem of plaque once and for all. Don't wait until stubborn limescale stains appear. Wipe down the faucet after each use. If it is possible to install a water filter, install it. With this attitude, taps and mixers will always be shiny and will do their job properly.