How to get a toilet clean
BY ED DEL GRANDE HGTV Pro.com

Courtesy Photo Ed Del Grande is known nationally as the author of the book "Ed Del Grande's House Call" and for hosting TV shows on Scripps Networks and HGTVPro.com.

Every week I receive many letters, comments and questions from our readers across the United States and many from our friends in Canada and other countries as well. The topics of these letters may vary and I enjoy reading the comments sent in about my past newspaper columns.

Lately, I have been flooded with letters about an article I did a week ago about a woman who used a pumice stone to clean stains off her toilet bowl and now the toilet is scratched and ruined.

I pointed out to her that in my opinion a pumice stone was too harsh and abrasive to clean a toilet or any other china plumbing fixture with, and that she may want to replace the toilet and use nonabrasive cleaners in the future. Sounds like simple advice right?

Well, you cannot believe the letters that came in telling me that I needed to expand on my answer and it's up to me to tell everyone how to remove tough toilet bowl stains. In all fairness, this is a heavy load to put on my shoulders since I have never claimed to be a toilet cleaning expert.

I always thought of our toilets as a personal place and figured we all had our own private tricks to keep our bowls clean. For instance, people have told me in the past that they use denture cleaners, white vinegar, water diverter sprays and even cola sodas to remove stains from their toilet bowls.

I was totally unprepared for the outcry from the masses for help in how to remove stains from our toilets without scratching up the bowl. Not being one to run away from a challenge, I consulted my wife and we went on a journey to find the easiest way to remove stains in the bowl.

Right away we agreed that the best offense is a good defense. Like we do with our master bathroom toilet, daily cleanings with a toilet brush does keep most toilets in pretty good shape.

But, my 18-year-old son's bathroom was another story. don't know many teenagers that clean the toilet with each use and my son is no different. As a matter if fact even though his father is a master plumber, I don't believe that my son knows which end of a toilet brush to hold!

Anyway, his toilet bowl did have some dark stains that my wife and I decided to take on. We tried every homemade remedy I knew of and used every standard cleaner we had in the closet and we had little or no success.

Then it hit me -- we were overlooking the obvious solution. If you want to remove tough toilet bowl stains, you need to go out to a good cleaning supply company and buy a product that is made for your specific need. We did just that and found some heavy duty toilet bowl cleaners that are specifically made for removing tough bowl stains.

Remember, with most heavy duty professional cleaners, you do need to take extra precautions like safety glasses, gloves and plenty of fresh air ventilation when using these products. The bottom line was, once we used the right product the stains simply disappeared.

As I mentioned there were several products that did the job and they were all of professional grade and all made for the purpose of cleaning rust stains from china fixtures. Some could only be used for white plumbing fixtures so keep that in mind. I cannot mention any brand names but trust me, if you look for them they are easy to find.