Have you ever seen that whitish-yellow residue on your metal plumbing systems? It clogs the taps, pipes, and walls of the sink and looks very unpleasant. That’s limescale. It’s formed due to hard water and you may have to install a water softener system to prevent it. Here are more details on what is it and how to remove it from your faucets and fixtures.

What Is Limescale?

You’ve seen it everywhere: on the taps, on the sinks, on the shower head, even on the dishes. The whitish chalky substance in water can dry up and deposit itself on the metal plumbing systems. Limescale is essentially calcium and magnesium carbonate. It is present in vast quantities in the water when it’s hard.

Hard water is water that doesn’t produce any lather, because of its chemical composition. It consists of calcium and magnesium that can precipitate when the water dries, leaving limescale behind.

Even though limescale may look like it’s not harmful, it can lead to a lot of problems if you let it go unnoticed. First of all, it can cause clogging of the pipes, and thinner pipes used in showers and taps can fall victim to this issue quickly. It can also corrode the pipes down the lane and that’s an expensive thing to fix, especially if the problem prevails all over the house.

So, just as you would want to treat contaminated water, you will need to do something about hard water as well. But before that, you should remove the limescale.

Ways To Remove Limescale

Now that you know what limescale is, it’s time to tackle it head-on and get rid of it, so that your faucets, fixtures, and plumbing systems work efficiently and look spotless.

Use Lemon

Lemon is something that you use daily for cooking. Either as a marinade or as a garnish on top. Not to mention, it’s also one of the most popular scents out there, with every cleaning detergent having the scent of this zesty bundle of juice. Well, it’s also used for cleaning the pesky limescale, if you haven’t guessed it already. You can use a combination of lemon and white vinegar as a mixture to scrub away the limescale.

Limescale is soluble in citrusy fruit juices, so this will work amazingly well. The main constituent in lemon and vinegar is light acetic and citric acid. These solvents will break down the limescale and you can leave it on for a couple of minutes before wiping it away with a wet washcloth.

Vinegar Is Your Hero

If you don’t have lemon in your house, then don’t worry, because another pantry essential is waiting for you to take down the limescale and that’s vinegar. You can use it on your own or you can mix it in with water and make a cleaning solution.

You can take a cotton round soak it in vinegar and dab it on the spots that have limescale. After a couple of minutes, you’ll see the limescale melt away. Alternatively, you can use one part vinegar and 2-3 parts water and mix the two in a spray bottle and use it on the sink and any exposed pipes or plumbing systems to get rid of the limescale. You’ll see a difference in no time and once you wipe everything away, your metal hardware will shine stunningly and they will look brand new.

Fizz It Up

This is another unusual thing that you can use to clean limescale and it works just as perfectly, even though it’s bizarre. Fizzy drinks are excellent limescale cleaners, thanks to the abundance of citric acid they have. You can use these sugary drinks to clean your taps, faucets, and other metal pipes and they will do a surprisingly good job. Just make sure that you crack open a fresh bottle of fizzy drink and use it on a cotton round or a wet washcloth to clean the limescale.

For more abrasive cleaning, use a toothbrush soaked in the fizzy drink and use it to clean your shower head. To avoid the fixtures being sticky, run some water to let everything wash away and you’re good to go.

Baking Soda To The Rescue

Looks like everything in your kitchens can combat limescale and the next thing in line is baking soda. You want to use it in combination with either vinegar or lemon. You want to take a small amount of each and mix them.

As soon as it fizzes up, you want to apply this pasty solution on the limescale-covered faucets and taps. You can also use a soft brushing pad to scrub the limescale off and that will do a great job in removing everything.

Call In The Big Guys

While you can reach the outer areas of the plumbing systems, the insides aren’t that easy. The inside of the pipes and drains can have a lot of deposits of limescale on them, so it’s not always accessible.

This is where you’ll need to call in the professionals to get the work done for you. Yes, they will cost you a little bit more than the things that you can find in the kitchen, but it’s worth it and once everything is clean, you’ll see a world of difference in how everything performs. So, it’s not a bad idea to get help from the ones who know their way around limescale.

Moreover, some may also offer a water test as well to know what you can do to prevent limescale and other impurities in your water. They may suggest a water softener or a water filtration system Erie for your house.

Detergent And Scrub – The Dynamic Duo

Sometimes, the good ole detergent can do wonders. Detergent is soapy and sudsy, which is the perfect thing to soften the limescale and remove it from the taps, shower heads, and even pipes. You can use a liberal amount of detergent and scrub it on the limescale with a toothbrush or a small coarse cloth.

Once that is done, use warm water to wash the suds away and while you’re at it, keep scrubbing the faucets to get everything clean. You’ll see a difference in no time.

Use Commercial Cleaners

There are special cleaners available that are targeted towards the cleaning and prevention of limescale in the future. You can try these things out too and see if they work for you.

The only downside to using these products is that you might have to buy them regularly, and since they’re not the cheapest things around, your wallet might protest.

All things considered, it does a wonderful job and you’ll be surprised at the results. Just use them as the instructions say and you’ll be good to go.

Get A Water Softener

You want to get to the root of the problem and get rid of the limescale for good and that’s only possible through one way: Getting rid of hard water. A water softener is going to be a lifesaver for you, in this case.

A water softener will treat the water and will get rid of calcium and magnesium in the water, the very things that lead to limescale production and you will see that it will become history, once you start using soft water around the house.

Conclusion

Limescale is removable, but it can be hard. So, this is where these tips will help you out in getting rid of that white residue from your plumbing systems. Furthermore, you should go ahead with water softener installation Meadville to prevent this in the future.