Products to clean Toto toilets

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Mid-NewJersey

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I don't see any more recent answers than 2006 and I'm having the same question: what named products can you really use to clean a Toto sanigloss toilet? I've been using mild liquid dish detergent and a soft nylon foam brush (not even bristles). We have hard municipal water. Inside the tank the water is clear although there's a small bit of brownish sediment at the bottom & a little bit of black mold at the top above the water line.
Anyway--the inside of the toilet bowl has a ring at the top of the water line and it's also stained light brown where the water enters the toilet on each side to swirl down. How can I make it look clean?? get rid of the brown? thank you.
 

Reach4

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You can try Super Iron Out on the reddish brown. Let it sit for as long as practical. Maybe put crystals in place over the stained places before you go away for a weekend. You can put it in the tank too. The particles at the bottom of the tank you could stir up and try to flush them out. Or use a wet-dry vacuum.

For the particles, do you have a whole house cartridge filter in your water supply? I presume you have a well. You may or may not have a softener. Post your lab test results for hardness, iron, manganese, pH.

I would use chlorine bleach on the black. You could dilute it 1:4 or even 1:10 if 100% seems too strong. Sanitize your well and plumbing. The frequency can differ, but I think I can go 2 or 3 years or more between good sanitizings. Some use a simpler procedure annually.

I don't think that finish (http://www.totousa.com/people-first-innovation/peopleplanetwater/cefiontect) is as delicate as the description. I carefully used Pumie brand pumice stick on a waterline ring after an array of chemicals did not do the job. I see no damage. Do frequent toilet brushings.

Let us know what you find.
 

Mid-NewJersey

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We have municipal water, not from a well. The bill is from New Jersey American Water.
I've been looking at other forums. what about using white vinegar on the toilet ring? is that bad for CEFIONTECT, too?
 

Reach4

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We have municipal water, not from a well. The bill is from New Jersey American Water.
I've been looking at other forums. what about using white vinegar on the toilet ring? is that bad for CEFIONTECT, too?
I am not a pro. I tried stronger: phosphoric acid, chlorine bleach, and even muriatic acid applied with a Q-tip while the water level in the bowl was lowered. Muriatic acid fumes are seriously bad, and I held my breath during the brief times I tried that. I am confident that the vinegar will not harm the toilet, and I will be very surprised if it is effective against the ring.

Now if you were to drain the toilet bowl and bring the vinegar up to the max bowl level, and then went on vacation, maybe that would do it. I did not try that. I did try putting toilet paper saturated with phosphoric acid and other times with full strength chlorine bleach (but not at the same time!!!) and letting that sit for a few hours.

With your chlorinated water, your ring chemistry is probably different from mine. So vinegar may work. If it is to work, you might try the saturated toilet paper for a few hours thing to keep the concentration higher.
 
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Mid-NewJersey

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Thanks, Reach4.
Anyone else who IS a pro?? Toto just completely scares you about harming the CEFIONTECT without be willing to tell you what you can use. Just looked into my water bill: water comes from wells, Raritan river & all kinds of places.
On other websites so far I've seen recommendations for:
  • Lysol TB without bleach
  • "gel-based toilet cleaner"
  • Bar Keepers Friend Spray & Foam (no abrasives, but is acidic)
  • hydrogen peroxide
  • cleaning vinegar (6% as opposed to 5% regular vinegar)
Terry: you have an old post about some teflon product?

Thanks in advance if anyone has a definitive answer!
 

Reach4

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Just looked into my water bill: water comes from wells, Raritan river & all kinds of places.
Your water is chlorinated. So it should not have iron coming in with the water. The chlorine still exists in the toilet, so the black should not b mold growing at the water. You could have solids, and a whole house filter is good to have.

A few people have backwashing activated carbon filters that remove chlorine and other things. That treated water would then not have the organism killing properties.

Good luck on finding the magic cleaner. You could remove the ring very effectively with a new toilet bowl. If it is a 2-piece toilet, the tank could stay.
 

Jadnashua

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Rust stains need some stronger stuff than bleach. CEFIONTECT (renamed by the manufacturer to their international name which I can't remember!) is still a glaze, but one of its main characteristics is that it ends up much smoother than a typical glaze. That's why you don't want to use anything abrasive on it - unless it is VERY fine, you'll end up actually scratching it rather than polishing it. ANd, if it's that fine, it takes forever to remove anything hard. Something like CLR might help clean it off, but I wouldn't want to leave it there for long. Acids can tend to etch the surface. Not all acids will attack a glaze, but some can.
 

Terry

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I have used all of the liquid bowl cleaners on my toilet bowls with CEFIONTECT. The oldest bowl from 2005 still shines.

toto-bowl-cleaning.jpg
 
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Treeman

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The SDS for EdFred reveals it to simply be 15% Phosphoric Acid, a very common ingredient in cleaners associated with fixtures.

Knowing this, you can now go to your favorite store and buy a similar product locally.
 
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