How do I clean soap scum out of the freakin' bathtub!

[Justin]

ok
So, I can lay down the Scrubbing Bubbles and follow it up with an ample amount of elbow grease with a plastic bristle brush to get most of it, but how the $#&@()$*&@!*^#$%)(&#)@*$^)@!(&$)*@^!@(*&^$ do I clean out the little itty-bitty pockets of soap scum that are in the crevices of the no-slip surface of my shower?

Seriously, this is annoying me like you wouldn't believe.

[Moondoggie]

When my wife and I cleaned house units in military housing as a "side job" I used a palm sander with Scotchbrite and Softscrub for cleaning tubs/shower units.

Be careful not to use too much water!  (Where's the emoticon for electrocution???)

[Larry Ashcraft]

Justin,

Look up Falcon Laboratories right there in your town.  Give them a call and have their salesman, Brian Teachout, contact you.  If he can't (because you are not a business), call him and explain what you need, and I can get the product you need.

I would suggest M.A.D. (Mild Acid Detergent) which is a 5% phosphoric acid mixture with some detergent added.  Your problem is probably lime from the water, and M.A.D. will take care of it.  Try some vinegar.  If that works, M.A.D. is your answer.

If you just need a super heavy duty cleaner, call LeMaster's Janitor supply and get a gallon of Kleen-All.  Kleen-All is what Simple Green is trying to be (except it's purple).  I'm serious, once you have a gallon of Kleen-All around, you will buy it by the case.  Cheap too, around $7/gal.

I'm not kidding, you can de-grease your car engine with it.

[The Rabbi]

White vinegar?

[Guest]

Actually...

White Vinegar and Backing Soda.


To Prevent:

Clean really good, dry and apply a Good Carnuba Car Wax. DO NOT put in the bottom where you stand. Yes the car wax resists all sorts of build- up.

After use [ bath/ shower] wipe with towel or sqeegee.  Another tip if  you do not wax , wipe off/ squeege with Isopropyl Alcohol.

I do not do well well with Bleach...Sets off my allergies and what a headache.  Bleach will take care of mildew and some "scums". So make sure this is Soap Scum. Depending on water ( hard, soft, calcium...) you could have other "scums".

Bon-Ami " hasn't scratched yet" - is another great product.  

I most often use Baking Soda & Water for cleaning sinks, toliets, bath tubs/ showers, kithchen sinks...

[Standing Wolf]

I use toilet bowl cleaner on the tub. It does a fine job of removing tea stains from mugs. If the wretched thing doesn't shut up pretty soon, I may try some on my neighbors' dog.

[brimic]

I do something similar to what Moondoggie described- use Soft Scrub with a car buffer.  The orange flavored Soft Scrub works wonders.

I haven't had any problems whatsoever since I installed a water softener.

[Unisaw]

SWMBO has some stuff called Scum Buster.  It works well, but the fumes can be pretty bad.  I believe it contains glycolic acid.

[K Frame]

Target has one of those "after shower spray cleaners."

It smells like hell, but boy does it loosen the soap scum!

[SalukiFan]

I do something similar to what Moondoggie described- use Soft Scrub with a car buffer.  The orange flavored Soft Scrub works wonders.

Orange-flavored?  How you do know what it tastes like?

[K Frame]

"How you do know what it tastes like?"

It's a great mixer with gin.

A little gritty, but still not bad.

[grampster]

I use regular X-14 for mildew in the shower and X-14 soap scum remover with a bristle brush to scrub the soap scum from the floor of the shower.  Although, I usually wait to clean my shower till all the critters living in the green mossy stuff start organizing to join the UAW or the Teamsters.

sm's right about the squeegie.  Swmbo uses one for her shower and there's never any mold or soap scum build up in her shower.  (She doesn't sweat, fart or belch either, so it may be a woman thing going on with the shower being clean all the time.)

Larry, are their other places one can get Kleen All?  Sounds like just the stuff to clean the vinyl on my pontoon boat.  I'm too lazy to cover it and the white vinyl cruds up from rain, dust and pollen etc.

[Larry Ashcraft]

Larry, are their other places one can get Kleen All?  Sounds like just the stuff to clean the vinyl on my pontoon boat.  I'm too lazy to cover it and the white vinyl cruds up from rain, dust and pollen etc.

I'm sure any janitor supply will have it, but they probably call it by a different name.  They buy this stuff by the barrel and just repackage and label it.  It can be diluted down all the way to glass cleaner.  Used full strength, it's the best tire cleaner I've ever used.

My wife just calls it "Purple Stuff".

[grampster]

Thanks for the info, I'll start tracking it down on Tuesday.

[Justin]

I usually wait to clean my shower till all the critters living in the green mossy stuff start organizing to join the UAW or the Teamsters.

LOL!  I think that's part of my problem, actually.

Wow, thanks for the good info everyone!  Larry, with regard to your suggestion, it sounds like I could buy some of that stuff and use it to clean the toilet, too.  The ring in there just laughs at me any time I try to use scrubbing bubbles and the toilet brush.

Getting a water softener would go a long way to alleviating these problems, but I rent, so that's out of the question.

I've recently taken to using that Clean Shower spray, and it seems to keep the stuff from gathering in the first place, but if it's already in place it doesn't seem to do much.

[Moondoggie]

The ring in the toidy needs the attention of a pumice/lava rock stone....used with rubber gloves!  Takes care of it in seconds.

[Waitone]

Toilet bowl cleaner works like a champ.  Dual use chemistry and all that!

[Guest]

Ditto on the pumice stone.

[K Frame]

A friend told me that one of the best ways to cut the soap scum to almost nothing is to quit using bar soap and start using a liquid body wash. The chemical composition is completely different, and apparently it doesn't form the scum.

[Stetson]

Purple stuff...can't remember the name but you can get it in the automotive section at Wal-mart.  We use it for EVERYTHING cleaning wise.

[TarpleyG]

I used to be like you and did two things.

1) Bought a Black & Decker Scumbuster.  Comes with all sorts of attachments for cleaning whatever.
2) Hired a housekeeper to come in once a week.

I highly recommend both.

Greg

[Azrael256]

Purple stuff...can't remember the name but you can get it in the automotive section at Wal-mart.

Castrol Super-Clean.  The stuff at Wal-Mart is dilluted to a useful strength.  It won't dissolve your skin, but it will clean up most anything.  If you buy the concentrate, be VERY careful about mixing it.  Not only will it burn your clothes off (I have dungarees with big holes from that stuff), but it will also damage plastics that are not chemical resistant.  Be especially careful of old windex bottles.  You have to dilute it pretty heavily to put it in that kind of plastic or it will make it extremely brittle.  I have gently laid a windex bottle of that stuff on the workbench, and had it burst.

It also makes a fine paint remover even at fairly low strength, so watch out for that.  I diluted about three gallons of concentrate to ~1/4 strength, hooked it up to a pressure washer on a low pressure setting, and hosed a D7 to a high shine in about an hour.  It ate the paint right off, knocked most of the rust off, and left it smelling like a mountain spring.

[Justin]

To those of you who suggested the pumice stick for the toilet:

THANK YOU![/i]

It took me the better part of five minutes to scrub out a toilet bowl ring that has been mocking me for a year and a half.

Is the purple stuff at Wal-Mart the same as the purple stuff that Larry was talking about?  Now that I think about it, I need a good tire cleaner, too.

[Paddy]

It might be a combination of soap scum and hard water.  'Scrubbing Bubbles' works on soap scum, and we have clear glass shower doors, but we also have soft water.  'Lime-Away' will get rid of hard water deposits, but you've got to work at it.

[Brad Johnson]

High explosives.

Brad