Right at the water line, black staining, not raised, IOW, can’t take pumice to that damn stain, impervious to bleach, seemingly
Background: the hardest water in the world, I swear. And a septic tank that we use for 2 sides of a duplex, 4 people in total. We (both couples) do the “if it’s yellow let it mellow, etc” thing.
I used to empty the bowl, and pumice the hard water ring off, or use bleach and vinegar (ugh, fumes) and I think perhaps I scratched the porcelain? But I don’t feel etching or scratches. Bleach is bad for the septic, but I have poured bleach, about a cup in the water and let it sit about 2 hours–nothing.
I’m not accustomed to shilling for companies, but I just recently tried Kaboom Liquid Bowl Blaster (it’s a thin gel in a purple squeeze bottle) on my rather disgustingly stained toilet bowls, and I was amazed at how well it worked. I think it may be straight lye under the purple dye and fragrance. But it worked!
on edit: It’s actually almost straight hydrochloric acid. So don’t drink it and don’t splash it into your eyes. Come to think of it, maybe I’ll go ahead and wear rubber gloves next time. But it works!
I second The Works, I just used it for the first time on our disgusting crusty (iron in water) toilets and it took most the gunk off in 5 minutes, the rest after a bit of a soak.
ETA: I should add that what I used was The Works toilet bowl cleaner and not the stain remover linked above. Same company, slightly different product. It’s actually to the right, cut off in that photo.
I’ve tried all the products mentioned in this thread, and today I found something that worked – Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner – blue bottle, the one with the dispenser that angles so it can go up under the rim.
I just let it soak in two toilets that have resisted everything else I’ve tried. Came back a couple hours later and the stains were gone. One needed a light scrubbing with the toilet brush, but the other didn’t even need that.
Another vote here for The Works. One of my toilets had stains that left me in tears of frustration. Supermarket toilet cleaners were ineffective, so I tried soaking the bowl in bleach for three days, dropping denture tablets into the water, using mild sandpaper … nothing got rid of the staining. The toilet was only a couple years old but I was about ready to call the plumber to take the thing out and put in another.
Then I read about *The Works * in another forum. I found it at one of the big box stores for only $3 a bottle. I poured it in it and it cleared up the[COLOR=“Blue”] stains in three minutes[/COLOR]. Damnedest thing I ever saw, especially after all the effort I previously put into cleaning that toilet.
I typically use the cheapest bowl cleanser I can find which did the trick until I started getting this highly annoying and persistent rust-looking stain on the right side of the bowl. I tried the Lysol in the blue bottle, I tried bleach, and when bleach didn’t work I resolved to just live with the stain. I tried The Works just now and the stain is magically gone! After soaking the bowl in bleach and scrubbing like a maniac to no avail, it was amazing to watch it just disappear within moments of having used The Works. The best part is I bought it from Dollar Tree, so I paid one whole buck for it. Edit: And I also want to point out that I used The Works Toilet Bowl Cleaner, and not the other one. Worked like magic, it did.