The Kitchen Ingredient That Can Clean & Remove Rust Stains From Your Toilet Bowl
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A dirty toilet may be one of the most embarrassing things in your house. You can spend hours obsessing over throw pillows, fresh flowers, and sparkling counters, only for your bathroom bowl's stains to scream out that you're the least efficient cleaner on the block. The secret most people don't know, however, is that your kitchen pantry might just hold the very thing that can fight those ugly rings. In the same way that you can say goodbye to toilet stains with one common alcoholic beverage, cream of tartar could be just the ingredient for getting the job done.
Usually buried behind your baking power and often used to help your snickerdoodles rise, this helpful white powder contains tartaric acid, which reacts with rust and helps dissolve it. Since rust is essentially just iron oxide, acids will help break it down into a water-soluble form. That's why commercial removers that contain stronger acids work, and why mild acids like cream of tartar are believed to help with smaller rust marks on porcelain and ceramic surfaces — just like your toilet. What's more, there are 10 other ways you can use cream of tartar around your home that go way beyond cooking.
Does cream of tartar really work?
When you turn cream of tartar into a paste, usually with water or hydrogen peroxide, it can sit on a rust stain and begin dissolving it. After a soak and some scrubbing with a brush, the stain should become easier to lift ... in theory, at least. But does it really work?
On YouTube, Andrea Jean Co showcased the cream of tartar cleaning hack. She sprinkled some powder into her dirty toilet bowl, scrubbed it with a toilet brush, and let it sit for a few minutes before flushing it away — revealing a sparkling clean toilet. One commenter took her advice and found it worked a treat. "I tried it and it totally worked!" they say. Another didn't have as much luck, however, writing: "Tried it today, didn't work. Got a lot of minerals in our water, which apparently fuses the stuff to the bowl. Thanks for the tip anyway." Mixing two parts cream of tartar with one part hydrogen peroxide — instead of water — may be more effective for tougher stains.
Additional commenters on Andrea Jean Co's video pointed out other issues with this solution. Some said that cream of tartar is expensive and wondered about alternate ingredients like citric acid or baking soda. But, as one commenter points out, you can buy larger, less expensive containers of cream of tartar. For instance, Amazon sells a 2.75 pound container of Birch & Meadow Cream of Tartar for $24.99. And if you choose not to go down the cream of tartar route, it's worth keeping other cleaning tips in mind — such as the most hygienic thing you can do to keep the rest of your bathroom clean.