LESLIE: Catherine in Indiana is dealing with an issue in the toilet tank. What do you have; rust stains? What’s going on in there?
CATHERINE: Oh, well the inside of the tank gets a lot of rust in it. I have water with some rust problems and no water softener. And I can clean the bowl with a toilet brush but I’m thinking if I could get all of that rusty scum out of the tank, maybe the toilet bowl wouldn’t get dirty so fast. Now I have tried using a brush on the inside of the tank. What that does is just settle all those rust particles down to the bottom …
TOM: (chuckling) OK.
CATHERINE: … and then sucks them into the toilet again. (Leslie chuckles)
TOM: Have you tried using CLR; Calcium-Lime-Rust?
CATHERINE: No, I have not.
TOM: OK. That’s a good product for cleaning up toilet tanks and toilet bowls. CLR. It’s been around for a zillion years and it really works pretty well. I’d give that a shot. Not so unusual to find those types of rust deposits; usually from the iron that’s in the water that builds up over a number of years and that product is specifically designed to try to get it out.
CATHERINE: Now that’s not going to interfere with the plastic mechanism that’s inside there, is it?
TOM: No. No, no, no. Not at all. What you have to watch out for when it comes to the mechanisms of the toilets are bleach-based cleansers.
LESLIE: Yes.
TOM: Bleach is very corrosive. But if you use a product like CLR you’ll be perfectly fine.
CATHERINE: Oh, I hope so. Well, thank you so much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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