My tub is a lab experiment

May 14, 2005 7:46 AM

My bathtub seems to be organic. It's fiberglass or plastic or something like that. What is best to clean out dried soap scum and the orange stuff that lives in between all the little bumps at the bottom?
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

Bleach takes out the orange stuff; when you figure out the soap scum problem, let me know. I try all kinds of stuff that's supposed to remove soaps scum but doesn't.
posted by Doohickie at 8:35 AM on May 14, 2005

I use Bar Keeper's Friend to clean my bathtub, stove, pots, pans, etc. Its like Ajax but nowhere near as abrasive, but it somehow works a lot better. I swear by it for cleaning the tub.
posted by AlexReynolds at 9:01 AM on May 14, 2005

Pretty much any of those products that claims to remove soap scum will work. All the major brands of cleaning products (Lysol, Clorox, etc.) have one. However, you might need to let it sit somewhat longer than recommended. When my bathtub gets really grungy (which I try not to let happen, but sometimes it does), I'll clean it over a period of several days. Each night before I go to bed I'll spray the soap scum remover liberally all over it. And each morning before I take a shower I'll wipe the tub down with a damp sponge, applying some elbow grease. You probably don't have to wait overnight; an hour will probably do.

If your tub is textured you may need a brush to get the dirt off even with a soap scum remover.

In another recent thread, CLR was recommended. It's strong stuff, though.
posted by kindall at 10:42 AM on May 14, 2005

Boat hull cleaners might be appropriate, but that might be going... ummm overboard.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 11:45 AM on May 14, 2005

Ok, I know I'm always popping in with the "how to do this the natural way" thing...but here goes anyway:

Get a glass bowl, put about a cup of baking soda in it. Add 5 fold essential orange oil, mixing constantly, until you get a sort of crumbly paste.

Dampen bottom of tub. Apply thin coat of paste to grungy ickyness. Allow to dry. Once dry, dampen a scrub brush, and scrub the paste up. Rinse and voila. Clean, fresh, smells good, and everything is biodegradable and harmless to the ecosystem.
posted by dejah420 at 12:09 PM on May 14, 2005

Bah. The point is to harm the ecosystem that's growing in the bath tub. I guess I'm a traditionalist; soft-scrub, a light non-abrasive bathroom scrub brush designed for fireglass tubs, and a wash rag are the way I clean my tub/shower. It depopulates the ecosystem and gets rid of the matrix they live in and as soon as you rinse thoroughly the bleach smell is gone, and it doesn't try to cover up the stink that the bacteria leave with something else... you just have a neutral odor modified by whatever else you have scenting the bathroom.
posted by SpecialK at 12:41 PM on May 14, 2005

CLR Industrial Strength Cleaner will lay waste to whatever is growing in your tub. You can find it at hardware stores, big chain drug stores and big box stores like Wal-Mart and Target. Or you can buy it in bulk online.
posted by TBoneMcCool at 7:35 PM on May 14, 2005