What Are the Best Ways to Keep Your Toilet Clean While Maintaining Your Pipes?

There are a lot of toilet bowl cleaners on the market these days, but not all are created equal. There are some, in fact, that can be downright harmful to your toilet! Keeping the toilet clean is not the most fun chore in the world, but it’s an essential part of maintaining a happy household. Fortunately, there are some plumbing cleaners that are safe for your toilet. Here are a few safe toilet bowl cleaners that are also safe for your pipes.

What not to use

Let’s start off with a couple suggestions on what not to use if you’re looking for a safe toilet bowl cleaner for your pipes. Bleach tablets and blue dye cleaners may very well end up being a waste of your money. They might even end up costing you more money down the road!

Bleach tablets may seem like an effective solution at first. After all, the bleach will certainly kill any smelly bacteria living in the toilet bowl, and you don’t have to do much to use them. But what you may not realize is that those bleach tablets are highly concentrated and may also be slowly degrading the rubber parts inside your tank. This can lead to water leakage and require you to replace some parts sooner than may otherwise be necessary.

Those blue dye cleaners may also be a source of woe for your toilet and your pocketbook. While they might cover up the odor and stains in the toilet bowl, they can also cause a lot of problems. For example, these products may coagulate and clog up the jets that normally clean off the toilet bowl with every flush. This reduces flow and makes it difficult for the toilet to actually flush properly.

What to use instead

If you’re worried about remembering what products are good and what products are bad, here is a simple solution: Don’t buy any of them. One of the best plumbing cleaners that is safe to use is likely already in your home. And if it’s not, it’s easy (and cheap) to get.

Distilled white vinegar is an effective way to keep your toilet clean and maintain the pipes. The acidity of the vinegar will dissolve lime and other deposits when used on a regular basis.

The best way to use distilled white vinegar to clean your toilet is to pour one cup into the toilet tank each month. Pour half of it into the tank directly, and half into the overflow, which is the small round pipe usually found standing up in the middle of the tank. That way the vinegar will circulate inside the rim of the bowl, not only keeping the bowl free of stains but also keeping the jets clear by dissolving any lime or other buildup that may accumulate.

Whether you need plumbing service for a residential or commercial property, the experienced professionals at Barr Plumbing Service, Inc. can help. Call us today for help with toilets, pipes and more—we’ll help ensure the plumbing cleaners you’re using are safe for your whole system.

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