Removing rust rings from kitchen sinks and baths

How to remove rust rings from sinks, tubs and baths

While you can always use rust removal sprays and gels for removing rust rings that can appear around plug drains (often caused by water high in iron) or from say leaving aerosol cans (such as cheap shaving creams) in one place too long, there’s also a few natural home remedies that you can try using ordinary items found in the kitchen and laundry.

The first tip is to use baking soda (which is more properly known as sodium bicarbonate and used in cooking and for making hokey pokey…). This method works particularly well on stainless steel washbasins.

1. Make a thick paste with baking soda and water.
2. Scrub it onto the rust ring or stain.
3. Carefully add a few drops of vinegar to the paste. It will ‘fizz up’. Let this chemical reaction occur as that is what loosens the rust from bath or benchtop.
4. When the fizz reaction is over, give it a wipe off with a wet cloth. Fingers crossed, you’ve removed the rust!

There’s also a twist on this trick by using salt and lemon juice. If you didn’t know, lemons are citrus fruit and they are described as such because the juice contains citric acid... and you can totally use acid to remove rust!

Place some common table salt over the rust and ensure the rust ring area is wholly covered. Squirt a fair amount of freshly squeezed lemon juice onto the salt. Add enough so that it soaks into the salt.

After about an hour (or even better, do it before bed and then leave till morning), scrub the salted area with a nylon kitchen scrub pad and your bath should be looking free of rust!

There are many other simply natural remedies that may a householder has used as well. One part Hydrogen peroxide mixed with 2 parts of cream of tartar apparently works well (we’ve not tried this method).

We should note that if your drain and surrounding area is well rusted, then you may need to use a tried and true product like Barkeepers Friend and get some elbow grease in there too.

There is also plenty of spray-on gels that you can use too. Simple to use, spray them on, give them some time for the active ingredients (such as hydrochloric acid) to eat the rust and then wash away.

natural remedies, rust removal, rust remover