How to Remove Copper Stains from Toilet Bowl?

How to remove those ugly blue/green copper stains from the toilet bowl? What caused them in the first place?

Are you among people who always close the toilet lid after going to the bathroom? If you are, we guess that you got shocked by the image that you saw the last time you wanted to use the loo.

Blue and green stains have appeared in your toilet bowl and you can’t find a logical explanation. You get to work right away, trying to scrub the stain off using a professional cleaning agent yet, the stain is still there, untouchable.

These blue and green stains are more popular as copper stains and cannot be removed by using just any toilet cleaner. You can either go for a specialized copper-stain cleaner or make a cleaning agent yourself by using simple items you probably already have in your household.

Down below, we will talk about 7 easy solutions on how to remove copper stains from the toilet bowl and answer a couple of related questions.

What Causes Copper Stains on Toilet Bowl?

So, let’s explain how the heck did those stains appear in your toilet bowl. Hard water could be the main culprit here since it contains copper (although it could be that the water is acidic as well).

Once copper ions start accumulating in your pipes, they will, eventually, find their way into your toilet bowl and the stain will form gradually. Note that, if the concentration of copper in your pipes and drinking water is high, you should use it for cooking, showering, and flushing toilets and never for drinking. [1]

On the other hand, toilet cleaner dye could be the cause of discoloration. Whatever the reason is, you should act as soon as possible since copper deposits will make the situation in your toilet bowl worsen over time (since copper will only continue on accumulating).

Fun fact: if the color of the stain in your toilet bowl tends to be more green than blue, that could mean that mineral deposits and limescale, and not copper, have caused the staining.

If you noticed brown stains in your toilet bowl, skim through this blog that explains how to eliminate them!

How To Remove Copper Stains From Toilet Bowl?

In this section, we will talk about what will remove stains from toilet bowl once they appear. You can choose between 7 no-sweat methods that are equally efficient when it comes to copper stains.

1. Use Alcohol

Our first copper stain removal method involves – alcohol. Yes, it is very well known for having an amazing capacity to disinfect surfaces but it can be also used if you are dealing with toilet bowl stains.

You can apply alcohol directly to the colored area or soak a cloth in it and then place it inside the bowl, on the affected areas. After the cloth has been sitting on the stain for 10 to 15 minutes, take a hard brush and brushing the affected area. The stain should be gone within a matter of minutes!

2. Use Table Salt and White Vinegar

As we already mentioned, you can always go for commercial cleaning solutions but you can go for their natural alternatives as well. White vinegar is proven to help with tough stain removal while its potency can be maximized when it is mixed with table salt.

How do you remove copper stains from the toilet bowl using white vinegar and table salt? Mix 1 cup of salt with 1 cup of vinegar and stir the solution well. Soak a cloth in the mixture and scrub the stain with it. If needed, soak it once again and continue scrubbing. Flush the toilet to see that the stain is gone!

Alternatively, you can use vinegar only to remove copper stains. Pour 1 liter of vinegar down the toilet bowl and don’t flush it for the next 3 hours to give vinegar enough time to do its magic.

After 3 hours, flush the toilet and if the stain is still visible, pour some more vinegar inside the bowl but use a scrubbing brush this time to make sure the stain is removed.

3. Use a Pumice Stone

People typically use pumice stone for dead skin removal while very few of them know it can be used for copper stain removal as well. Pumice stone effectively removes copper stains and rust from toilets and doesn’t damage porcelain so you can use it worry-free. Here’s how to remove rust from the bottom of toilet bowl.

All that you should do is soak a pumice stone for 15 minutes in half a gallon of water. After 15 minutes, when the stone is nicely soaked, take it and scrub the toilet bowl with it. Wipe the bowl with a paper towel and flush it with water to remove the copper stain entirely.

4. Coca Cola

Coca-Cola is a refreshing drink but it can do much more than just to refresh you. It actually can be used for killing pests, cleaning windows dishes, and removing rust and stains (including copper stains from the toilet bowl). So, if you have a couple of cans of Coca-Cola sitting in your freezer, you can try out this simple method!

Pour 1 liter of the drink into your toilet bowl, directly to the copper stain, and wait for 30 minutes. Now is the time to start scrubbing and scraping the stain. Lastly, flush the toilet and the blue-green stain should be long gone!

5. Use Pine Oil and Borax

Borax is a powerful termite killer (we have talked about it in this blog about cockroaches that invade bathrooms often) but you can use it for cleaning your toilet bowl and removing copper stains. Pine oil is a cleaning agent that can help with copper stains as well, when it is mixed with borax.

Pour half a cup of borax around the toilet bowl starting from the top. Do not use the toilet for a couple of hours at least. Then, mix 1 gallon of water with 1 cup of salt, borax, and a couple of drops of pine oil. Soak a washcloth in the mixture and scrub the stain with it for a few minutes, then flush the toilet.

6. Use Tea Tree Toil and Lemon Juice

Tea tree oil gives superb results when it is used for removing stains while lemon juice is popular for its antibacterial properties. These two ingredients, when combined, can be used for copper stain removal.

Add 10 drops of tea tree oil (alternatively, you can use lavender essential oil) to the glass filled with lemon juice (use half a lemon and squeeze the juice out of it).

Stir the mix well and pour it into a sprayer, then spray all the affected areas. Wait for the cleaning solution to react and start brushing the stain after 20 minutes. The tea tree oil and lemon juice mixture has proven to produce instant results so you won’t have to invest much work into removing the stain.

7. Use Salt, White Vinegar, and Flour

To remove copper stains from your toilet bowl, make a paste by using the same ratio of table salt, white vinegar, and flour. Apply the paste to the inside of the toilet bowl and leave it to sit for 30 minutes, then scrub it off with a brush and flush the toilet.

How to Prevent Toilet Bowl Copper Stains?

Sure thing, the best way to fight copper stains in the toilet bowl is to do whatever you can to prevent them from appearing at all! That means you should keep your toilet bowl clean, which will prevent rust, bacteria, and prevent discolorations.

Next, flush toilets you don’t use almost as regularly as the ones you do. Clean your toilet bowl with vinegar once per month. Wear gloves whenever you are working with vinegar, bleach, or similar agents to prevent burns.

Also, try not to use the toilet cleaner dye you have been using until today and wait for a couple of days to see if the stain will re-appear.

If you have nothing against chemical solutions, maybe you will want to try Clorox or Alka Seltzer cleaning tablets that prevent blue stains in toilet bowls. Maybe you’ll want to replace corroded pipes, which will not only prevent stains in your toilet bowl but also affect the water quality in a positive way.

Read Also: Grey Stuff In Toilet Bowl

Summary

Copper stains in a toilet bowl are easy to spot and not that hard to clean, either. Today, we talked about how to remove copper stains from the toilet bowl. You can use household ingredients such as white vinegar, baking soda, natural solutions such as lemon juice, or simply go for Coca-Cola which contains phosphoric acid and is proven to dissolve copper stains.