Simple Tips to Remove Hard Water Stains
Showers are our sanctuary and a place for us to relax, especially after long hard days. They reinvigorate the soul and allow us to get back at whatever life has in store for us.
However, it’s hard to do that when you have nagging stains that take you away from that oasis. It’s hard to feel clean when the very place that we go to get clean appears to be dirty.
The hard water is impossible to escape since it’s everywhere you look:


Just by looking at it, it makes you feel a little dirty, but we’ve got you covered! While showers, especially with glass shower doors, are a lot of work it’s very gratifying to see the end result. Not to mention the compliments we get from our customers!
What Is Hard Water?
According to the USGS.GOV website “the simple definition of water hardness is the amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium in the water. Hard water is high in dissolved minerals, largely calcium and magnesium.”
Idaho’s water is considered slightly hard, which can vary by area. We see a lot of water softeners or conditioners in our customer’s homes, which can help, but we can give you some other solutions as well.
The aforementioned website also shows you the level of water hardness by state, and so if you’re curious you can follow the link below to get more information. Or you can view your city’s water report for more details.

https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/hardness-water?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects *can we get a vanity URL for this? Or hyperlink it to the photo so they can click the map*
Here’s a link to the City of Meridian’s water report:
https://meridiancity.org/water/report/quality
How to Remove It?
Now that we know what it is, the question becomes how to get rid of it. This’ll largely depend on how bad the buildup is. Here’s the process that we go through to make your shower sparkle again :).
If there is LIGHT to MODERATE buildup we like to use a product called Barkeepers Friend (liquid), which looks like this:

Now, it’s important to remember that with any product it’s always a good idea to spotcheck areas before using it all over, especially with stainless steel, grout, brass nickel, etc. *Under photo*
We’ll apply the Barkeepers Friend to our sponge and cover the inside door with the product. With a little bit of elbow grease and some circular scrubbing motions the stains should come free. There’s a different product that we use for the outside shower door, which we cover next.

To help ensure that the glass looks amazing we then take our glass cleaner which is called Isopropyl Alcohol:

You might know it more by its common name: Rubbing Alcohol. This is fantastic for glass because it doesn’t streak as much as other products! The alcohol comes in different strengths and is something that we dilute.
When in stock, we prefer to buy the Mint Rubbing Alcohol, as it leaves a more pleasant aroma behind while you’re cleaning. There’s a refreshing quality with the scent of mint, and the place will already start to feel clean!
Then we apply the cleaner to both sides of the glass, and then wipe it away until we see it evaporate off the glass. Afterwards, we always look at the doors from different angles to ensure a streak free shine :)! Rarely, does this require an additional application.

Now, the chances are high that if you’re reading over this you might have a little more buildup than what we were talking about before. In this case, there’s another tool that we use to help get those tough to remove stains off.
We call them scratchy scrubbers, catchy huh? They look like this:




Pink Mold

Important Note
Recommendations

but making sure to squeegee your entire shower, especially the doors, is helpful to reduce the buildup.