If you don’t regularly clean your toilet, you could be opening up your home to bacteria. Salmonella, in particular, can live for 50 days in dirty toilet seats. Besides bacterial growth, dirt can build up on your toilet seat and cause yellow stains. If you have yellow stains on your toilet seat, use a solution that consists of a mixture of distilled white vinegar and bicarbonate soda.
Apply a thin layer of baking soda and vinegar to your toilet seat and let it sit for approximately 30 minutes. After that, scrub the stains off your toilet seat using a non-abrasive sponge or a cloth soaked in warm water. To prevent yellow stains from developing in the future, you’ll need to clean the toilet seat regularly. We’ll walk you through a foolproof guide on how to remove yellow stains from a toilet seat and what causes it in the first place.
Causes Of Yellow Stains On Toilet Seats
If you frequently clean your toilet, it’s unlikely that dirt is causing the yellow staining. If the water in your home is very hard, stains are likely to form from minerals in the water. Chemicals like undiluted bleach can also cause toilet seats to turn yellow. Here are some things that can cause yellow stains on your toilet seat:
1. Sunlight
When ultraviolet (UV) light hits a plastic toilet seat, the chemical composition of the material determines what the light does to it, such as changing its color. We all know that the sun can cause objects to fade. Similarly, UV light can cause wood, furniture, and even plastic stains.
2. Urine Staining
Urine stains are common and are usually the first thing people think of when trying to clean a toilet seat with yellow stains. Some people forget that occasional little drops and splashes can cause nasty urine residue to build up on plastic toilet seats. If this happens, it will cause very serious problems. The more time urine stays in a plastic seat, the worse the stain will become. Even though the urine is completely dry, it will darken slowly over time.
3. Hard Water
The hard water minerals are the other reason why toilet seats can turn yellow easily. As you flush the water down the drain, it can splash up onto the underside of the plastic seat and cause discoloration. As limescale builds, it can cause damage to the surface of plastic by changing its color.
4. Cleaning Chemicals
Some chemicals damage white plastics; this can cause them to become discolored. It is usually down to harsh chemicals, such as bleaches.
How to Get Rid Of Yellow Stains on Toilet Seat
Follow these easy steps, and you’ll have a nice-looking toilet that won’t cause you to blush when a guest asks to use your bathroom.
Step One: Pick the Right Cleaning Agent
If you want to clean your toilet seat, you should use a natural cleaner such as white vinegar. If you are concerned about the health or environmental implications of chemical cleaners, using white vinegar is the best option. You may use vinegar directly on the toilet seat without diluting it.
If you’re in search of something a little stronger, try buying any of the following cleaners:
- Trisodium Phosphate
- Borax Detergent Booster
- Napisan Oxi Powder
Step Two: Let the Cleaning Product Soak In
Many housekeepers don’t give cleaning products enough time to soak in so that they can do their job. Most people just spray a cleaning product on a stain and then quickly wipe it off with a cloth. It’s essential to allow your cleaning product to sit on the stain for a few minutes before scrubbing it off. By letting the cleaning product sit and soak into the stain, you’ll be able to remove the stain with much less effort.
If you buy a cleaning product that says it needs to be used immediately, read the instructions to see how long it should be left on the stain. Otherwise, if you use other homemade products or vinegar to soak up the yellow stain, allow 5-10 minutes for the product to do its work well.
Step Three: Clean Up the Product You Used
You will need a rag to clean up any liquid on your toilet. Depending on the type of stain remover you used, it may or may not begin to come off at this point, but that’s okay. Just ensure you have got a clean surface.
Step Four: Make Baking Soda Paste
Here’s where the magic begins. You’ll need to create a thick paste from baking soda. Use baking soda (1/4 cup) and vinegar or water (1/2 cup). When you apply the baking soda paste, be sure to use warm water to ease the removal of the yellow stain. But you may use vinegar rather than water to provide even more of a punch!
Nevertheless, the end goal is to make a thick paste that will be put on top of the yellow stain on your toilet seat. You’ll need to allow the paste to sit on top of your toilet seat for a good 20 minutes to soak into the seat thoroughly. Wipe out the paste and enjoy the results.
Step Five: Scrub the Toilet Seat
It’s the moment to put muscles to work and scrub the toilet thoroughly. Use a soft sponge to scrub the yellow stain with baking soda. When scrubbing, keep these tips in mind:
- Use warm, soapy water instead of hot water.
- Circular motions are the best.
- Choose a sponge that has an abrasive surface.
It’s crucial to stay away from sharp objects because they can scratch the surface of your toilet. That means that whatever causes those annoying toilet stains will have many more places to spread around. You can use reusable scrub sponges if you do not have a non-abrasive sponge.
One of the challenges in bathroom remodeling is getting rid of yellow stains from the toilet seat. If you can’t get the stain-free toilet seat after applying a little baking soda paste and following the procedure above, you may need to make a few more attempts.
Step Seven: Making the Final Touch
Once you clean your toilet seat thoroughly, you can give it a quick cleansing by using vinegar or another disinfectant. That way, you won’t have to worry about sitting on dry baking powder granules when you go to the bathroom.
How to Maintain A Stain-Free Toilet
Sometimes, yellow stains on your toilet seat are a recurring problem because of things you can’t control, such as deposits from hard water. To maintain a stain-free toilet seat, devise a maintenance schedule for regularly cleaning your toilet seat and the sink area.
While you’re cleaning, scrub the whole bathroom. Experts recommend doing this at least once a week because E. coli can live within six feet of a toilet or sink.
FAQs
How do I clean a toilet seat that has been badly stained?
You can use baking soda, bleach, or vinegar to clean a stained toilet seat. They all work great. For the bleach, detach the toilet seat from your toilet and soak it in a bleach & water solution. Then, scrub it to remove the stains and rinse and fix the toilet seat.
Can I pour bleach on the toilet seat?
Bleach is a qualified and authentic way to clean a soiled toilet seat. Using bleach can also help you clean a discolored toilet bowl. Sometimes hard stains do not respond to typical toilet cleaners, so bleach may be required to get the toilet seat shimmering clean.
What is most appropriate to clean your toilet seat?
We recommend using mild soap and warm water to cleanse your toilet seat. Use dish soap, anti-bacterial wipes, or hand soap for a cleaner finish. If you use wiping agents, make sure that you thoroughly dry the ring before covering it with a clean paper towel.
Why do stains develop on toilet bowls?
Stains may build up on your toilet bowl due to the high concentration of certain minerals in hard water. These may be iron, calcium, and manganese that have accumulated inside your toilet bowl with time.
Wrapping Up
According to a study by UKActive, grownups spend more time on the toilet seat each week than exercising. Even though they only ran the study on British people, the three-hour and nine-minute average amount of time spent in the toilet each week is something that people worldwide can relate to. That’s a lot of time for urine or other deposits to form if you don’t keep up with regular cleaning. If you have a plastic toilet seat in your home, cleaning it through the process described above will help keep yellow toilet seat stains from appearing.
