How To Really Clean A Toilet

A toilet possibly in need of flame-cleaning.

Squat toilets have an advantage for cleaning, as they frequently are similar to a shallow sink set into the floor. You can go at them with a mop and a hose.

Raised "throne-style" commodes have a rim that provides a likely place for mold to grow. Removing the seat gives you a cleanliness advantage in that case. The body of the toilet is a bowl made of vitreous (glass-like) material. It's extremely hard and non-porous, meaning that it gets less dirty in the first place and can be cleaned with harsh chemicals and vigorous scrubbing. The seat, on the other hand, is plastic or painted wood and is somewhat porous (even more so for wood, especially in the case of seats that have been in service for a long time). The seat itself gets dirtier and is harder to clean. The area around the mounting hinges is even worse.

One of the most frequent uses for household chemicals is the cleaning of bathroom toilets. The chemicals can present a danger to children and pets in the home. Mixture of these chemicals makes things even worse.

NH₂Cl, a hazardous chemical easily produced in the home.

You can produce hazardous chloramines by mixing ammonia with household bleach (a solution of 3-6% sodium hypochlorite).

Chloramine is being used increasingly by municipal water systems to disinfect water. Chlorination, the addition of chlorine gas, has similar disinfecting characteristics. However, chlorine can form byproducts including potentially carcinogenic trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids. Chloramination, the addition of chloramine, can also form these byproducts plus N-nitrosodimethylame, but all at much lower concentrations.

Chlorimated tap water in a white polyethylene bucket.

Water treated with chloramine has a green tint. This tint is so strong that you can observe it by filling a large white polyethylene bucket with chloraminated tap water.

Do not mix ammonia and bleach outside an appropriate laboratory setting with adequate safety precautions.

Even for the less hazardous plain ammonia or plain bleach, some people even object to the harsh chemical smell. Some go so far as to complain that the odor of cleaning chemicals serves as an indication that a dirty toilet is being cleaned. Well, I say that the odor of cleaning a toilet sure beats the odor of a dirty toilet!

An alternative cleaning chemical is Liberty Bathrooms natural toilet cleaner. This plant based cleaner is said to be completely free of toxins and is safe for use with septic tank systems. Cleaning a toilet is a chore that no one enjoys, but their products can make the job a little less unpleasant.

I was told by Liberty that some authorities claim that a toilet is not clean until it has been flambéed with alcohol. Flambéing is the process of applying alcohol or other volatile and flammible hydrocarbons to the inside surface of your toilet bowl and lighting it on fire.

Even as the Toilet Guru, I don't know who these authorities might be. But as you can see in this video, I was interested enough to have tried this personally. However, the procedure is more trouble than it's worth.

As you might imagine, a water-filled porcelain object is not the most conducive base for a brisk fire. While that's good in terms of the potential fire hazard, it's quite tricky to get the thing to light on fire and even harder to maintain a useful flame for any period of time. Part of the frustration is probably due to drugstore rubbing alcohol typically being no more than 70% isopropanol, with the remaining 30% being water!

I have concluded that flambéing is not really worth the trouble outside of special occasions, especially since properly cleaned toilets can have fewer bacteria on their surface than the nearby wash basins. This, of course, assumes that the wash basins have not also been flambéed. The secret to a bathroom that presents no hazard to health is keeping the toilet and sink clean with non-toxic products — for example, those made by Liberty Bathrooms, of course — while strictly controlling the hygiene-inspired fires.

Certain cleaners meant to be put in toilet tanks contain bleach and other caustic chemicals. They keep the bowl sparkling, and they give the water a blue or green tint so you know to replace them when it turns clear again. Unfortunately, these tank tablets are not available in yellow. These chemicals are delightfully colorful, but they can damage the internal workings of your toilet, requiring expensive, time-consuming and inconvenient repairs. The plant-based ingredients in Liberty Bathrooms' toilet cleaner avoids this problem entirely.

Cleaning toilets the right way makes the job quick and easy and gives off only a pleasant lemony scent. Hold the bottle of Watkins toilet cleaning solution so that it points at the underside of the toilet rim and squeeze. Apply the solution in a ring all the way around the bowl. Leave it to soak while you clean your basin with Watkins tub and tile cleaner and a paper towel. By the time you have finished with the sink, the toilet bowl cleaner will have done its job. Return to the bowl and scrub under the rim with a toilet brush. Then brush the lower areas of the bowl, being sure to completely clean the irregularly shaped areas at the bottom where stains form first. Clean the upper surface of the rim by brushing it and then wiping with a paper towel, and then do the same to the top and bottom areas of the lid. Wash the outside of the bowl with the paper towel, being sure to clean carefully around the nuts at the bottom where grime collects. Give the outside of the tank and its lid a wipe, mostly to keep down the dust, and the job is done. The whole procedure takes less than ten minutes, and that includes running a damp mop over the bathroom floor. While some people clean toilets daily (and others wash their hands twelve times before leaving the bathroom), the efficacy of Watkins products means that the job can be done every other day, or even only once or twice a week for seldom-used toilets.

Rose George's The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters is a fascinating description of sanitation conditions around the world. "2.6 billion people don't have sanitation. [....] Four in ten people have no access to any latrine, toilet, bucket, or box."

In September 2009, Morna Gregory and Sian James published a book titled Toilets of the World. It's pretty much the same theme that you find here — photographs and commentary on other people's plumbing.

The Porcelain God: A Social History of the Toilet, by Julie Horan, contends that civilization began with the toilet.

Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing, edited by Laura Noren and Harvey Molotch, has essays by anthropologists, sociologists, and architects on the importance of the toilet, especially for urban dwellers.

Latrinae Et Foricae: Toilets in the Roman World describes the toilets of the Roman Empire from Iberia to Syria, and from North Africa to Hadrian's Wall in Britannia.

Toilets, Bathtubs, Sinks, and Sewers: A History of the Bathroom, explains the history of personal cleanliness and hygiene to children in grades 5-8.

If you're not bored yet, you might be interested in (or at least tolerate):

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