What to use to clean toilet and tub

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
M

mijdeets

Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2018
Posts
16
Location
Alberta, Canada
This question is for my wife.  She is wondering what people use to clean out their toilets and tubs.  We have an older, 1996 Travelair 5th wheel. Are there specific brands that are best?  Or can she just use dishwasher soap?  Probably not the same stuff she'd use in the house, we're assuming.  Today we head off to Calgary and then Banff for some camping this week and next.  I love the mountains!
 
The wife uses the spray on stuff in the spray can. Just don't use anything abrasive when cleaning the toilet. Even mildly abrasive stuff will destroy the seal in the toilet pretty quickly. I have replaced quite a few seals.........
 
In a 1996, the tub and toilet are probably some sort of plastic material rather than the porcelain in many newer rigs, so avoid highly abrasive cleansers.  Many home bathrooms have vinyl/plastic shower enclosures, so home bath cleaners are ok for most things a long as they aren't caustic (read the label).  Scrubbing Bubbles (or similar) usually works OK, but there are several products with that brand so check the label to verify that plastic-type surfaces are ok.

Automotive polishes also work well, but avoid the more extreme "rubbing compound" varieties.  The white mild compounds are ok, but the orange coarse compounds may scratch softer surfaces. The wax component of the car polish will help shed dirt and avoid staining as well.
 
Lysol Basin, Tub and Tile cleaner here, Scrubbing Bubbles if that's not handy.
 
"Magic Eraser" for the shower - some sort of special sponge made in Germany, really does a remarkable job with a little elbow grease
 
Sun2Retire said:
"Magic Eraser" for the shower - some sort of special sponge made in Germany, really does a remarkable job with a little elbow grease
Click to expand...

Gotta watch the Magic eraser. If you look up close after cleaning you will notice swirls and lines. The magic is that it is a very fine sanding sponge and removes dirt and marks by sanding them off. 

Learned this the hard way :-[
 
In the shower area, after (or during!) a good warm shower....use a net "pouf" and body wash to quickly wash down all the surfaces in the shower area.  You would be amazed at how well this works.  All grime, soap scum, water marks, will come right off.  After the wonderfully clean shower dries, then put a coat of rain X on the vertical surfaces to help keep it clean and shiny even longer.  You really dont need fancy bathroom cleaners at all.  And all those other bottles just take up more precious space.

I clean the toilet with the same Dawn and Calgon stuff I put into the holding tanks.  Fill up the bowl with water, add the dawn/calgon, scrub the toilet, and flush down the tank.  Fill up the bowl again and rinse.  Adds additional water to holding tank and again, no special/harsh chemicals are really needed for the holding tank either.  Dawn and Calgon works great for tanks and cleans toilet too!
 
Good brand, Travelaire. Made in Red Deer Alberta. Too bad the company is not around anymore. We had a 2000 23 foot lightweight 5th that we used for 10 years. Served us very well.

As a Canadian, you have access to Sunlight dish detergent, which is not available in the United States, and, in my opinion is much better than Dawn at cutting grease and soap scum. It also doesn't stink in your dish cloth like Dawn does after a few days.

My wife puts a solution of one part vinegar, one part sunlight, to six parts of water in a spray bottle. That is an excellent all-around cleaner. Works great in showers and toilet bowls, whether plastic or porcelain.  Just rinse afterward.

As to cleaning the toilet, we wash our dishes in a plastic basin in the sink. We then pour that into the toilet and use that to clean the toilet before we flush. Dual advantage here. You use less water in a basin, and the additional water in the black tank helps the black tank to flow better, and avoids overfilling the gray tank early, which a grey tank typically does.

Hope that you are handling the heat and smoke from the forest fires in BC all right.  :)  We live in Calgary, and the smoke smell is very heavy in the air today.




 
Sunlight is available in the US. Walmart sells it. Have to order it though, then two day in store pickup in my local store.
 
Thanks everyone for all the answers!  I just returned home and checked this forum. Frank B, my wife says she likes your advice and will make that same concoction.  Thanks for sharing that!  Smoke really wasn't a problem until the very last day when a wind picked up and brought in a lot more haze and even some ash.  We had a great week.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,020 (members: 26, guests: 994)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,934
Posts
1,387,760
Members
137,684
Latest member
kstoybox
Back
Top Bottom