Yesterday I "googled" the problem to see if someone else had a magic solution to this vexing issue since I had run out of ideas. To my surprise someone had a brilliant idea that I would NEVER have thought up. Here is the link where I found this brilliant idea so you can read about it:
Anyway, here is the post from Ecman1. This is a copy and paste, so I want to make sure to give credit where credit is due so everyone should know this is Ecman1's intellectual property.
Nobody knows this-but *I* do-and have contacted the company that makes this product, telling them they have the nations number 1 soap scum remover and they don't even know it! It is Easy Off Fume Free Max oven cleaner. It will outclean any soap scum remover. In time and uniformity! Even better than the number one acidic based cleaners on the market! I know because I do side by side testing of every product and have done this for years, when ever any new product comes out on the market.
I should be worth millions (several thousand anyway) because of this discovery.
This is why it works so effectively:
1: It comes out of the can as a foam and stays put even on the vertical or upside down surfaces!
2. You can leave it on over an entire weekend. (Like if you were cleaning in a rental and forgot it on the tub, let's say). When you clean the tub then, say on Monday, the soap scum has already technically been 'lifted' into the now dried out powdery residue!
3. It reacts with soap scum. It does not work based on acid or lye (lye is what REGULAR* oven cleaner (in the yellow can) has as it's base ingredient. DO NOT USE *IT*!!!
The Fume Free Max in the BLUE can (not the yellow can) has as an ingredient, monoethynolomene (something like that), and don't ask me exactly HOW it works. It just does!
Just spray it on and leave it for 1/2-1 hour or whatever and do some of your other cleaning in the house. Then come back and you will be surprised how you don't have to use much elbow grease. This is the only product I know of that in effectiveness and speed get off even the most CAKED on soap scum off of college rental house tubs, the fastest and bestest!!!! (Although there is another product I will mention soon)
You want to tilt the can first and do the bottom of the tub first, while the can is the most full. Then do the bottom sides of the tub. Then the tub surround.
It will clean glass, chrome, aluminum...it REALLY makes the chrome shine! You can use it to clean your sinks, walls-EVERYTHING!
It's like this is a secret that nobody knows about and it absolutely blows me away! The company says it is a marketing issue and probably like to invent knew products just so people fill up their closets/under sinks with a whole array of products.
Now, this oven cleaner will only clean grease, dirt, oils and soap scum...but not the lime. BUT- I have found in my many, many years of experience in the cleaning field that there is a phenomonen that occurs in most tubs. Even though there is lime, it must mostly get imbedded in the soap scum! Because how else do you explain that by just using the oven cleaner, the fiberglass, or cast iron, or steel tub comes clean?
But-if you do find lime, then use an acidic based cleaner like vinegar work!, or use new Easy Off Bam. That stuff was the only cleaner that removed dog feces imbeded in asphalt floor tiles in a basement!
The reason I don't like EasyOff Bam on shower soap scum is that even though it is a gel, it stil runs and streaks. And in between the clean streaks, it does not clean as well, overall, as the oven cleaner. I actually had to redo a tub with the ovcen cleaner after I first experimented with the Bam product first.
Now, the oven cleaner is expensive at about $3.44 a can at one of the home centers. And aerosol cans do not give you the volume you get with a pump spray bottle.
So, for heavily soap scum laden tubs, I use the oven cleaner to expedite, to save me money by the time I save.
But another good product is Tilex soap scum remover. It has to say soap scum remover on the bottle!!, as Tilex also sells mildew remover and other products! So, I have both on hand and have used both on tubs, depending on what my time constraints are, etc.
...................................
Disclaimer: I have years of experience using said product with no ill effects. But I recommend you use product at your own risk and test try it first, as many products say to, on least conspicous areas.
Read more: http://www.doityourself.com/forum/cleaning-stain-removal/241497-how-remove-soap-scum-hard-water-stains-fiberglass-shower.html#ixzz1hqfVBl2c
I should be worth millions (several thousand anyway) because of this discovery.
This is why it works so effectively:
1: It comes out of the can as a foam and stays put even on the vertical or upside down surfaces!
2. You can leave it on over an entire weekend. (Like if you were cleaning in a rental and forgot it on the tub, let's say). When you clean the tub then, say on Monday, the soap scum has already technically been 'lifted' into the now dried out powdery residue!
3. It reacts with soap scum. It does not work based on acid or lye (lye is what REGULAR* oven cleaner (in the yellow can) has as it's base ingredient. DO NOT USE *IT*!!!
The Fume Free Max in the BLUE can (not the yellow can) has as an ingredient, monoethynolomene (something like that), and don't ask me exactly HOW it works. It just does!
Just spray it on and leave it for 1/2-1 hour or whatever and do some of your other cleaning in the house. Then come back and you will be surprised how you don't have to use much elbow grease. This is the only product I know of that in effectiveness and speed get off even the most CAKED on soap scum off of college rental house tubs, the fastest and bestest!!!! (Although there is another product I will mention soon)
You want to tilt the can first and do the bottom of the tub first, while the can is the most full. Then do the bottom sides of the tub. Then the tub surround.
It will clean glass, chrome, aluminum...it REALLY makes the chrome shine! You can use it to clean your sinks, walls-EVERYTHING!
It's like this is a secret that nobody knows about and it absolutely blows me away! The company says it is a marketing issue and probably like to invent knew products just so people fill up their closets/under sinks with a whole array of products.
Now, this oven cleaner will only clean grease, dirt, oils and soap scum...but not the lime. BUT- I have found in my many, many years of experience in the cleaning field that there is a phenomonen that occurs in most tubs. Even though there is lime, it must mostly get imbedded in the soap scum! Because how else do you explain that by just using the oven cleaner, the fiberglass, or cast iron, or steel tub comes clean?
But-if you do find lime, then use an acidic based cleaner like vinegar work!, or use new Easy Off Bam. That stuff was the only cleaner that removed dog feces imbeded in asphalt floor tiles in a basement!
The reason I don't like EasyOff Bam on shower soap scum is that even though it is a gel, it stil runs and streaks. And in between the clean streaks, it does not clean as well, overall, as the oven cleaner. I actually had to redo a tub with the ovcen cleaner after I first experimented with the Bam product first.
Now, the oven cleaner is expensive at about $3.44 a can at one of the home centers. And aerosol cans do not give you the volume you get with a pump spray bottle.
So, for heavily soap scum laden tubs, I use the oven cleaner to expedite, to save me money by the time I save.
But another good product is Tilex soap scum remover. It has to say soap scum remover on the bottle!!, as Tilex also sells mildew remover and other products! So, I have both on hand and have used both on tubs, depending on what my time constraints are, etc.
...................................
Disclaimer: I have years of experience using said product with no ill effects. But I recommend you use product at your own risk and test try it first, as many products say to, on least conspicous areas.
Read more: http://www.doityourself.com/forum/cleaning-stain-removal/241497-how-remove-soap-scum-hard-water-stains-fiberglass-shower.html#ixzz1hqfVBl2c
So I tried a small area first and it was amazing. Holy crap!!! It totally worked. I did both shower stalls, used fabric softener sheets with a little water to scrub off the cleaner, rinsed, and followed up with a squeegee. Then I used auto wax to help make it more gunk repellent. The stalls look brand new!!!
So, as it should be when we find something wonderful, I am passing it on!!!! Yay!!!
