Review on Cherne 270016 1 1 1 1 by Christopher Sullivan

Cleaning the top of the toilet with a brush and dish soap is essential. A bit pricey for what it does, but I think it will last for decades. Has a standard valve (like a car tire). Flush the toilet, turn off the water supply. Insert this into the hole. Pump it up a little, not too much, maybe a pump or two for a snug fit. Obviously, the valve stem is pointing outward toward you. Now fill the CLR to the brim of the toilet, a container or two, maybe add some water to raise the water/CLR level above the ledge. (The more you dilute the CLR with water, the longer it takes to clear: I used two gallons). Leave for five or six hours. The CLR will eat away at any scale and hard water buildup that has built up over time. When you're done, stick a pencil or other thin object inside to deflate the cork while you deflate the tire. When the connector comes loose, which only takes a few seconds, you can pull it out. And the water level in the bowl drops to the normal level. Open the supply valve again. When the tank is full, flush the toilet and say goodbye to all the CLRs. The toilet must be clean. This is what the rim will look like. If you have limescale on the bottom of your toilet, you don't need this thing. Simply close the supply valve, flush and fill with CLR. This takes care of the bottom of the toilet bowl. But to get the whole bowl to the rim (past the rim jets that fill the bowl from the side) you need something like this locking technique. I've seen people recommend using a balloon filled with water to plug a toilet hole, but I didn't want the thing to burst and clog the drain pipe with rubber. This plug device is durable and too big to be flushed away. (The plug has other uses in high pressure plumbing, all instructions are for uses absolutely unrelated to cleaning your toilet.) This is not a cheap cleaning technique, you need two large bottles of CLR and this plug (which is reusable), but again, you don't have to do it often. And it's certainly easier than some of the alternatives I've seen online, one of which was taking the toilet apart, pulling it out, flipping it over and cleaning to get to the lip/lip at the top of the rim. The technique I've described costs about $50 and is well worth it. A cheaper alternative to CLR could be Coke, which you can read about online. I never tried. CLR contains three different acids, one of which is specifically designed for mineral deposits. Coke contains an acid designed to destroy your teeth, which, if you think about it, are minerals. So the choice is yours. If Coke doesn't help, try CLR. Or not. There is a limit to how much aggro I want to devote to this operation. In both cases, the main thing is to give the cleaning agent time to act on the dirt. I can say that the CLR works flawlessly.