What's best to use to make a bathtub sparkling white again?

Is it porcelain, or fiberglass, old or new? Need more information!

I have found that either bleach or Naptha (lighter fluid) can clean stains off of anything. If one doesn’t work, the other will. Use them with lots of ventilation.

Note: I am an engineer and well above childbearing age.

Is the black mark where the bathtub is a little rough?

Your bathtub may need reenameling.

Soft Scrub is pretty good but your stains may be too hardcore for that. In my kitchen sink, rubbing at black marks with some steel wool helps get them out.

I’ll just add I think the marks are attached to soap scum if they are at the bottom of the shower. Scrub free (not soft scrub) will take care of that. Spray it, wait 3–4 minutes, then wipe clean with a sponge. The fumes can be strong. Soft scrub can work also but that takes more scrubbing. The chemical in scrub free will dissolve the soap scum. You can follow up with soft scrub after.

I will second LuckyGuy’s bleach or lighter fluid. I know it sounds awful and dangerous. And if you have toddlers or pets you need to be triple careful. But I’ve used those in the past and they really work well on bathroom stuff. I try bleach first and if it doesn’t work, I make sure it’s all rinsed away and wait a day before I try lighter fluid. This is because I’m super paranoid about fumes and I don’t want to mix stuff that wasn’t meant to be mixed.

Anyway, bleach almost always works so I only save the lighter fluid for the worst of the worst scum.

Fill it full of champagne, and it will be sparkling white! For a little while, anyway.

The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser can work miracles.

It’s much better than steel wool in that it won’t scratch your porcelain or tile surfaces. And you can avoid smelly, toxic chemicals as well.

Have you tried cleanser with bleach. Or even a cleaner that works for lime scale may help.

Soft scrub works for me, even in the bathtub that my son the auto mechanic uses, and he really leaves a black, oily bathtub ring!

I have to agree with robmandu. Mr Clean Magic Eraser will not scratch any surface and will whiten and clean anything. I’m not usually one to push any particular product, but when it come to cleaning my bathtub, which is huge, their little sponges do the trick. Plus, you can go on the Mr Clean website and sign up for coupons, and the use of one doesn’t require opening up all of the windows.
From a past fire/rescue worker-Don’t ever combine different products. ie: chlorine and ammonia. You’ll quite possibly not live to see the results.

Just what is the magic ingredient in Magic Eraser? I’m too rushed to do the research, and besides, it’s time for someone else to do it for me.

It’s a sponge that has a tighter weave, that actually traps dirt as you scrub. Of course there is bleach in it. There was a lie going around that it also had formaldehyde in it. Not to beat a dead horse, but it is a lie. It’s been on the market for some time. The only drawback is this: It is so effective in capturing dirt that each sponge will only last a couple of hard-core cleaning sessions, dependent on the level of dirt. I still love them though-they get me through a thorough cleaning of my house without the usual losing of my mind.

I don’t think that they make a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser with bleach built-in. At least, there isn’t one with bleach on their official web site. But they do have a “bath” version with soap scum-specific cleanser: http://www.mrclean.com/en_US/magic-eraser-bath-scrubber-with-febreze.do.

Other than that, @gailcalled, it’s just a fancy material that’s comprised of “micro-scrubbing” sponge which is able to fit into the microscopic pits and grooves of a surface – even glass – to lift out the dirt.

I’ve never heard of the formaldehyde rumor.

CLR worked good for me on stains that wouldn’t respond to bleach paste.

If it is porcelain then I always resort to plain old ajax scouring powder. Make the spots a little wet, dump on the powder, let it sit a while then scrub away. It removes almost anything! But don’t use it on fiberglass, it is too abrasive.

Depending on the composition of the sink, an acid wash might work.

It really depends on what the black spots are. My regimen includes spraying down regularly the shower with white vinegar, letting sit, rinse, spray down with ispropyl alcohol, rinse. I have also sprayed down with bleach. Bleach smells bad, and the off-gassing is not great for your health, but I was surprised at how the beginning black spots of mildew or mold or whatever on the grout vanished into sparkling white with no effort on my part at all.

Tilexs Mold n Mildew is also amazingly effective stuff for removing mold.

Ya know-if you want a natural way-lemon juice and Sea Salt works pretty well, too.

Use Disinfectant foaming bathroom cleaner to make your bathtub sparking again.