What’s the best way to remove rust from white enamel?

Is it enameled cookware? If so how did it get rusty? Baking soda and vinegar neutralize so that really does not work. Vinegar and water 50% for no longer than 15–30 min followed by a scrub and repeat until it’s gone. If you let vinegar sit too long it can actually damage your enamel.

On porcelain, like a toilet, pumice stone takes it off really well, but I don’t know if it will scratch enamel.

Actually, if scratching isn’t a problem SOS pads might work, basically a soft steel wool.

As far as chemicals I think CLR makes a rust remover, it probably says on the bottle if it’s safe on enamel. I hate the small of that stuff.

Edit: when using the pumice stone water should be used with it so it’s not so abrasive. Definitely check me on whether it can be used at all.

I use disposable Mr. Clean Magic Erasers.

There is an enzyme solution called evaporust that’s safe on anything. If it’s iron oxide this will remove it. It’s also nontoxic.

You could check out stuff like Lime-A-Way rust remover might work. They make it in a gel formula as well so it might stick on a vertical surface long enough to do the job. Honestly, rust is just iron so really any acid should work. Soak a paper towel with vinegar and stick it on top of the stain. After about half an hour use the paper towel to scrub the stain and then rinse with water.

It’s a white enamel metal side table with a drawer. So a tad trickier than just a tray or pot.

@JLeslie Too unwieldy to try to dunk the whole thing in water. And I think pumice or steel wool would scratch the enamel. Will read more about CLR.

Tomorrow, I’ll try a combination of these suggestions. I’m kind of nervous about using vinegar because like @Blackwater_Park mentioned, it can eat away at enamel if it’s left too long.

Will probably start with mildest option. @RedDeerGuy1 ‘s suggestion of using a magic eraser. Can’t hurt, right?

Then I’m going to try a baking soda paste with @seawulf575 idea to soak the paper towels. That might address the goop factor.

If those don’t work, I’m going to look into getting CLR, evaporust or lime-a-way.

Thanks, guys!
(I’ll let you know what ends up working.)

The Evaporust interests me. I’ve never heard of it before.

You don’t need to dunk the whole thing in water for the pumice, but I understand your hesitation to use it anyway, because of the possibility of scratching. I’m shocked it doesn’t scratch the toilet. I never would have tried it, except a cleaning woman used it one time to get rid of hard water stains, and I was like, “how did you clean it?” I didn’t have rust, but I told too friends and one of them cleaned her MIL’s toilet that had a lot of rust.

If the chemicals work I definitely think that’s a better option for this. Less risk.

@raum Magic eraser is somewhat abrasive. I use them to clean up cast iron skillets after pulling them out of an electrolysis tank. They turn iron oxide into another compound of iron that is easily removed. You can’t do this with enameled unfortunately. If it really is rust then evaporust by far is the mildest option. I have used it many times.

@raum I would hesitate to use the baking soda with the vinegar. They are opposing forces. One is an acid, the other is a base. You will get a nice foam out of it, but that’s about it. The acid actually dissolves the metal…the rust. I have heard that if you at some salt to the vinegar it makes it more aggressive, but I’ve never tried that. I once picked up a metal tube and rusty water spilled out onto my shorts. Rust stains on cloth are tough. I put the shorts into a bowl, filled it with vinegar and let is soak for an hour. I pulled it out, scrubbed it with a brush to really work the vinegar in and then rinsed the shorts. Most of the stain was gone…only a couple little spots remained.

@JLeslie I’m also intrigued with this Evaporust!

@Blackwater_Park Thanks for letting me know! Okay, skipping the magic eraser. I thought it would be mild enough because I used it on painted walls and it didn’t take off the paint. Guessing I’d probably need more elbow grease to get off the rust. :/

The Evaporust is more gentle than baking soda?

@seawulf575 I was thinking just baking soda and a bit of water to make a paste. No vinegar.

I’ve also heard about the acid with salt. Half a lemon sprinkled with salt?

@raum Yes, and more effective too. It’s magical stuff.

Plain fine steel wool may take it off. It works on chrome auto bumpers…

@raum Trying to mix NaHCO3 (Sodium Bicarbonate) and rust won’t do much. The baking soda might be okay as a scrubbing matrix, but chemically it won’t do anything. When you mix rust with an iron, you get an iron salt, hydrogen gas and water (usually…depends on the acid). So the vinegar will actually break up the Fe3O4 compound into an iron salt that will wash away.