It's good to be the Bar Keepers Friend

Hard water. I don't get it... all the water I have ever encountered is fairly soft. That is, I have never had any problems diving into a pool or standing under a shower of water. When I lived in L.A. I used to hear advertisements on the radio for water softening systems... "Hey Culligan Man!" Had no idea what they were selling.

Meanwhile, I have been fighting with my shower door. It gets these spots on it... water marks are what I always called them. Little while circles left where water droplets dried on the glass. Every week or so I have to go in and try and get them to disappear. I've used many. many, many products that claim to remove these marks but they have not been effective.

This is a picture looking through my shower door only a few days after a thorough cleaning with KaBoom:




It's been very frustrating. My Mom suggested I keep a squeegee in my shower so I could wipe down the glass after every use... I'm opposed to this. The main reason I am anti-showersqueegee is because I am lazy. My shower is my relaxing place. I want to enjoy my time there. If the whole time I am in there all I can think of is the CHORE that is awaiting me at the end of my nice, hot, relaxing shower then the whole experience is ruined. The entire shower would be spent resenting my glass shower doors.

In my post about the concierge drama I mentioned the Yahoo! Group that one of the owners has started. In addition to lots of bitching about stuff people have also posted some tips on how to do things, like seal the tile and granite (still need to do that) or set the thermostat. One such tip caught my attention yesterday. My neighbor posted that His New Condo, and by association This New Condo, suffer from HARD WATER and THAT is what has been causing the watermarks on my shower doors. Luckily my neighbor also posted a solution.



This stuff is awesome! It's like Comet, but not as harsh... put some on a damp cloth, make it into a paste and gently rub on the glass, rinse and those deposits are GONE. I'm amazed. Check it out:




I included the door handle in that last one so you could tell it was actually the door you were looking through and not me just taking a picture through an open door. LOL.

My neighbor also suggested treating the cleaned glass with Rain-X which is stuff people put on their car windshields to help repel rain, sleet and snow. Hopefully it will repel the Hard Water from my shower door too! I'll keep you posted.

Disclaimer: This worked for me, I am not saying it will work for you. Glass is NOT one of the items listed on the back of the Bar Keepers Friend container as a surface that should be cleaned with this product.

PostScript: I am just realizing how BORING my blog is. A whole post dedicated to watermarks.