Recipe 73 of 100 · The Country Cleans Mix Book
How to Remove Rust Spots From a Stainless Steel Sink
Orange rust freckles on the sink, dishwasher front or chrome? Spread a paste of 2 tablespoons baking soda and 2 teaspoons water on the spots and wait 20 minutes. Rub stainless with a soft cloth along the grain, rub chrome with a wet ball of foil, then hit anything still orange with lemon juice for 5 minutes. Keep lemon off stone counters, and never use steel wool.
What it fixesOrange rust freckles on sinks, dishwasher fronts, chrome bumpers, tool handles and shower bars.
You need
- 2 tablespoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons water
- 1 lemon, halved, or 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice
- A square of aluminum foil about 4 inches by 4 inches, for chrome only
- Soft cloth
Mix it
- Stir the baking soda and water in a small bowl until you get a paste about the thickness of toothpaste.
- Keep the lemon separate. You will use it after the paste, not with it.
Use it
- Spread the paste over the rust spots and leave it for 20 minutes so it softens the oxide.
- On stainless, rub the paste with a soft cloth using short strokes that follow the grain of the metal. Never rub across the grain and never rub in circles.
- On chrome, crumple the foil into a ball, dip it in water, and rub the paste and rust together. The foil is softer than chrome so it will not scratch it, and the aluminum chemically lifts the rust.
- Wipe the paste off with a damp cloth and check your progress.
- For anything still orange, squeeze lemon juice directly on the spot, wait 5 minutes, then wipe. Rinse the surface with plain water and dry it fully.
Dale's noteMost rust on stainless is not the stainless rusting. It is iron from a can, a razor, a screw or hard water sitting on the surface and rusting there. Get it off early and the panel underneath is untouched.
Don'tKeep the lemon juice off any stone counter around the sink and wipe drips up the second they land, because acid etches marble, travertine, limestone and quartzite on contact and that dull white scar is gone material, not a stain. Do not use steel wool or a green scouring pad on brushed stainless either. Steel wool leaves iron particles behind that rust in three days and gives you a worse problem than the one you started with.
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