Recipe 77 of 100 · The Country Cleans Mix Book
Keep Chrome Faucets Spot-Free for Weeks
Alcohol Wipe and Wax Trick
Water spots back on the faucet a day after you clean it? Wipe the chrome with 1/4 cup 70% rubbing alcohol and 1/4 cup distilled water sprayed on a cloth, dry it, then buff on a thin coat of car paste wax. Water beads and rolls off instead of drying in spots. Redo the wax every 6 to 8 weeks. Never wax a tub, shower floor or anything you stand on.
What it fixesLight fresh water spotting on chrome faucets, shower heads and towel bars, and the fact that spots come back a day after you clean them.
You need
- 1/4 cup 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol (60 ml)
- 1/4 cup distilled water (60 ml)
- 8 oz spray bottle
- 1 teaspoon car paste wax, or a beeswax furniture polish
- 3 dry microfiber cloths, one to buff, one for wax, one for the final pass
- Old toothbrush
Mix it
- Distilled water into the bottle, then the alcohol. Tap water is the exact thing leaving the spots.
- Cap it and roll it end over end. No soap in this on purpose. Soap leaves film and film holds the next spot.
- Keep the wax in its tin. It goes on dry metal at the end.
Use it
- Descale first if there is white crust. That is a job for the Limescale Descaling Soak in the Mix Book. Come back once the fixture is bare metal.
- Spray the mix onto a microfiber, not the fixture, and wipe it down. Light spotting lifts immediately and the alcohol flashes off leaving nothing behind.
- Work the toothbrush around the base ring and the spout joint, then dry it completely.
- Put a pea sized amount of wax on the second cloth and wipe a thin coat over the chrome. Thin enough that you can barely tell.
- Wait 5 minutes, then buff hard with the third cloth until the wax is gone to the eye and the chrome squeaks. If it feels slick, buff more.
- Redo the wax every 6 to 8 weeks. The alcohol wipe you can do any time.
Dale's noteHard crust is the descaling soak's job, this is the step that stops it coming back. Spots are minerals left when water dries on metal, so the wax barrier makes water bead and roll off instead of evaporating in place. That barrier is the whole trick and almost nobody uses it, which is why people descale a shower head every two months instead of once a year.
Don'tNever wax the inside of a tub, a shower floor, a shower pan or anything a person stands on. A waxed wet floor is a broken hip, not a shiny bathroom. Keep wax off the aerator screen and the face of the shower head too, it clogs the jets and wrecks the spray pattern. And test both the alcohol wipe and the wax on a hidden spot first on brushed nickel, matte black, oil rubbed bronze and gold tone, because those are coatings, not solid chrome.
This is 1 of 100 mixes in the Mix Book
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