When I’m on Pinterest, I’m usually there scouting for crafts or surfing through the best category on the site (Geek, of course). It’s rare that I look for anything to use as a solution to a problem. But when I was fed up with the continual state of grime on our glass shower door, I remembered my cousin had told me about something she’d spotted on Pinterest.
I took to the pins in desperation to find the magical cure for soap scum.
If you search for shower cleaner on Pinterest, one comes up time and time again: Blue Dawn and vinegar. The dish-washing liquid, when combined with an equal part of vinegar, is a solution that many pinners praise for taking off soap scum without scrubbing.
I don’t know what mystical ingredient blue Dawn has hidden inside, but this stuff works. Just spray, wipe, and rinse. I’ve stopped trying to scrub with Magic Erasers or any other commercial cleaner on the shower doors since trying the Dawn and vinegar solution. I would love to post a side-by-side comparison showing you our scummy shower glass and the clean result after using this mixture, but I just don’t have a camera good enough to focus on icky soap residue. (Plus, I’m not sure you really want to see where I shower every day.)
Here are a few notes based on our experiences:
- When mixing up your Dawn and vinegar solution for the spray bottle, be sure to follow the original directions and heat the vinegar first. My husband made a batch without realizing that was a step, and the result didn’t work as well.
- As you can imagine with something that uses heated vinegar: this stuff does not have the “lemon” smell you normally associate with cleaners. Or, as my daughter put it, “Why does it smell so bad in here?” The odor dissipates quickly enough, but just be prepared for a strong vinegar smell. Chances are you might prefer it to a chemical cleaner.
- Some reviewers mention that using less Dawn (instead of an equal part) will result in fewer bubbles and suds, or sprinkling salt on the bubbles to get them to go away. I’ve not had an issue with that yet, but it’s worth noting. If you see a lot of bubbles in the bottom of the stall, be sure to clean it all out to prevent slipping.
Most comments insist that you select blue-colored Dawn specifically. I’ve only tried blue as a result, but the scientific side of me is dying to make a few test batches with other kinds to see if it does make a difference. If you try out this pin and have success with another color or brand, please let me know in the comments below.
Pinbusted or Pintrusted? Trusted.
It might not work for the glass doors in every shower, but it worked for mine.
We did this as well and really find it works well. It gets gunk off with minimal elbow grease. We have used blue knock off Dawn and it seems to work just as well.
You should also try the blue Dawn and peroxide stain remover!
Love this type of post! Sometimes I go on a pinning spree and am insure of the things I pin are worthwhile. Do you have a board on Pinterest with the pins have tried like this?
I don’t have a board like that, but I should!
GeekMom’s PinBusted/PinTrusted board is brand new, but we’ll be adding to it as we try out more pins: http://pinterest.com/geekmomblog/pinbusted-or-pintrusted/
Kelly, I’ve been wanting to try this, so good to hear that it works. I DO wonder what is in that blue stuff, though…
I also want to try this very much! Thanks for sharing your results.
Uh oh, forgot to heat the vinegar first. Heating the whole solution now to see if that’s a difference.
i use blue,green,pink. The color means nothing. I think they just started out with the blue and that went wild so they just tell us blue,. I used it to get hard water off glass doors and they look new.
Tried this and it really does work. We have an old porcelain tub whose finish has been stripped off and it is thus hard to get clean, but this worked. The cleanest it’s looked in years.
I use this but use the green, and it works great!
The cleaner is amazing and works great. However, my spray bottles stop working after just a couple uses. The handle stops pumping, I’m assuming because the mechanism is getting clogged up somehow. I don’t have this issue with my other homemade cleaners, only this one. Has anyone else had this issue? What bottles are you using? I’ve gone through 3 spray bottles already! I want to keep using the cleaner, but I can’t keep going through bottles like this.
Walmart sells wide mouth trigger spray bottles
Vinegar desaponizes soap. I would suspect that it this solution is left to sit that the Dawn would break down.
To un-clog the bottles, I suggest soaking the spray mechanism in hot water for a while. The fill the spray bottle with hot water, and spray: I’ve had good results with this unclogging sprayers for lots of products, and if I have a problem with the vinegar/Dawn solution, will try it for that too.
I heard some people use those soap wands, instead of a spray bottle to avoid the clogging issue. I’m excited to try this. Thanks!
Never heated my vinegar either. I keep a mixed bottle in the cupboard
I swear by this stuff as well. I’ve never heated the vinegar and it works amazingly well! I have never seen my shower or tub so clean! To the commenter about the spray bottles, I just use an empty shampoo bottle and squirt it onto a scrubby sponge. Then I wipe down the walls and actual tub and let it sit for about 10 mins. Then just scrub (with little effort) and watch the soap scum and grime just melt away! And by the way I used green Dawn (new zealand springs scent or something like that) and it works wonders! I cannot tell you how good my shower looks, simply amazing!!!!
I done may shower with dawn and vinegar and would never use anything else I love it
I just used the vinegar/blue Dawn mix today ~ equal parts of both in both a spray bottle and the spongehead scrubber with the handle in the shower. I sprayed with the bottle first and let it soak for about 10 minutes ( both my showers had seriously built up soap scum because I have fibromyalgia and its hard for me to clean real well often ) then I got in the shower and scrubbed with the sponge scrubber. It DID work well, however there was A LOT of blue goo that dripped onto the shower floor and also somewhat of a hazy soap residue left on the walls that I had to keep rinsing with a washcloth and clean water to remove totally. This took about a half hour from start to finish, but it looks terrific.
One thing I must say, the shower floor in the master gets very dirty from my husband’s feet from his dark flip flops and this did not touch that dirt in the least. Still had to use Scrubbing Bubbles and scrub the floor for it to remove the dark dinge.
I’m going to cut the Dawn in half next time and see if that helps with the suds and soapyness after cleaning.
Leigh,
Have you tried a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to remove dinge from the shower floor? Not great on glass, but works wonders on tile and tub.
Suzanne ~
I have not tried a Mr. Clean eraser for the floor, but will definitely give it a try ! Thanks for the suggestion !
And maybe get your husband some white flip flops to wear in the shower.
The heated white vinegar with blue Dawn works extremely well on a 28-year-old VINYL tub/shower combo!
I use this homemade cleaner exclusively for bathroom tub/shower and sink cleaning.
Have wondered if the mixture can be kept and reheated for routine and follow-up cleanings?
Anyone?
I have tried all kinds of cleaners – Kaboom, lime away, etc. etc. and nothing works as well as this! Works great on the shower doors also. LOVE this pin!
My tub surround is disgusting and I am excited to try this. Btw the mystical ingredient in Dawn that makes it work so well is ammonia. That’s why you’re not supposed to mix it with bleach. The combination of ammonia and bleach creates nasty toxic fumes.
Clear Dawn also works. To cut down on suds, use a 2:1 ratio, 2 parts vinegar to 1 part Dawn. The vinegar cuts through the scum and allows the Dawn molecules to surround the oils and rinse them away.
I’ve been cleaning houses and wasting money on products for over 15 years until this week when I discovered this little secret. I’m always a little skeptical but this stuff is a miracle worker!!! While I didn’t witness the BEFORE today, my helper said that he sprayed a shower door and the scum just seeped off practically.
Oh, and by the way, I don’t know what the difference would be by heating the vinegar, but it works GREAT without heating it!!!
Do not use the Dawn Ultra ( the green stuff). It has Sodium Chloride in it, which is bleach. Bleach should not be mixed with vinegar!
Sodium Chloride is table salt. Sodium Hypochlorite is a bleach, though.
Marise, Sodium Chloride is salt. It is ammonia that you cannot mix with vinegar as it makes toxic fumes.
If the “magic ingredient” is ammonia as Rebecca said above, then why are we mixing it with vinegar as you pointed out?
I use Bounce dryer sheets to clean my shower. It takes the scum off surprisingly easy. The best thing for me, is that my shower STAYS CLEAN for a very long time. It seemed to me that store bought cleaners almost caused the nastiness. Does the Dawn and vinegar cleaning last?
I bought a six pack of those empty ketchup bottles…you know…the ones u see in restaurants. I bought them at Sams Club. Works well for laundry stain remover haven’t tried them for the shower thing yet.
Sodium Chloride is salt, not bleach. You definitely shouldn’t mix bleach and vinegar, but salt and vinegar is fine.
My daughter told me about this recipe, says her tub has never looked so good. I will be trying this tomorrow — just out of steam right now, Blue is a natural brightener for whites (remember La France bluing). Also wanted to share an incident that happened to me. Visiting daughter in CA when one of her stray cats came home for a visit and sprayed her bedroom. The smell was ghastly. She works hard as a nurse, so I decided I would handle this problem for her. After spending over $250. on commercial cleaning products with no results, I checked on line and Tide kept coming up. So off to Walmart and approx. $8.00 spent – used he version, put into the shampooer and got busy. As I worked the smell kept going away. i then washed the walls, with the tide and wella — no smell. 6 months later still no smell. Trust Tide for this problem. lol – And keep your money in your pocket. lol
I really wish I had taken a before picture. The tub in the bathroom my boy’s use was black on the bottom, I am assuming a mixture of soap scum and dirt from their feet. We used everything to try to get it off and nothing touched it. But this worked and the tub looks brand new!!!! I am so happy! I had to do it three times. The first time it was much improved, the second it was left just slightly discolored but the last time it was brand new spanking white again! I will never not have this mixture in the house again. Very odd smelling but nothing compared to the strong chemical cleaners I had previously tried. The smell cleared up quickly too. I would recommend this to everyone who has grimy boys!
Oh my this was great! My shower wasn’t in too bad of shape, so was pleased with the results there. However, my kitchen sink – a black enamel – was dull and frustratingly dingy from soap build up. A good spraying with the dawn/vinegar mix, let it soak and then a salt scrub did amazing things.
Thanks A Bunch for this website, can happily announce
we currently have a steam shower of our very own and we think its great
I made this solution with 2 cups of each. My two year old HATES the smell of vinegar so I added 10 drops of lemon essential oil and BOOM scent is much better. I usually add orange oil to my floor cleaner so the combo made for a very citrusy home.
It works! Finally gave this a try on my porcelain tub yesterday. I only have Dawn Direct Foaming dish soap, so I poured that (from the refill bottle), added some water and the vinegar (unheated) into an empty 0.5L water bottle. I put my thumb over most of the opening as I shook the solution out over the tub. Hardly any suds at all.
So happy to not have to breathe the toxic fumes from the commercial bath cleaner stuff. I like the lemon oil suggestion from Jessica above, so I’ll have to find some for the next batch.
Thanks for the post!
I plan to try the Dawn & vinegar today!
For those wth the dark stains on the bottom of you shower/bath, try laying a towel over the surface, and wetting well with white vinegar. Let sit for a couple hours, and use that towel to easily wipe it all away!
I used this with orange Palmolive soap and it worked great. So YES other dish soap seems to work too! I did indeed heat the vinegar first and stuck to a 1:1 ratio (1 cup dish soap/1 cup vinegar)
The Dawn & vinegar didn’t work for me at all on the shower door, but did well around the faucets.
Sparingly used silicone dressing placed either on clean walls or on clean floors of showers works great to deter stains and grunge from feet, etc.
I use the silicone spray or you can use the liquid obtainable at hardware stores to be “painted” on with a brush or towel.
my kitchen sink is getting stained. can dawn and vinegar stain porcelain sinks?
Mark, plain old comet is still the best on porcelain. Make a paste with comet and a little water and put on the stain. Go do something else. Come back later and scrub away. If the stain is bad, you may need to do again.
Thanks for this post, Kelly. Is the heating of the vinegar just for the mixing? The concoction will still work well once cooed, i.e. days, weeks later, correct?
Yes, just for the mixing!
It worked incredibly well. My cleaning lady asked me to pick up bleach for our hard water streaked tub (because clearly she heard nothing I’d said.) This did the trick! Um, no, no bleach. Thanks, Kelly!
I used it on my bathtub and it was miraculous. Today I used some of the cold old mixture on my fireplace doors and it worked better than anything I have ever used before.
Whats the UK equivalent of dawn?
Very strong and good dish washer detergent (liquid)
Dawn has degreasing properties, so you would want to look for a soap with something like that. Very concentrated stuff too.
It works with pretty much any kind of dish-washing soap. We don’t have Dawn in Germany so I just used my regular soap. It worked really well.
Here comes the “but”: the fumes this creates are highly toxic. So if you try this, only do it with the windows wide open and a nice draft going on. I learned this the hard way…
There shouldn’t be anything “toxic” about it at all; Dawn isn’t toxic unless you ingest a lot of it, and vinegar certainly isn’t toxic. Just remember to use regular Dawn; DON’T use Dawn with Bleach or bleach alternative! However, vinegar does have a VERY strong smell, especially when it’s hot, and it will make you feel a little nauseous after a while. (Long-time pickler/canner here…) So yes, good ventilation should always be a priority.
I agree that this is a great cleaner. Please understand, however, that just because the ingredients are ordinary household items, this does NOT mean they are not toxic. I would advise against heating the vinegar, which is essentially a weak acetic acid solution. Heating it volatilizes the acetic acid, which is a respiratory irritant. If you have children, elderly individuals, or anyone with a respiratory issue around, you should definitely not heat this solution. It works fine at room temperature, you just might need to leave it on a little longer or use a little elbow grease. On another note, my dear friend’s mother just suffered a bad fall and concussion in the shower using this cleaner. Be sure your shower is rinsed thoroughly before entering, and don’t stand in the shower to clean when using this product. It’s really slippery.
Stevie, they said they don’t have Dawn because they are in Germany. If the soap they used has bleach in it, it WILL make toxic fumes. Bleach and vinegar should never be used together. Same with bleach and ammonia.
I used Dawn Platinum and did not heat the vinegar and it worked great. I mixed half and half in an empty spray bottle and shook the dickens out of it and sprayed it on. Super easy and not overwhelming!
We have super-hard water; the Dawn-vinegar cleaner gets rid off ALL the mineral deposits! Even when I’m really bad about cleaning my shower–like, 6 months bad, because I ruptured a disc and simply couldn’t bend to tie my shoes, let alone clean–letting the mix sit for 10 minutes got rid of it like it was never there. As for the smell–try adding 10-15 drops of your favorite essential oil. It won’t eliminate the vinegar smell, but it does help, and it doesn’t affect the cleaning power. My personal favorite is lavender, but you can use pretty much any essential oil you like.
I used Woolworths select brand dishwashing liquid ( cannot find Dawn) and vinegar..worked great. I sprayed mixture onto screen and left for 10 minutes and then used my soft scourer and gently rubbed mixture ( no effort whatsoever) and then washed off..sparkling clean glass..
I am moving out of my present apartment and I like to leave my apartments clean. For 5 yrs I have had the scummiest looking sink with hard water buildup. I had heard of Dawn and vinegar before but had never tried it. I did not realize you needed to warm the vinegar. I worked great anyway. I wish I had tried it sooner. I will use it in my new apartment, I have glass doors in the 2 bathrooms. GPZurita
Late to this party, but for those who are concerned about toxicity, the original blue Dawn is what is used to clean birds affected by oil spills because it is so effective in removing grease but is gentle on the birds’ skin. Those who work to rescue bids after an oil spill say it is the best thing they have found for the purpose. (Story here| http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127999735
Other versions have different additives, some just for fragrance, others with additional chemicals (like the antibacterial versions). I stick with the blue version, whether for dishes or for cleaning (in the vinegar solution), because I know it is non-toxic and also because the other versions, for me, have not been as effective in removing grease, like on the bottom of frying pans.
And yes, you need to make sure you rinse really well, to prevent slickness and to be sure no film is left behind. I rinse until the tub or shower floor feel “squeaky clean” and then a bit longer.
I use it too but don’t kid yourself that Dawn is non-toxic. Proctor & Gamble, the makers of Dawn, are extremely good at greenwashing, and at PR. Using images of cute animals and birds and donating tons of dish soap to volunteer & not-for-profs groups for degreasing wildlife does not make a product non-toxic or environmentally safe. The same dish soap they sent to be used on wildlife contained triclosan, which is known to be deadly to aquatic life. Triclosan has been phased out of most of their products recently but only to be replaced with other antibacterial agents that have not proven to be safe.
Proctor & Gamble keep their formulations and many of their ingredients secret but they do list some major ones here: https://www.pg.com/productsafety/search_results.php?searchtext=Dawn&category=ingredients&submit=Search
There are a lot of highly toxic ingredients listed.
People are right to be concerned about toxicity since Dawn is a chemical mix that contains toxic ingredients. However, most dish soaps that contain effective degreasing agents (which is what makes this cleaner effective) also contain toxic ingredients. Don’t minimise the risk – know it, understand it, and manage it.
Knowing that this stuff is toxic means we should know to use gloves when washing dishes, we should rinse our dishes after using it, and we should be careful not to let is splash on skin. We should also be careful not to breathe in fumes.
Heating the vinegar isn’t necessary. It creates fumes and doesn’t noticeably increase the potency of the acetic acid. Cleaning vinegar, which is stronger than standard household cooking vinegar, (6% and higher, compared to kitchen vinegar at 5%) also improves the job this cleaner does. This mix also works well with other detergents, as long as the detergent has good grease-cutting power. Note, I use the word “detergent” because it’s detergent, not soap, that you need. Using soap-based dish washing liquids that don’t have strong degreasers defeats the purpose of this cleaner. Dawn strips soap and grease. Don’t use an alternative that will add to soap build-up.
Vinegar alone acts as a reasonably good tub and glass cleaner & it’s easy to find recipes for vinegar, baking soda, and essential oil homemade cleaners online.
I make up my cleaner in quantities of 3 parts of cleaning vinegar to one part Dawn Ultra. It works extremely well with minimal sudsing. I always rinse off then use a cloth to dry the surface after (to reduce water spots). Dawn Ultra is concentrated so will leave far too many suds if its used in a 1:1 mixture.
Thank you for this intelligent comment that reflects an ability to think rationally and communicate clearly. What a breath of fresh air!
Always one in the crowd. Snowflake, liberal, tree-hugging, kill-joy.
I’ve used the dawn/vinegar concoction and it really is amazing. Because it works so well on grime, I use it to clean the microwave, the stove hood and oven door window–works wonders.
After reading all the testimonials, I’m going to try this. Cross your fingers for me. I have a semi clean tub that was cleaned yesterday. But with five kids using the same bathroom, it gets nasty right away. We moved in about two months ago and I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT get the soap ring and hard water stains off the surface! It’s aggravating. grrrr. So, I’m going to use this in the front bathroom and the stand up shower in the master bedroom. I’m going to take pictures and you all can be the judge. Mamabear in Albuquerque
Ok. Tried it. I works. I’m surprised. I have super crusty hard water stains that refused to budge, even with a knife blade. It was still crusty but it scrubbed off in scales. Took elbow grease to get a majority of it off. I used Makers Mark pink “dish lotion”from Sam’s club ($5.00) and dollar tree “cleaning vinegar”($1.00), a sponge from the Dollar Tree and a dish scrubber (chore boy $1.00), also from the Dollar Tree.
I did the half and half mixture of the cleaning vinegar and the pink dish lotion, and used it on the following items: Kitchen stove, bathroom tub, toilet, sink and the 2nd bathroom toilet, sink, and shower walls and floor.
The method: I pour a cup of cleaning vinegar and a cup of dish liquid into a tall plastic jar, using a metal wire whisk to mix it. After mixing the solution thoroughly I dunked the dry sponge into the mixture. It didn’t soak up right away and caused the mixture to spill out onto the stove. Once I got some of the mixture into the sponge it sudsed up and I believe that the suds is what works. because the liquid mixture did little to the grease on the right side of the the stove while the suds from the sponge, spread on the left side with my gloved fingertips and left to sit in a thick layer.
I used this spreading method on the tub after I cut the big sponge in half. I kept one half in the kitchen and then used the other half JUST for the bathroom. I spread the mixture in the main bathroom and then, letting that sit, I attacked the master bedroom restroom. I continued this process. Upon getting the ENTIRE shower stall coated, as well as the toilet and the sink. I left the mixture to set and returned to the kitchen to check on the process of the oven. (The process of coating the 2 bathroom surfaces took about 40 minutes.) I checked the cooked on grease ring on both sides of the stove, these were the results of an approximately 40 minute wait.
Kitchen Stove clean up results (approximately 40 minute setting time)= The right side of the stove was a watery mixture ‘spill-on or pour-on’ application. The cooked on grease did little in the way of budging, while the mixture did dry up and had to have some water applied, the mixture did and EXCELLENT job of cutting through the lunch meat grease splatter of the days burgers.
The left side did surprisingly better at softening up some of the grease ring and actually caused some of the cooked ring to lift up in sections. I wonder why the suds fared better then JUST liquidy mix.
I rinsed off everything and returned to the bathroom and the mess in there.
The results are:
Master bedroom bathroom: I checked the bathroom sink first and didn’t notice anything unusual. This got me thinking that maybe the success in the kitchen was just a mental thing…then I got scrubbing.
The scaley gross yellow hard water stain that ringed the faucet was still there, but I started the clean-up, wiping first and then getting a little green scrubby pad (brand unknown, cost unknown, source unknown.) It was an unwrapped new scrubby pad in my laundry room. I cut that in half and used a folded half to get behind the sink to get the ring, which broke up into little scales and scrubbed off with a little pressure. (This is a marked improvement from the bleach, ajax scrubbing powder, baking soda and vinegar paste and WD-40) I’ve tried everything since we moved in to get that nasty ring off, and nothing, NOT ONE method has caused it to budge. I had to make a second batch with a little less soap and a little more vinegar and that spilt on my floor, when mopped up, cleaned my grout and my mop head. *bonus
The shower head and the walls, and floor were treated with this mixture and it actually caused the grout to clean quite well. It got the floor scum off and left a bright and shiny end result and the walls cleaned off with a few easy wipes. The longer this mixture is left on the surface, the better the reaction. It doesn’t effect stone, red grout, faux stone tile, or latex paint in that it doesn’t pit, mar, or stain. The master bathroom basically had the same results in the bath and sink department.
The toilets for both bathrooms didn’t fare well. It may need a dry surface to adhere to, to have any real effect. I will redo this after turning off the water sources, flushing and then apply the mixture to see if a dry surface is what is needed for maximum effect.
Side notes: I mixed at room temperature and didn’t heat any of the ingredients. I also read that salt will up the potency and have also read to NEVER mix ammonia and vinegar (but I have found recipes on the net that combine ammonia and vinegar with little fume creating side effects… more tests are needed.) I KNOW to NEVER mix bleach and ammonia because of the toxic and potentially fatal fumes that that mixture creates.
For a 22oz. spray bottle (I reuse cleaned out Spic n Span spray bottles) here is the recipe I use:
1c. White Vinegar
12c. Dawn (any kind)
Rest water
Plastic scrubber
I have a plastic coating on my shower walls (Bath Fitter Shower) and can’t use Comet, etc. This works like a charm. First time I cleaned with the Dawn mixture got about 90% of the scum off. I cleaned it a 2nd time about a week later and the walls were like new. I did not heat the vinegar, just mixed it after I put both in the bottle with water. (Gently rock bottle back and forth. If you shake it, it’s going to suds up!)Some say to use apple cider vinegar. I don’t think it makes a difference. I have not tried this on glass, but it does work on plexiglass shower doors. I spray it on and let it sit for about 10 minutes, then spray it again when I start scrubbing.
Just a fair warning, while this solution will work well for cleaning bathroom area, any long term use on stone and/or tiled areas with grout , will cause damage to the stone and grout. The acid in the vinegar slowly eats away at it. Be warned.
I tried this but it has left the glass shower scren but it left a white residue and nothing seems to removeit – commercial cleaners, bicarb+vinegar or neat vinegar. any suggestions? thanks
I would not recommend boiling vinegar. Acetic acid vapors are not something anyone should be breathing at any real concentration on a regular basis. Think about it this way: If it’s able to reduce odors, then it’s reactive; if it’s reactive, do you want to be exposed to it? In general, no. Finally, spraying vinegar frequently as a way of reducing odors isn’t advisable if you’re going to be in the same space. Acetic acid can cause asthma.
I came to this site to double check the recipe, but noticed the writer wondered why it had to be blue Dawn. Any dish soap will probably work, but the color blue is often used as an optical brightener. I won’t go into the science, but that’s why your grandma (or maybe great grandma!) used “blueing” on her whites. To make them whiter than white, as the ads say. So the Blue Dawn just helps the white of your bathtub shine a bit better. You won’t notice the difference on a tub, though, because the color isn’t absorbed.
Two hours on. Didn’t even touch it.
Doesn’t work. Same as before.
I’m from Australia and can’t get blue dawn. Any suggestions on what I could use?
Didn’t work well for me. . Not sure what I’m doing wrong. The floor still looks terrible & I still have the same soap scum ring that’s not coming off even with a lot of rubbing. I sprayed it & left it on for 2 hours.
It works great for me. I do scrub it with brush but it makes tub shine every time, it’s all I use!
I’m new to this soap scum remover idea, but usually in home cleaning and laundry, “blue Dawn” refers to the old-school, non-concentrated Dawn. Sometimes it’s called Dawn Simply Clean or Original. And it’s blue. Dawn Ultra, the kind most commonly found in grocery stores, is concentrated and comes in all colors (including blue), but I don’t think that’s what the recipes are referring to. I’m not sure what the difference is (and maybe it doesn’t matter for this purpose), but I thought it might be helpful to clear that up.
Green Palmolive and Vinegar worked just as well if not better.
It has been explained that the non-original Dawn has a softener in it. This was being told to me regarding cleaning cemetery monuments and it was important to use ORIGINAL Dawn,which is blue. I don’t think the actual color matters, original Dawn just happened to be blue. The subsequent varieties of Dawn have other ingredients to keep your hands soft and moisturized which apparently is not good for cleaning monuments or, perhaps, soap scum.
Here to report than my eco-friendly “Ecos” dishsoap + vinegar worked wonders on my soap scummy glass shower doors. Nothing else in the 2 years we’ve lived here has gotten off the 30 years of soap scum that were there! THANK YOU
I use it on my shower I just wipe with a sponge and don’t rinse it off until I shower again comes right off very clean
Lysol Toilet bowl cleaner with Bleach. We use this in showers when we clean houses. Your welcome.
Don’t wait 2 hours. Wait about 10-15 minutes before you start scrubbing. I used a diahwashing wand with the scouring pad at the end so that I wouldn’t get the stuff on my hands. Worked well for me, though it still left about 5% water deposits on the shower door.
As another commenter stated, Green Palmolive (which I buy in bulk at Costco) works beautifully). I didn’t read the directions thoroughly the first time (per usual) but what I did still worked well: I poured about 4 ounces of vinegar in a glass spray bottle, and another 2-3 ounces of Green Palmolive in right after. Popped the whole mixture in the microwave for a minute (next time I’ll probably try less – it was boiling hot, had to handle with an oven mitt), then screwed on the sprayer nozzle and sprayed away at my shower tile and tub (which had at least a month or two of built up residue – gross!). The mixture made more than enough to spray the entire shower and I poured the leftover ounce into a bucket where I presoak stained clothes (which is a water/vinegar/squirt of dish soap solution). Waited 30-45 minutes and then went in with a rag and my shower head sprayer and rinsed all the scum down the drain. I wore a mask, the fumes were strong (albeit nontoxic). Open a window and turn on the fan while you do this.
Help. My husband used this on our shower, but mixed 10 oz of dawn with 10 oz of vinegar and didn’t add water. I can’t get the suds rinsed off. The solution is so thick in my shower and on my doors. It is supposed to be 1/2 teaspoon of dawn to 1/4 cup of vinegar and 2 1/2 cups water. I am miserable.