How to Remove Hard Water Stains from Glass Shower Doors

Learning How to Remove Hard Water Stains from Glass Shower Doors is possible! A few simple steps, tools and a whole lot of elbow grease is all it takes to get your glass shower doors looking like new in no time!

It’s no secret that I live in an area flowing with hard water. A couple years ago I shared How to Remove Hard Water Stains from Toilets, but I was still stuck with hard water stains on my glass shower doors. 

What is the difference between hard and soft water?

• Hard Water is water which contains an appreciable amount of dissolved minerals such as calcium and magnesium.
• Soft Water, on the other hand, contains less dissolved minerals. Or, when treated, the only ion it may contain is sodium (causing this treated water to taste badly due to the leftover sodium ions). Naturally falling rainwater is soft water, for example.

How then does water become “hard water”?

Great question! I’m so glad you asked.

Water becomes hard as it makes its way through the ground and into our waterways. Along the way, this water picks up minerals like chalk, lime, calcium, and magnesium.

Pros and Cons of hard versus soft water

Wait. There’s a pro to hard water?

Oh yes! read on…

Given that hard water contains all these essential (and super important) minerals (remember the calcium and magnesium?) and tastes significantly better, one may wonder why we even think of softening our water. I mean, if hard water is better for you and it tastes better, why mess it up?

Well, aside from these obvious benefits, hard water is hard on appliances (dishwashers and washing machines) and is hard to clean. Clothing feels unclean even after washing and since soap reacts negatively with magnesium and calcium, even your hair may feel dirty and sticky after washing.

In short, hard water is less effective and uses more energy due to the mineral buildup that is left behind.

Ok, wonderful….so what about soft water?

Hard water, when treated, removes the magnesium and calcium that was picked up to, once again, create soft water. Unfortunately, while most of the ions are removed from soft water, the negatively charged sodium ion remains. And, well, we all know what sodium is, right? As a result, treated soft water not just tastes salty, but actually increases your sodium intake each day.

And this, my friends, brings me to my next point…

What is causing those ugly spots on my glass shower doors?

Hard Water. Period. The end.

Yes, each time you take a shower and allow the water to dry on the glass, those spots and stains are the minerals left behind.

Depending on how bad your hard water is, or how long your buildup has been building up, will likely determine how bad your shower doors look and how difficult they will be to clean.

Now, let’s fix this problem. Kay?

Methods that did not clean the hard water from my glass showers

• Lemon
• Vinegar
• Baking soda
• Lemon, vinegar, baking soda in combination
• Razor blade
• Tilex, Scrubbing Bubbles, etc.

None of these things worked.

So, for a long time I gave up and, as a result, the stains continued to get worse and worse until one day I just COULD NOT ANYMORE. 

So, I started thinking along the same lines as my toilet solution which uses fine-grit drywall screens to clean the hard water buildup. Maybe, just maybe, there was something out there that I could use on glass?

Lucky for us, there is!

What you need to remove hard water from glass

• 0000 Super Fine Steel Wool
• White vinegar
• Spray bottle or bed sheet
• Gloves
• Medium-sized mixing bowl or measuring cup (I used a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup)
• Barkeepers Friend (not the spray. I used the stuff for pots and pans, but any of the powdered kind will work)
• Face-mask

How to Clean Glass Shower Doors

Guys, there is no way around it. In order to remove those ingrained mineral deposits stuck to your shower doors, you will have to use some serious elbow grease. This is not a gentle once over and done type fix. My advice is to work in sections and ask your husband or stronger significant other to help if you get tired. Please, do not be discouraged if you still have some hard water spots after the first round of scrubbing. For those really tough spots, you may need to go over it a couple times.

1. Gather supplies.
2. The vinegar soak. Depending on how bad your buildup is, you may or may not need to do this step. Mine was looking pretty miserable, so I decided to soak a sheet in white vinegar and drape it over my shower door. I then pressed as much of the sheet against the glass as possible so that the glass could “soak” in vinegar. If the sheet started to dry out, I would spray with additional vinegar. Please note- this step alone will do nothing to remove or eliminate the hard water stains on your glass shower doors.
3. Rinse. After approximately 30 minutes (just enough time to clean the rest of the bathroom!), remove the sheet (or relocate to a different part of the shower), and rinse with water.
4. Prepare the Barkeepers Friend paste. Put on the mask (if you have one) and gloves (if you don’t have some, buy some). To a bowl or cup add approximately 1/4 cup of powdered Barkeepers Friend. There is no need to measure an exact amount, this is just to give you an idea of where to start. Slowly add water until a paste forms, mixing well.
5. Scrub. Use your hand to rub the paste over a section of the glass shower door, and, using a 0000 Super Fine Steel Wool pad, start scrubbing. Small circular motion, large circular motion, up and down, just scrub. Once you feel you’ve been scrubbing for far too long and surely you must have shiny clean spotless doors, rinse. For some, this may be the case after one application. For others, you may need to scrub one more time.
6. Rinse well. And remember to use a glass cleaner to clean the other side of the glass.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is Barkeepers Friend Septic-safe? Yes. Oxalic acid cleansers are acidic instead of alkaline, which makes them more effective against rust, tarnish, oxidation, mineral scale, hard water, and lime deposits than most other cleaning products. Unlike other acidic cleaners, Bar Keepers Friend doesn’t use fillers or bleaches, making them biodegradable and safe for septic systems.
2. Can I use any steel wool? Does it have to be 0000 Super Fine Steel Wool? No, I would not recommend using any other steel wool except super fine 0000. Of course, feel free to use any brand you prefer, but less fine steel wool may scratch the glass.

Yay! Sparkling Glass Shower Doors!