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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.
Table of Contents
- What is the difference between hard and soft water?
- Pros and Cons of hard versus soft water
- What is causing those ugly spots on my glass shower doors?
- Methods that did not clean the hard water from my glass showers
- What you need to remove hard water from glass
- How to Clean Glass Shower Doors
- Frequently Asked Questions
- How to Clean Glass Shower Doors Recipe
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.
- Gather supplies.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Rinse well. And remember to use a glass cleaner to clean the other side of the glass.
Frequently Asked Questions
- 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.
- 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!
How to Clean Glass Shower Doors
Equipment
- Medium-sized mixing bowl or measuring cup (I used a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup)
Instructions
- Gather supplies.
- 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.
- 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.
- Prepare the Bar Keepers 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 Bar Keepers 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.
- 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.
- Rinse well. And remember to use a glass cleaner to clean the other side of the glass shower door.
I soak with CLR & scrape with razor scraper. That gets it almost perfect. Then use the steel wool & Bar Keeper’s friend. Soooo much less elbow grease.
This worked great. I used old pillow cases it was easier to handle and I worked a section at a time so I would get overwhelmed/discouraged. I highly recommend!
Note – I had a lot of buildup. So for the past week I used just baking soda and a scrubby and steam to get it under control as I felt it would help loosen hard water scum. I tried other solutions mentioned but nothing really worked. This did. Thank you.
As a housekeeper I only urge caution if someone has natural Stone showers. Keep the vinegar off of these surfaces. Do not let it run onto Marble, etc. Only pH neutral cleaners.
Off all the vids i watched Jessica yours was far and away the most helpful. First off none of the others had hard water stains even approaching your our ours. We removed our shower doors just to make them easier to get to. Used the vinegar wash as you suggested, hardly touched the stain but did make a slight difference.. You probably experienced this too. Instead of steel wool we used a Scotch-Brite pad. Even 00000 wool worried me. My addition to your method was an orbital sander on to which we mounted the pad. (all these ‘we’s’ are Robyn and i) Made the paste of BarKeepers Helper, let it set a bit then went at it with the sander. Not counting the removing/re`mounting of the doors job took approx. 30 minutes. Thanks for your efforts Jessica they sparked ideas in my head.
This worked marvelously on our terribly stained shower doors!
Thanks for posting this. I gave it a try and while most of the shower door looks fantastic there is a 12” x 12” area where the stains remain. You can tell while scrubbing with the steel wool that it is not smooth in this area. I scrubbed the living daylights out of it but the stains remains. The steel wool turned a nasty brown. Is this a hopeless case or do I just have to repeat?
Hi Kim,
I would try repeating with a fresh piece of the 0000 steel wool – I go through a fair amount of it every time.
I can’t wait to try your recipe. For those who may not know, Bar Keepers Friend also removes the marks that silverware leaves on my Pfaltzgraff dishes! I can’t believe I never thought of using it on my shower doors. Thanks!
Thanks for the tip, and I’m anxious to try it. Any suggestions to repel the hard water stains in the first place? I’ve tried Rainex and Finish rinse aide with minimal benefit. Admittedly not totally religious doing it after every shower. Squeegeeing just isn’t going to happen. 🙂
Hi Pat,
I have yet to find a good product or solution to repel hard water stains in the first place. Squeegeeing, unfortunately, seems to work the best on my stains – but my husband is the only one who does it 😉 .
Sounds like a great way of resolving this issue, but if like me you are in a place where these ingredients are not readily available try vehicle rubbing compound, it works in the same way. I wipe over the area, to clean off surface gunk, then go over a small area with a damp sponge, wipe on the rubbing compound in circular motions, then before it had dried fast, polish off with a microfibre cloth, it takes two ot three applications but works!
With a little bit of elbow grease, this worked as promised.