It works.

I will spare you a before and after photo, but if you were ever looking for a way to get stubborn stains out of your toilet bowl... look no further. And no, I am not being sponsored or paid to talk about this. I'm just a firm believer in the power of this highly caustic but effective product. 

I'll be honest: we had some bad hard water and mineral stainage in our toilet bowl and streaking down from under the rim, and it did not look pretty. (Thank you, well water.) And before you start judging, I must insist that I do clean it very thoroughly on the regular, and the stains just laughed at me and got worse. I asked S for suggestions, and he said we probably just needed a new toilet because he'd scrubbed and scrubbed it too, without effect. But I would not be deterred. The toilet is only 3 years old; there's no reason it should look like Christopher Columbus himself installed it on his first trip to the New World.

So I took to our friend, the Internet, for answers. The fine people on GardenWeb talk about this kind of thing all the time, and sure enough there was already a discussion in progress. Some suggested a pumice stone, others plain vinegar (Ha! said my stains), and someone else mentioned some chemical that is so deadly only licensed master plumbers can obtain it. Then someone else brought up The Works, available pretty much anywhere. Other people started chiming in saying this stuff was a miracle. Some guy even said his Mexican cleaning lady swears by it. Well then. We try to avoid harsh (or any) chemicals as much as possible, but I was intrigued and hopeful.

So I bought some, dumped a bucket of water in the toilet to lower the water level, and let the product sit for about 20 minutes while I cleaned the tub and sinks and tried not to breathe in the moderately poisonous smelling fumes. (FYI Johnnie was napping and nowhere nearby.) And, lo and behold, when I went back to scrub that gross toilet bowl, I didn't even need elbow grease. Just a few swishes with a brush and it was gleaming, as good as new. I even detected a faint smell of fresh mountain springs.

And you know what? After that, my weekend was kind of awesome. Never underestimate the power of a sparkly toilet bowl. If you ever find yourself in an icky-stained-toilet-and-nothing-is-working situation, give this a try. And then go hug a tree because you probably just killed all the frogs in your watershed.