Chrome is a popular choice for bathrooms due to its elegant, shiny surface, but maintaining its brilliance over time requires proper care and attention.
Whether you want to maintain your bathroom’s shine or enhance its style, this guide covers essential tips for keeping chrome fixtures like taps looking like new. Let’s explore how to preserve their beauty and functionality.
Table of contents:
Caring for chrome bathroom fittings
Shine bright bathroom tap
The best way to care for chrome bathroom fittings is to not allow them to get dirty in the first place. This is because the dirtier chrome gets before you deal with it, the more effort and force you’re going to have to use to clean. Thus, the higher your risk of damaging the chrome finish.
The moment you start to notice a dulling of the chrome, we recommend you wash it with warm soapy water clean the area and then dry it after use.
Though chrome is pretty durable, it can rust, pit and flake if moisture is allowed to stay on it. Always wipe away and dry any water that sits on the chrome after every use
Hard water limescale discolouring
Whilst chrome is a great material for bathroom fittings, if you live in a hard water area and fail to dry it after every use, then you will soon see that limescale can quickly build up on these fittings. You can check the hard water level of where you live over at the Aqua Cure website.
One popular method to remove stubborn limescale is to soak a soft cloth in a solution of 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water and wrap it around the fitting. Leave it in position for 1 hour and squeeze it every so often. As taps are quite fiddly, use an elastic band around the cloth to keep it in place. This will cocoon the tap, helping to tackle the stains head-on.
Bring back the sparkle to your bathroom chrome
Baby oil is very good for cleaning chrome and making it shine. Just dab some onto a soft cloth or cotton wool and clean. This method of cleaning works wonders and will remove stains from the chrome and bring up a nice shine.
Cleaning chrome in the bathroom
Vinegar is a versatile cleaner thanks to its acetic acid content, which makes it effective for cleaning a wide range of surfaces. Place the vinegar in a spray bottle (if you don’t have a spray bottle, you can just pour it on a soft cloth) and spray the area you want to clean. With a soft cloth, clean and buff. This cleaning tip will make your chrome sparkle and shine
Rust on a chrome tap
Chrome itself won’t rust. So any rusting on your bathroom fittings will be a result of something foreign settling on the tap or as a result of scratches embedded deep in the chrome.
A simple way to try and remove this is with Aluminium Foil. Using soapy water, scrunch the foil into a ball and gently scrub the rust spot to remove it. If you find this doesn’t work, try substituting the soapy liquid for Coca-Cola, as this is slightly more acidic so will have a more aggressive approach.
Word of warning: Removing rust this way will preserve the chrome, but rub it too vigorously and you risk exposing it to oxygen, exacerbating the issue by creating more opportunity to rust and pit.
Don’t forget to check out our handy guide to cleaning and caring for ceramic bathroom basins.
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