Only Water Belongs In Your Toilet Tank
We all face the same struggle: keeping our toilets clean and fresh for our family and our guests. Your toilet is a much used, and sometimes much abused, plumbing appliance in your home. And with an abundance of social media trends and recommendations, we wanted to take a moment to break down the best way to keep your toilet clean while protecting the life of your toilet.
Customers have asked us what we think of trends like placing a bottle of household cleaner in the tank of their toilet with holes punched in the bottle to slowly disperse the cleanser with toilet flushes. Our answer is it is never a smart idea to put anything in your toilet tank other than plain water. And this includes store bought products such as bleach tablets intended for use in toilet tanks! So why would we put down what seems like a genius hack?
Protect Your Toilet From Damage
While the porcelain parts of your toilet are relatively tough, there are a lot of rubber gaskets and plastic mechanics inside of the toilet tank that keep your toilet flushing. All of these parts wear down slowly over time eventually needing replaced. Introducing cleaning products, especially bleach products, breaks down the rubber and plastic even faster. Soon you could be noticing a toilet that is running all of the time or even leaking from where the tank is connected to the bowl.
Septic Systems and Chlorine Bleach
Another point to consider is whether or not your home has a septic tank. Your septic tank depends on beneficial bacteria to break down the contents of a septic tank over time. There are products on the market that you can flush into your septic tank to introduce beneficial bacterias for this purpose. Bleach kills all bacteria, both good and bad. If you place chlorine bleach tablets or any cleaning supplies with chlorine bleach in your toilet tank you will be reducing that beneficial bacteria over time. This can lead to a buildup in your septic system of waste that eventually may back up into your home.
Just Clean The Bowl
The best way to keep your toilet clean, and protected from early failure, is to just clean the bowl regularly. Giving it a frequent scrub will remove any grime and buildup and keep your toilet looking fresh and clean. If you have a septic system you should still avoid using products containing chlorine bleach in the bowl. There are plenty of products available with bleach alternatives that are septic system safe.
