Shower hose
A flexible metal or plastic conduit with a rubber liner inside it. The liner is what a long acid soak destroys, invisibly.
Precautions
- Check the manufacturer's instructions
- Limit the contact time
Start here
What this is, what goes wrong with it, and where CleaningHQ can help.
Made from
What tends to go wrong
A hard, chalky calcium carbonate deposit left by hard water. Dissolved by acids, essentially untouched by detergents.
Why it is difficult: Water hardness, Crystallisation, Adhesion and cohesion
- Mouldvia its material
A living growth, not a stain. Killing it and removing the staining are two separate jobs, and neither addresses the moisture that caused it.
Why it is difficult: Porous and non-porous surfaces, Moisture control and recurrence, Cleaning, sanitising and disinfecting, Organic load, Surface roughness
- Soap scum· no method established yet
Not scale and not dirt: a metal soap formed when hard water meets true soap. It is the reason a shower screen films over in one house and not another.
Why it is difficult: Insoluble metal soaps, Water hardness, Evaporative deposition, Adhesion and cohesion, Why different surfaces get different dirt
The science behind this: Polishing removes metal, Solvents and polymers
Part of Shower.
In detail
A shower hose is usually a flexible chrome-plated or plastic outer sleeve over an inner tube, most often a rubber or PVC liner, with a rubber washer at each end. It scales on the inside like everything else in a hard-water system and it collects limescale and soap film in the grooves outside. The outside is straightforward: a mild detergent, a soft cloth and drying, with abrasives excluded because the sanitaryware trade excludes them from plated finishes. The inside is where the usual remedy causes damage nobody sees. Prolonged acid contact attacks rubber, and both a regulator's fact sheets and the appliance manufacturers agree that acids and rubber seals are a poor combination — a hose left soaking overnight in a descaling solution can come out with a softened liner and end-washers that no longer seal, which shows up later as a drip nobody connects to the soak. Where a hose is genuinely blocked with scale, replacing it is cheap and reliable. The other common problem is biological rather than mineral: a hose that holds water between uses grows a biofilm inside, which is a reason to let it drain rather than a reason to soak it.
Related
- Shower hose is made from Chrome plating
- Shower hose is made from Natural rubber
- Shower hose is commonly affected by Limescale
- Shower hose is commonly affected by Soap scum
Hacks and claims involving this
Sources for this page
Sources
KALLISTA (Kohler Co.) · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That plated finishes are cleaned with mild detergent and dried, and that harsh, abrasive and acidic cleaners are excluded. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The sections on nickel silver and chrome; brushed nickel, gunmetal and matte black; PVD finishes; acrylic, cast mineral and cast stone; acrylic baths with airjets; and cast-iron baths. Supports the claim as stated.
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Stoddard Solvent (RTK 1736)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2008 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That solvents attack rubber. (background and mechanism only)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'Description and Use' paragraph and the 'Handling and Storage' reactivity list. Supports the claim as stated. Gives the solvent branch of the stain records a named agent with a regulator behind it, and resolves the British/American naming collision that had kept 'white spirit' out of the catalogue.
Last reviewed by a person on .