Toilet cleaning is one of those essential jobs but I loathe it because I know that as soon as I do it, someone will use it and it will look bad again. It doesn't help being a mum to 2 boys aged 3 and 4, one of whom has recently potty trained and both who have the concentration span of a gnat when it comes to pee'ing in a straight line away from the edge of the toilet.

I am happy to include several items in my battle, as they all get used at some stage during the week. A bit of bleach is good for a quick freshen up, but limescale forms quite quickly under the water line and it can look quite grubby. Bleach just disguises this problem rather than treating it, so it is handy to have something that will tackle the problem too.

Harpic power plus comes in a 750ml black bottle with a red childproof lid. The bottle is designed with the curved swan neck for easy squirting under the rim of the toilet bowl, and it is a corrosive cleaning product. This means you need to take care not to get it on you as it could burn your skin and eyes on contact.

It contains 10.5g of hydrochloric acid per 100 ml, so it is quite a strong chemical and definitely one to keep away from the kids. It is also a disinfectant, and said to be 5x better than using bleach alone.
I find that the price of this varies. The bottles I currently have in were 3 bottles for £3 in a promotion at Tesco and this was a good price as it is often nearer £2 per bottle if I bought just one. I made sure I stocked up when I saw this offer.

The original cleaner is quite a thick blue liquid. As I pour it under the rim, it is runny enough to run down the bowl, but it does leave a coating of the blue liquid above the water line. Below the water line it just seems to disappear I'm afraid, so I like to use this one day, and then the power plus tablets also from Harpic to treat under the water line on another day. NEVER use 2 toilet cleaners at the same time. I have done this myself before. They can immediately combine to produce a cloud of toxic chlorine gas which can burn your lungs. The once I did it, I was lucky as I recognised the smell immediately from my degree level Chemistry lab, and i flushed it all away and opened the window, then went out of the house till it had time to settle.

For best results this needs to be left at least 10 minutes, but preferably up to 1 hour. You need to use a brush to swill this round as this on its own will not fully eradicate any biological stains in the toilet.

After use, my bowl looks fresh, there will be no trace of blue down in the bowl but there might still be a bit of a tinge near the rim. Limescale is definitely not noticeable, and I find that I don't see it again either, unlike with bleach where it looks like it has gone but then starts to look a funny colour pretty quickly against the white porcelain.

I find I like this cleaner, and while it is not effective against heavy limescale under the waterline, it does work if you use it regularly to prevent some of the build up in the first place.

It is easy to use, and does not require a lot of scrubbing, but I don't find I get many uses out of the bottle. If i want it to cover the entire bowl, maybe 5 uses out of a bottle this size. But then again, that is pretty good at 20p per use, and not that bad if you have to pay £2 and it is 40p per use.

The bottle itself is also recyclable when it is empty, which is great if your council offers this facility, though I don't class it as environmentally friendly when you are putting hydrochloric acid into the water system. Although it doesn't say so, I can't see this being suitable to use if you have a septic tank either.