Victory with Viakal (Viakal)

Member Name: silverstreak2

Product:	Viakal
Date:	14/06/05 (2504 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast acting, Effective

Disadvantages: It is an irritant, handle with care

Living in a hard water area as we do, bathroom cleaning can be a real chore, being a never-ending battle to keep lime-scale at bay. No matter how frequently the bathroom is cleaned, the lime-scale returns in no time, and I swear that if you were to sit there for a few hours staring at the taps, you would actually see it materialise before your very eyes. Ordinary bathroom cleaners are fine for giving the bath and washbasin a good old scrub, but unfortunately, they don’t get rid of lime-scale, and before you know it, a crusty mass starts to form around the base of the taps, on the tap-heads themselves, and around the plugholes.

Fortunately for us, Procter and Gamble have come up with a wonderful product called Viakal, which comes in a slightly chunky 500ml plastic bottle with a blue top, and which costs around £2.34. (There is also a spray version now available, costing £2.84, which is ideal for larger surfaces such as shower cubicles, but I haven’t used this one yet, so will confine my opinion to the bottle version.) The bottle has quite a simple design, featuring pictures of two shiny sinks on the front, and the instructions and product information are given in both Greek and English; presumably the Greeks suffer from lime-scale problems too. The lid is child-proof, which is a must, as Viakal contains an acid solution, and we are warned not to allow prolonged contact with the skin, as it could cause irritation. I always don a pair of rubber gloves when using this, so I haven’t yet experienced any problems in that area.

The bottle has a convenient nozzle through which to squirt the liquid, which is a thin, pale blue gel, and you need to leave it on the offending area for a few minutes only, unlike some other lime-scale removing products, which need to be left on for half an hour or more. It has a quite a pleasant smell, and one which is not too overpowering. The instructions, which aren’t very detailed, show a picture of a cup of water being used to rinse the Viakal away, but I prefer to use a wet cloth or bathroom sponge for this purpose, just to make sure of getting into all the spaces properly, and ensuring that no residue is left. Finally, I dry the area with a piece of kitchen roll, eliminating watermarks, and leaving a shiny surface.

This is usually enough in most cases, but if the lime-scale has built up into a crust anywhere, you’ll need to use a bit of elbow grease, and possibly even give it a second application. My children have a habit of not turning the taps off tightly enough, with the result that a drip will form on the tap-head, and it’ll fall only when it’s heavy enough to do so. Because the tap-head is constantly wet, a black build up occurs over a period of time, and I find that squirting Viakal onto a sponge and rubbing the tap-head vigorously, gets rid of this quite easily.

Another area where this product is invaluable, is in the shower, in the gap beneath the sliding doors, where the gunge tends to build up, unnoticed, if you’re not careful. Squirting the Viakal under here and blasting it with the shower hose usually dislodges any nasty deposits, or alternatively, use a small brush of some kind. And whilst I usually clean the toilet bowl with bleach, the hard water sometimes leaves a white mark around the rim where the water flushes in, which I find is not completely removable with bleach alone. A quick squirt of Viakal swished round with the toilet brush gets rid of this, too. That said, Viakal and bleach should never be used together, as a chemical reaction could occur – this warning, along with other safety advice is printed clearly on the bottle.

I used to use Viakal every four weeks or so, using an everyday bathroom cleaner in between, but I find that this makes for a tougher job in getting rid of the lime-scale, and these days, I use it for every clean. This way, you don’t allow it to build up, and you do at least feel that you’re keeping up with it, if not winning the battle completely. The result, when I’ve finished cleaning, is a satisfying one – the washbasin and bath come up looking sparklingly new, and I subsequently ban everybody from the room for several hours, in case they spoil it, which they inevitably do.

Viakal is also good for getting rid of those stubborn watermarks that appear on the splash-back tiles behind the sink or washbasin, again leaving them gleaming. It shouldn’t be used, however, on enamel baths and gold plated taps, nor should it be used to de-scale a kettle(!) – there are specific products on the market for that purpose.

Since I discovered Viakal, I wouldn’t be without it, and I keep a bottle both downstairs and in our en-suite bathroom, so that I’ve always got some to hand, should either one run out before I’ve had a chance to go shopping. I would recommend it to anybody who lives in a hard water area and to those of you who don’t – you don’t know how lucky you are!

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