Are you fed up with the dirt deposited on your kitchen faucet? Have you ever gazed at the faucet? If so, the grime piled up on the faucet might catch your eye. Mostly, the kitchen faucets won’t look shiny the way they appear during the initial setup. The main culprit for the cloudy and stained look of your faucet could be the tap water. The kitchen faucet helps people in cleaning the utensils, washing fruits, veggies, and more. Sometimes, the faucets get clogged due to the mineral deposits and eventually reduces the water pressure over time. How to clean a faucet? This is the most common question that most people explore. Despite having copious ways to clean a faucet head, few tips make your task meeker. If you are planning to clean your kitchen faucet, you need to take care of a few things first. Let us help you in cleaning a kitchen faucet through this detailed guide. Have a glance!
Common Causes of Dirt Build-up on Faucets
It’s truly everyone’s dream to have sparkling faucets in the kitchen. To make your kitchen look fresh and shiny like a brand new one, try to clean it often. But, it may not be possible to clean kitchen faucet quite often. Due to the enduring use of kitchen faucets, it gets dirty. There are a few common causes of the faucets that get grimy. Some of them include the remains of water stains, limescale formation due to tap water, rust, and more.
1. Water Stains
Not all kitchen faucets are prone to water stains. However, few kitchen faucet materials are highly prone to water spots. The faucets made of stainless steel and chrome easily catches water spots. If your kitchen faucet is made of a unique finish like oil-rubbed bronze, white, or matte black, water spots won’t remain on the faucet. Still, you don’t have to worry much even if the water stains are left on the faucets. It can be cleaned easily without placing much effort. In this guide on how to clean a faucet head, you will get to know the best working methods.
2. Rust formation
Due to the continuous accumulation of limescale buildup, the faucets get corroded sometimes. It eventually leads to the complete mess up of the faucet. This could cause a problem in the water flow and pressure as well. To evade such issues, one must learn how to clean a faucet aerator in a precise way.
3. Limescale Build-up
This problem usually arises near hard water locations. The limescale formation on the faucets leads to green and blue deposits. There is a simple way to get rid of limescale formation on the kitchen faucet. There are ways to understand that your kitchen faucet has a limescale build-up. In case, your sparkling faucet turned it’s appearance into cloudy and stained all around, it is due to the limescale formation. All the mineral deposits such as calcium and magnesium present in tap water get deposited on the faucets. In a few regions, the concentration of these minerals will be eventually higher. If you still use it without cleaning, it affects the water pressure. Luckily, there are simple ways to clean the limescale buildup and replace the faucet aerator easily.
4. Black & Green Deposits
These deposits get settled on the faucets due to the accumulation of manganese and iron. These are the two minerals that are usually found in drinking water. Due to these dark brown deposits, your kitchen faucets look dirty. Sometimes, they even provide shelter for dangerous bacteria.
Basic Cleaning of Kitchen Faucet
Before understanding the key ways on how to clean a faucet, you need to follow basic cleaning steps. One must focus on cleaning the kitchen faucet every day.
- For that, you can simply use a wet cloth and wipe down all through the faucet. Later, wipe the faucet with a dry cloth. This evades from the water stains appearing on it. It is the most basic way of cleaning a kitchen faucet on a day to day basis.
- If you want to go a step forward in cleaning the faucet, you can use a mild cleaning solution. Just use the solution for cleaning the faucet and wipe it using a wet and dry cloth.
- Vinegar is the best solution that aids in cleaning kitchen faucets. Besides giving a great look to your faucet, it removes bad smell and odor. Vinegar is the perfect cleaning agent that kills toxic bacteria.
Things You Need to Clean a Faucet
One must arrange all the necessary things that are essential to clean a faucet head or aerator. By doing so, the cleaning process becomes pretty simple and fast. We furnished the vital things that are required for an individual to clean a faucet. Check it out!
- Rubber Gloves
- Vinegar Solution
- Dry Cloth
- Wet Cloth
- Scrub Sponge
- Dish Soap
- Warm Water
- Old Toothbrush
- Baking Soda
How to Clean a Faucet? [Exterior]
Follow the simple steps furnished below to clean the faucet exterior using a mild soap solution:
Step 1: At first, wear rubber gloves. Take a washcloth and place it in the cleaning solution [say, vinegar]. One can even use a dish soap solution mixed with warm water for cleaning the exterior surface of the faucet.
Step 2: Clean the faucet’s external surface in circular ways using a scrub sponge. After scrubbing for a few seconds, once again soak the sponge in the soap solution.
Step3: Thoroughly clean every corner and bend of the faucet without missing any part. Don’t overdo as it could destroy the faucet finish. All you need to do is to just remove the dirt present on the faucet.
Step 4: Use an old toothbrush to gently clean the stained parts on the faucet. You can find immense dirt formed around the base of the faucet.
Step 5: If your faucet has tiny gaps like grooves, you can clean it using dental floss. In up and down directions, just the way you floss your teeth, you can clean the tiny crevices.
Step 6: Once you are done cleaning every part of the faucet, you can rinse with cold water. For that, take a clean cloth and dip it in cold water. Rinse the faucet thoroughly with the wet cloth until the soap leftover gets cleaned.
Step 7: Finally, take a dry cloth and wipe off wet stains on the faucet. By doing so, it gives a polished look to your faucet.
Voila! Your old kitchen faucet looks sparkling like a new fixture.
How to Clean a Faucet Aerator?
A faucet aerator is a common fitting that appears quite often for kitchen faucets. These are tiny parts that are attached to the kitchen sink spouts. Generally, they appear like a small mesh screen. The main purpose of a faucet aerator is to break the water flow from the faucet into smaller streams. In short, these faucet aerators control the rapid water pressure coming from the kitchen faucet.
Why do Faucet Aerators get Grimy?
It’s all because of the structure in which they are designed. They usually act as common filters for the faucets. These aerators catch hold of tiny minerals and other dirt particles present in water. It prevents such debris coming through the tap water. By continuously using the faucet for a long time, the debris gets deposited near the meshy area. It eventually reduces the water flow from the kitchen faucet. It’s the main reason for a faucet aerator to become dirty.
Simple Way to Clean a Faucet Aerator
Worrying on how to clean a faucet aerator? Fortunately, it’s quite easy to clean faucet aerators without much effort. Unscrewing the aerators from the faucet is the initial step before commencing the rinsing process. Check the step-by-step procedure to clean a faucet aerator furnished below:
- At first, unscrew the aerator using pliers and turn it towards the clockwise direction. Once the aerator gets loose, gently turn around the aerator and remove it.
- After disassembling the aerator, you need to safely place all the internal parts in one place.
- If there are hard particles inside the aerator, just soak it in white vinegar. Otherwise, you can even use the lime solution. Soak it for about half-an-hour.
- Clean the internal part of the aerator using an old toothbrush. As the interior part of the aerator is a meshy region, it can be cleaned with a toothbrush.
- Make sure you brush every part without ruining the screens. Once you are satisfied with the cleaned aerator, reassemble all the internal parts carefully.
- Finally, screw the aerator on the faucet in an anti-clockwise direction. Tighten the aerator using pliers.
- That’s all! This is an easy way to clean a faucet aerator. By doing so, you can even clear the clogged faucet aerator.
How to Clean a Faucet Head without Removing it?
Cleaning faucets and faucet heads might appear burdensome for some people. But, if you know the actual trick, it’s quite simple. You can finish it off cleaning within no time. By cleaning the faucet head, it enhances the water pressure from the spout in your kitchen sink. Usually, faucets get blocked due to the calcium and debris deposits present in hard water. To prevent this problem, one must know how to clean a faucet head. You don’t need to remove the faucet head exclusively for cleaning it.
Required Things
- White Vinegar
- Water
- Rubber Band
- Small-sized Plastic Bag
Procedure
- Initially, fill the plastic bag with vinegar mixed water [1:1 ratio].
- Place this bag around the faucet head ensuring the faucet is fully immersed in the solution.
- Wrap the plastic bag attached to the faucet head using a rubber band.
- Just leave it soaking for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the vinegar solution removes the calcium deposits and hard water debris on the faucet head.
- After that, remove the bag carefully and clean the faucet head using a toothbrush.
- Finally, rinse it thoroughly and run water for about a couple of minutes.
When you think of how to clean a pull-down kitchen faucet spray head, the same method can be implemented. By submerging the complete faucet spray head in vinegar and water solution overnight, the deposits get cleaned easily.
Tips & Tricks to Clean a Faucet
If you don’t have enough time to clean your faucet, you can follow simple tricks. Besides this, one must know few tips regarding kitchen faucet cleaning. Have a glimpse!
1. Lemon Trick
- Use fresh lemon to clean the faucet.
- Fix one half of the lemon on the faucet and wrap it with a plastic bag.
- Tie a rubber band and leave it for a couple of hours.
- Later, remove the lemon and see the magic.
2. Use Gentle Brush
- Don’t use harsh brushes while cleaning your kitchen faucet.
- It may leave everlasting marks on the faucet.
- Try to use an old toothbrush that’s quite gentle.
3. Avoid Vinegar on Iron Faucets
- It’s not advised to use a vinegar solution to clean iron fittings of your faucet. It may damage the fittings.
- If you are not sure whether it is made of iron, just perform a small test.
- Rub vinegar solution slightly on it using a cloth. If any sort of stain appeared on the cloth, just stop using vinegar for cleaning.
4. Evade using Harsh cleaners
- Some of the cleaners may damage the attractive finish of your faucet.
- Don’t use rough sponges or brushes, and bleach-based cleaning solutions for cleaning a faucet.
5. Use Rubber Gloves
- It’s highly recommended to wear rubber gloves before cleaning a faucet with solutions like vinegar and other products.
- Sometimes, few cleaning products may irritate your skin.
6. Lime Remover for a hard lime build-up
- If the lime deposit is extreme on your faucet, try to use a branded lime remover.
- Make sure you follow the guidelines properly before using such products.
7. Apply Baby Oil for Shiny Look
- If you want your kitchen chrome faucet to shine and glitter, use baby oil.
- Rub the cotton with the baby oil to get a polished look on your faucet.
Final Words
That’s all! This is the complete guide on how to clean a faucet. We hope this detailed tutorial has helped you in making your cleaning process simpler. Make sure you follow the tips quite often to maintain your faucet properly in the long run. Regular cleaning is suggested to evade the jeopardy of causing corrosion and other issues. For more queries, just drop them in the comments section. Stay tuned to this website for more articles related to kitchen faucets and more.