In just over two months we are moving out of our apartment. In one of our bathrooms there is a shower with glass doors. In one of our previous apartments we had a similar shower which we simply cleaned with white vinegar and the glass was left spotless for the handover, however the water where we are living now seems to be much harder. I have cleaned the glass several times now with various cleaning agents recommended for removing calcium and still some stubborn tiny water spots remain in places.

Apart from the spots the glass is very clean now and I do not think that those spots are ever going to be removed.

Could this be a problem for us at the handover?

I use vinegar and it works really well - so no idea what to suggest. Too late in your case, but we always 'blade off' with a squeejee blade then a quick buff with a cloth- and this way never have to clean- only takes 1 minute after each shower.

You'll certainly be charged if you've left water spots in the showers.

The trick here is to use the correct product, and I've been reliably informed by my neighbours that the Swiss product-of-choice is Durgol. Available at Migros.

I find the best product is Antikal, you can get it COOP and Denner.

Cilit Bang does it for me.

Send me a pm and I'll mail you a bottle of my home-made descaling-experimental-please-do-not-use-in-appliances-liquid!

I use to go through a process of cleaning the shower screen every few weeks and generally found it took a while to do. However I got around this, by simply drying the glass with a soft cloth (a towel is ideal) after every shower.

End result ... never having to clean the door again ... and certainly no need to use any special sprays/liquids ... having said that if needed, I find vinegar works best from a spray bottle. Let is soak for a few mins and then wash with warm water.

You have to be very careful! The floor of a shower is usually enamel and Durgol attacks enamel! (Read the bottle first)

Try using a razor blade, snap it in half to get a thin blade for difficult corners, and scrape the calcium off. Or maybe buy a scraper for ceramic stove, or ceramic surface cleaner?

Hang a shower curtain.. i am not joking, back in Ireland a friend had a shower curtain hanging in front (on the inside) his shower doors, so he wouln't have to clean them.

A family member who has shower doors is using this after every shower..time consuming? yes but she has clean shower doors..



At your stage, use Antikal( also called viakal)

Thanks a million for all your suggestions everyone! The lesson to be learnt here is of course: keep a squeegee in your shower and wipe after showering or hang shower curtains over the glass . In our last apartment a squeegee came with the apartment which we used and probably made the difference. I don't know why we did not think of that when we moved in.

Anyway, I think that the glass was damaged by one of the previous tenants through cleaning with some harsh acids as there are cloudy areas which I think have been etched into the glass and they have been there since as long as i can remember.

I tried all the cleaning products which you have suggested and then some. What worked best was actually rinse aid from the dishwasher - it contains citric acid and 3 times the amount of active ingredient that durgol and all the other identical products contain.

Yesterday I tried one of the more weird suggestions I found on the interwebz:



It has made a difference! I was doubtful but it has helped. My method:

1. Spread WD-40 on the glass with tissue and leave for a few minutes.
2. Scrub hard with a sponge.
3. Scrub gently with fine steel wool. It does not scratch if one is gentle.
4. Clean immediately afterwards with balls of newspaper and window cleaner.

The glass is still not perfectly clean but i think it will pass inspection now. Wear and tear and all that.

Note to anyone who might try this: My shower doors have normal glass without any special coatings - I checked with the company that installed the shower. Also try it on a small section of the glass first to check that nothing strange happens.

Durgol hardcore de-scaler can be found in some larger pharmacies. (Schnell Entcalker)

I'm Barry Scott and I recommend Cillit Bang!

Update: We moved out and handed our keys back last week. In the end some people from a cleaning company came to do the end cleaning (my girlfriend's God mother runs a cleaning company) and cleaned the apartment until it was shining. They did not get the spots of the doors but we got 100% of our deposit back anyway. Phew!