Please help me with these waterline stains!

jordan10 · Jan 9, 2020

Wet dry sand paper?

Mikedawg · Jan 9, 2020

pitcariboo said:
Etched...ugh really? What would cause that?

The minerals in salt water can attach firmly to glass and be very difficult to remove (as you well know!) In an effort to remove deposits some reefers - maybe previous owner - will indiscriminately scrape, sand, blowtorch, etc. the glass in an effort to remove; that's why I mentioned earlier to check if glass is already etched.
I would definitely go the chemical route first and there are many, many "remedies" detailed on the Net. BTW, all glass isn't equal.
Good luck!

WhiteTailFish · Jan 12, 2020

Got some CLR. Tried a few rounds of soaking the stains in CLR for 10 minutes and wiping and scraping with blade. No difference.

then I gave vinegar another shot, letting the stains soak overnight in a vinegar soaked paper towels. In the morning I took a bladder to it again. Still no difference.
Next up is Barkeepers Friend. Never heard of it till now but Im glad I can find it a the local department store. I'm holding out some optomism for this as it looks like it has worked for many people.

LC8Sumi · Jan 12, 2020

Oh. I’m stupid, sorry

WhiteTailFish · Jan 12, 2020

LC8Sumi said:
Oh. I’m stupid, sorry

I don't know if you deleted a post or what but I just noticed that I wrote bladder instead of blade. Silly autocorrect. Too funny though.

LC8Sumi · Jan 12, 2020

pitcariboo said:
I don't know if you deleted a post or what but I just noticed that I wrote bladder instead of blade. Silly autocorrect. Too funny though.

Edited. I was in write-only mode, and only after commenting did I realize the method I’ve suggested was already tried

WhiteTailFish · Jan 13, 2020

Ok, so I picked up BKF on my way back from work this afternoon. I was determined to get these stains out and had a "brilliant" idea.

I added a bit of water to wet the glass, sprinkled on some BKF powder and grabbed a dish sponge and started rubbing with the abrassive side down. Started off soft then dug in for a bit. I was going to "make" this work. I stopped after a minute to check in on my progress. I grabbed a paper towel and started wiping. What I saw was that the stains were still there but also some new surface scratches. Ugh... Felt dumb...I knew in the back of my head this was a stupid idea. Oh well lesson learned. At least this was the back pane of glass. No big deal but annoyed at myself. It just looks a bit dull up in the scratched areas.

I tried a few more rounds of bkf with soft sponge and a cloth and didn't make much more progress if any.
So verdict on Bar Keepers Friend...for me it didn't really work. It didn't remove my stains completely. I feel like it helped a bit though...

I think I'm coming to the conclusion that the glass has some etching on it...kinda lame but since it's at the waterline im OK with it.

I have some citric acid coming in from Amazon that I'll try out but I don't think it will be any more effective than a vinegar was. We will see...