How to remove the stains from stainless steel taps?

I am suggesting ways for this question from my own experience.

I had lived in places where the water is hard and long use had caused very hard deposits at the bottom and sides of the vessels used. Such salt deposits get harder and harder over time and then it may be very difficult to remove them. The same problem occurs for plastic containers and plastic pipes too.

The first step is not to be idle or not to postpone the cleaning. We have to clean periodically and regularly at short period intervals.

We can know that the stains have started to become harder when the taps or vessels do not get their previous shine on soft washing them with water and rubbing by bare hands.

At that time we may rub the surface with using bath soap or a little of detergent powder. If the stain is very less this will yield result. After that, from next time onwards the same method may be used to remove stains and bring back shine on the steel surface.

If the stain does not vanish fully even after using soap, then we may use a few drops of 'closet cleaner' like Harpic, Sanifresh etc. Just sprinkle a few drops on the surface. Rub it all over the surface with an old tooth brush or some other suitable brush which can give some abrasive movement over the surface, but not causing abrasion marks. Then wash it with normal water. The shine will be back. You can verify by completely drying the surface using a dry old cloth.
The cleaning should be done frequently at intervals depending on the hardness of water and the staining on the surface.
It is always preferable to keep the closet cleaner liquid suitably diluted to avoid wastage, to avoid hard chemical impact on the surfaces and hands.

As mostly the stains are caused by salts of Calcium, any mild acid liquids is enough to remove those stains. In that way even Vinegar also works. If the stains are very little and we are cleaning regularly, then using the lemon peels or leftover from tamarind squeezer are also helpful.
The above methods can be used for removing such stains from kitchen platform, closet, wash basin, etc. The toothbrush can be used to clean the inside of taps as well as the corrugated or angular narrow portions on the tap.

Generally, if we clean steel articles periodically, the chances of forming stains are very less. If at all some stains are there if you wash them immediately with cold water or a little detergent, they will easily vanish. But if we allow the stains for a longer time. the stains will become thick and removing them will be difficult. If we are not cleaning the stainless steel items regularly, they may lose their shining also and getting back the shinning is very difficult. These days we get many stain cleaners in the market.
1. Vooki. It is a hard stain spray and wipe type liquid available on the market.
2. BLUEOXY Stainless Steel Cleaner and Polish: This is also a spray available in the market.
You can try any one of the above two. Just spray on the tap and then wipe the same. The stains will disappear.
There are methods with other chemicals and you can try them also.
If you don't want to use these ready-made commercial cleaners you can try the following methods also.
Method 1: Take a cloth and dip it in boiling water and wipe the tap with that wet hot cloth. If the stain is not very hard, it may vanish. After wiping with this wet hot cloth, you should wipe with a dry soft cloth.
Method 2: You can spray hot steam using steam spray equipment onto the top and after that, you can wipe the tap with a soft dry cloth.
Method 3: If the stains are due to grease or water stains, they may not go easily. In such a case, you can try this method. Take Vinegar and water in a 1: 2 ratio. Wet a cloth with this solution and wipe the tap with this solution. Then wipe the surface with water wet cloth and dry cloth. Please see that vinegar will not be directly placed on the tap.
Method 4: Take a small quantity of baking soda and make a paste with water. Apply this paste to the surface of the tap. Let the paste be there for about 15 minutes. Then take a wet cloth wet with water and dish soap and wipe the tap with that cloth. Then you have to wipe the tap with a dry cloth.
Any one of the 4 methods may be useful to you.

Taps generally get dirt and water stains accumulated on them and then become dirty and shabby in their appearance. Other reason is the carbonate deposits (Magnesium and Ca!cium carbonates) that are coming from the water only. These make a white layer on the taps hiding their sparkle and show. The knobs of the taps also get dirt, oil, food particles from our hands and that is the source to make them dirty. So there are a variety of reasons because of which taps would accumulate dirt or stains and best remedy is to clean them at regular intervals before the dirt becomes a stubborn thing. There are many common methods that people use for cleaning the house taps and some of them are as follows -
1. White vinegar - White vinegar is a good choice for cleaning the taps and is generally used by making a solutio of it in equal quantity of warm water. Using a cloth one has to apply this solution on the tap and rub it and clean it well before finally cleaning the tap with normal water. If white stains are there then apply the solution on the tap and leave it for an hour. After that rub and clean.
2. Lemon - The juice of lemon is a good home remedy for keeping the taps clean. We have to apply it on the taps and rub and clean them. If there is limestone build up on the taps then we have to put the lemon juice on the taps for a few hours so that the limestone gets dissolved. The citric acid in lemon does this cleaning.
3. Detergent soap - If the tap is dirty but limestone stains are not there then a simple detergent soap solution is sufficient to clean the tap.
4. Baking soda - Take some baking soda and wet it with a little water and then apply it on the tap and rub it with a scrub and it will get cleaned.
5. Microfibre cloth - Some taps are specially plated with shining materials and it is quite possible that using acids like lemon or vinegar might blur them. In such cases it is better to use a microfibre cloth and use normal detergent soap and clean the tap with it.

We can apply some basic home made tips for the removal of stains existing on the steel tap as indicated below -
1)Vinegar-Vinegar being acidic containing acetic acid would work best if applied on the affected region by means of a cloth soaked with the solution of the vinegar and placed over the region where corrosion has occurred. This would react with the stains chemically to form a crust if it remains in contact with the affected regions for at least 45 minutes. Repeated application for a few days would produce significant results.
2) Lemon Juice- Lemon Juice is to be applied on the affected area allowing the solution to react on the affected portion with the application of a soaked clothe immersed in the solution with the lime juice allowing the same to remain contact for an hour. This procedure is to be repeated regularly for a couple of days to get brilliant results.
3) Cream of Tartar - This being a weak acid known as tartaric acid would not cause any harm to the affected surface area other than cleaning the rust with the gentle reaction of this acid with the problematic area where the rust is allowed to react with this acid making an intermediate compound forming crust if allowed to react with the affected surface for an hour at least for multiple days continuing the process at least once in day. We can see the amazing results within a couple days.
4) Baking Soda - We need to make a mixture containing 100 grams of Baking Soda which is to be dissolved with 200ml of hot water and once the soda is dissolved completely, this mixture is to be employed to the problematic area by means of a brush and allowed to react on the surface keeping a moistened cloth on the surface soaked with the same mixture. The mixture will penetrate inside the stain to form a crust which could be seen after an hour, the same crust is to be removed with a brush. For the satisfactory results, the same process could be repeated for at least three days for the complete elimination of the stain.