Glass Showers: Out Damned Spot! Out I Say!

The Obsessive Researching Mommy is pleased to bring you her newest first world problem: how to clean those white water stains off glass shower doors.  Now, I believe the whole glass shower door thing is really a problem that was created especially for middle class homeowners.  In the past, people had shower curtains, or nice frosted shower doors that hid water stains.  I can't believe I renovated my bathroom and put one of these in... yeah, it's beautiful, but after every shower, I stand there with a squeegee and scrape the thing down... to prevent water marks.  And you know, that doesn't work, because water still drips down and you can't squeegee the surface perfectly.

After a previous round of research, I tried baking soda.  Didn't work, but my arm got nice and tired.  I went out and eagerly bought Bon Ami.  It didn't work.

Heck, let me make a table for you of things that don't work that were suggested in various forums:

Baking soda
Bon Ami
Bounce Dryer Sheet
Cornstarch
Mr. Clean Magic Erase

With no amount of scrubbing was I able to remove the marks.  I still had numerous vertical lines from previous water drips, with the worst at the bottom of each glass panel.  Perhaps if you have the time to clean regularly so that there is little build up, these might work for you, but they did nothing for me.

My next miracle solution that I tried was Bar Keeper's Friend.  Since I last researched this, it has become more widely available in Canada, albeit not at the low price you can find it everywhere in the U.S., like in Walmart ($2 for 13 oz of the liquid cleanser).  The cost in Canada ranges from $5-6.50.

You can find a listing of stores in Canada, but shipping costs make it an expensive proposition to buy online, so you are better off buying it locally if you can.  Here are some locations in the Vancouver area:

Williams-Sonoma, 2903 Granville Street.
Call the Kettle Black, Edmonton and Vancouver (Kerrisdale), North Vancouver (Edgemount Village).

After patronizing Call the Kettle Black, the container sat in my cupboard for a month.  I tried it today, and...

IT WORKED!

Minimal amount of scrubbing.  I bought the powder form, put it on a damp scrubbing sponges, like the 3M Scrub Sponge, and applied to the surface.  Ten minutes later, I rinsed it off, and voila.  No more white water deposits!  I did this after a regular shower, which made sure the glass had water soaking on it for a while.  I wore my Crocs while standing the shower while working on the glass, otherwise, no telling what the Boric Acid would do to my triathlon hardened foot skin...

Who said you can't get fulfillment by being a stay at home mom?  :-P