Two Methods to Removing Hard Water Spots

I have a water softener in my home, so I'm pretty fortunate and don't have to deal with hard water stains.  However, when we first moved in it was obvious that the water softener wasn't functioning, so a few of my faucets had some minor hard water spots.

I had seen several photos on Pinterest about using a lemon to remove hard water spots and decided to give it a try.

Hard Water Spot Removal
You Will Need:
A fresh lemon

Directions:
Cut the lemon in half and rub it all over the hard water spots until they are gone. 

My shower head was the worse (again, it wasn't that bad comparative to homes without a water softener) so I waited until it was dry, then cut open a lemon and rubbed it all over the shower head for about 1minute.

The Verdict: It worked great.  Every spot came right off and I didn't even scrub, I just used a little bit of pressure when rubbing the lemon around. 

About a month after I did this, my cousin texted me a photo of her sink faucet asking me how to remove the hard water build up she had.  She had tried vinegar but it stripped away some of the finish.  I was afraid the lemon would do the same thing so I told her to make a paste of baking soda and water and use that to scrub the hard water build up.

Hard Water Cleaner For Finished Metals
You will need:
Baking Soda
Water

Directions: Mix the baking soda and water into a paste then scrub it onto the hard water until it comes off.  

The Verdict: You can see it didn't get everything off, but it made a huge difference and she said it didn't harm her finish. 

To bad cleaning the rest of my house isn't as easy as rubbing a lemon around.