Frosted surface, on glass shower door, consists of microscopic valleys and pits. Soap scum embeds in the valleys and pits and is extremely hard to clean. Purchased and tried over 50 different cleaning products without any clean results. Any suggestions? Please help.

you need a sponge , baking soda a bucket with water and white vinegar. take off your shoes and stand in the shower wet the glass with water,use wet sponge and sprinkle a good amount of baking soda on it , now do your exercise and scrub the glass with the baking soda a section at a time , also have a brush handy leave it on a few minutes use the wet brush for the dimples and rinse with the water that has the vinegar in it.don't skimp on the vinegar or the baking soda.you might have to do this a few times if the scum is heavy.

I feel for you, it is extremely difficult to get it off and keep it off, if you have hard water.
If beers1 treatment does not work out for you, this following finally worked for me:
Remove the door and lay it flat over some sawhorses. Saturate the entire surface with straight vinegar or CLR. Best way I found was to lay an old cotton sheet section over the door glass and saturate that with the vinegar/clr, then cover it all up with plastic to keep it from evaporating/drying. After about a 12 hour soak, the hard water deposits will actually clean off very easily.

I finally just got rid of the downstairs bypass shower doors and put up a shower curtain on a bow rod. Simple, easy to keep clean.

Thank you Beers1 and Conrad for your responses.
Baking soda, vinegar and fresh lemon were the first cleaning methods that were tried. On the internet there are videos, showing many ways to clean glass shower door, including the applications of the just mentioned items.
The staff at the home center where the shower kit was purchased, vendors at home shows, owners of local shower door companies, and janitorial supply retailers all recommended various cleaning products...some of which were "Guaranteed to work or full money back". As of now nothing has cleaned the frosted glass shower door.
Was thinking about removing the door, taking it outside and pressure washing it or steam cleaning. The suggestion of soaking it with vinegar or CLR will be tried first.
Previous tried several cleaning products recommended by the door manufacter. When that also failed they offered a clear glass door, without any hardware, at about the price paid for the entire door kit. Don't want to resort to a shower curtain due to the possibility of water exiting outside the shower stall.
Thanks again for your responses.
Any other suggestions are welcome.

Yep, same as you, I had not had any success with any of the sprays or treatments with the glass at vertical. The soaking was the only thing that worked. But after doing it once...and using RainX (helped for a while), just decided the doors needed to go, and not repeat the process.

Hello, here's what I do to keep my door clean going forward(once I was able to clean if initially). I learned this from scouring the message boards all over the internet, and it has worked for 2 years.
1)Switch from soap to body wash. The soap is the cause of the scum. 2) Wipe down the inside shower doors after every shower with a towel. That's it. My shower doors are always clean.

To get them clean initially, I filled a half empty bottle of Sparkle with vinegar. I sprayed it on, let it work for a bit, then used a scrubbee, a sponge, a brush, anything I could think of. I brought a bucket of water into the shower for the rinse, and used a washcloth to do the rinse. This took a while and was very messy. Thus, I was very interested in never doing this again. I have seen recommendations for CLR, but did not have to go to that extreme. Good luck.

Also, one more benefit of wiping down the shower doors, is that mildew and mold no longer form from the wet conditions.

Try spraying the door down with scrubbing bubbles and then use a wet magic eraser and seeing if that works. I used to clean my shower doors that had pits like that with this same solution.

Has anyone tried oven cleaner to remove soap scum?

My cleaning company uses oven cleaner (Easy Off) on showers, tubs, and shower doors to remove soap scum and it works like a charm.

careful with the oven cleaner, it will damage the anodize on the aluminum

If you have a steamer with a scrub brush attachment--USE IT!!!! I have been cleaning rental properties for several years now and sometimes the steamer w/scrub brush is the ONLY thing that works. It's still time consuming, but when you're done it will look like new glass. After you get it clean use some RAINX on it. Use about 2-3 coats and don't clean the RAINX with chemicals--it will remove it--just wipe it down with a cloth and dry it.
I own a SHARK portable steamer with a hose and lots of attachments that comes in very handy all over the house--it may be worth your $$ to invest in one.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: lesleyann,

home ionics water filteration system. cuts the cost on all cleaning products. from soap shampoo windex laundry detergent and yes less coffee to make a pot of coffee. soap scum is from poor water quality. this is the same filteration system that starbucks uses. absolutly no water spots on dishes ond shower walls for about $4500 to install and $225 every 18 month for a new filter. a weekly bacteria cleaning is all that is needed expesive to get it started but over time it pays for it self

I'm with dumping the doors. alternative is, if the glass is only frosted one side, then remove it and rotate it so the crud-catcher side is out of the shower and into the bathroom.

and that would indicate to me that the original installers were not, ahhh, the top of their class.

I have never regretted removal of our shower doors, and then replacing with attractive curtain and liner. And this week I am helping an elderly neighbor remove hers too.

LOVE THIS ANSWER! I purchased a the same shark... amazing! It would have been my recommendation as well!

quote:

Originally posted by lesleyann:
If you have a steamer with a scrub brush attachment--USE IT!!!! I have been cleaning rental properties for several years now and sometimes the steamer w/scrub brush is the ONLY thing that works. It's still time consuming, but when you're done it will look like new glass. After you get it clean use some RAINX on it. Use about 2-3 coats and don't clean the RAINX with chemicals--it will remove it--just wipe it down with a cloth and dry it.
I own a SHARK portable steamer with a hose and lots of attachments that comes in very handy all over the house--it may be worth your $$ to invest in one.

White vinegar has been proven to remove hard water spots from glass shower doors. See my recipe below...

½ liter white vinegar and ¼ liter of water. Fill a clean spray bottle with pure vinegar. Spray the vinegar/water solution over the area and wait for a few minutes. Scrub softly with a soft sponge or cloth and then wash it off.

actually, we really do have the same problem, my shower's door got scum with soap and also with my mirror, thanks for the advice/tips you posted here guys, love it, cheers!


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