How to Clean Tarnished Chrome Faucets

We can all agree that bright chrome finishes are quite appealing in the bathroom, and even more in the kitchen. You might agree that chrome is very beautiful when it’s polished to a shine.

However, it doesn’t take long before chrome polished surfaces get tarnished and dirty.

In a way, chrome finished faucets are easy getting covered with water stains, debris, and all sorts of other dirty and nasty build-ups. In that case, chrome faucets will easily start to tarnish and they will lose their beauty.

But, that doesn’t have to be the case with you as well. With a few simple tricks, you’ll be able to restore your chrome faucets to their prime beauty and shine.

How to Clean Tarnished Chrome Faucets

There’s more than one way to restore your chrome faucets and clean them to a shine. We are going to discuss only the most effective ones. Also, keep in mind that all these methods require you to put a bit more effort into the cleaning process.

In that light, let’s begin.

Method 1 – Using Soap and Water

Maintaining and caring about chrome finished faucets is definitely not that easy. However, if you regularly clean them, it’s going to be easier to deal with tarnish issues. With a little bit of soap and warm water, you’ll be able to clean chrome finished faucets with ease.

Similar to the chrome cleaning products, on this occasion, warm water and soap are providing equal results. Here’s what you need to do:

• Make soap and warm water solution

First, take a plastic bucket and pour some warm water inside. Next, use a bit of soap and add it to the bucket. This will create a mixture that’s quite effective in dealing with the tarnished chrome faucets.

• Dip a rag in the solution

After that, use a soft cloth or a rag and dip it inside a solution. Make sure that the rag is completely soaked since you need to use that solution for the cleaning.

• Wipe the grime

Lastly, take a soaked rag and start wiping the faucet until you get all the grime away. Use slow and gentle strobes since there’s no need to hurry. Repeat the process until you’re satisfied with the results.

Method 2 – The Trick with Aluminum Foil

This method is quite effective if your chrome faucet is very dirty or covered in rust. Badly tarnished chrome faucets require more attention and therefore more effort to put into cleaning.

There’s a simple convenient trick where you could use aluminum foil in order to clean badly tarnished chrome faucets. In that case, let’s see.

• Take a square of aluminum foil

First thing's first, you will need to take a square of aluminum foil for this cleaning process to work.

If you don’t have any at home, just go to the local market and buy some. This shouldn’t make any complications for you.

• Crumple it and dip it in warm water

Next, you will need to take a solid piece of the aluminum foil and crumple it until you get a fistful of crumpled aluminum foil.

Once you do that, take a plastic bucket and fill it with warm water. It’s absolutely important to dip the crumpled aluminum foil in the warm water since that way, you won’t damage the chrome faucet.

You can even add a bit of vinegar to the solution, but it’s not necessary.

• Scrub the faucet

Use the already wet aluminum foil to scrub the tarnished parts of the chrome faucet.

Make sure to use slow and gentle movements. Otherwise, you might damage the faucet chrome finish if you apply a bit too much pressure.

• Rinse with warm water

Once you’re done with the scrubbing, it’s time to rinse the faucet with the warm water.

Warm water will slowly but surely remove all the build-ups that are left on the faucet after you’re done with the scrubbing.

However, make sure not to use hot boiling water, a bit of warm water is enough.

• Wipe with a soft cloth

Lastly, take a soft cloth and wipe everything until you achieve the wanted result – shiny chrome faucet.

Also, don’t use just any piece of cloth since you also might scratch the surface. It’s quite important to use a fairly new and soft piece of cloth for this process.

Method 3 – Chrome Polish Cleaner

If the situation is getting out of hand, a good old chrome polish cleaner could do the trick.

Now, there are a lot of different cleaning products that you can choose from. However, only a few of them are meant for chrome faucet cleaning.

You will need to choose the right one from your local store. Here’s how to use it

• Spray the faucet

As you could suspect, you will need to use a chrome cleaning product and spray it all over the faucet.

Make sure to spray it well since you don’t want to leave any parts behind. The solution that comes from a bottle will easily deal with the tarnished stains and remove them after some time.

In that light, it’s usually recommended to wait for at least 30 minutes before you start rinsing the faucet. That way, the solution will clean the faucet properly and you’ll end up with a shiny chrome faucet.

• Rinse it with warm water

Once you sprayed the entire faucet and 30 seconds had passed, it’s time to rinse the faucet with a bit of warm water. There no need to use a lot of water since all you need to do is to remove dirt build-ups from the faucet.

• Wipe it with soft cloth

In the end, you will need to take a soft cloth and wipe the whole faucet to a shine.

Make sure to use slow and gentle moves here as well since you don’t want to damage the chrome finish on the faucet.

Method 4 – Vinegar and Baking Soda

Definitely, the strongest and the most effective solution for cleaning tarnished chrome faucets is vinegar and baking soda mix. This method is best used only when the faucet is extremely dirty and tarnished.

Let’s get to it right away.

• Prepare the mixture

Stepping your cleaning game up does require you to mix baking soda and vinegar if you want to get the best result. Therefore, take ½ a cup of vinegar and pour it in the plastic bucket.

After that, add ½ a cup of baking soda in the bucket and wait for the mixture to stabilize.

You will create a strong chemical reaction which will be more than enough to clean any kind of dirt from the chrome faucet. Once the bubbling stops, the mixture is ready to be applied.

• Apply it on the faucet

As we said, wait for the mixture to stabilize and then apply it to the faucet. It’s a good idea to apply it in portions and to do it slowly. Once you cover the whole faucet, you will see that the mixture will start to react with the chrome faucet.

The reaction is actually dirt getting dissolved which means that your faucet will be good as new. The tarnished parts will also be cleaned, and the faucet will restore its primal shine.

• Rinse it with warm water and wet cloth

The next step requires you to rinse the faucet with a bit of warm water. As we mentioned before, the faucet should be rinsed only enough to remove dirt particles. After that, take a soft cloth, dampen it in warm water, and wipe the faucet.

• Wipe everything up with a dry cloth

Lastly, you will need to take a dry piece of cloth and wipe everything from the faucet. You will then see the results of baking soda and vinegar. Your faucet will look like its new and it will restore its shiny image once again.

Conclusion: Cleaning a Tarnished Chrome Faucet

Getting rid of the tarnish from the chrome faucet surely isn’t easy, but it’s worth it.

With a couple of tricks and a couple of items that you can find in your household, you’ll be able to achieve splendid results.