pasadena_commut
Well-Known Member
We have two identical toilets and very hard water. My wife and I use one, my son and his wife the other. The rim holes build up lime at about the same rate on both of them - that is, not very fast. However on "ours" the jet hole has clogged up several times with a white(ish) material, whereas that never happens on "theirs". This white stuff has a consistency similar to porous chalk, with no obvious crystals or other structure, and because it is not strong, can be scraped out without too much work using a bit of bent coat hanger wire. The material builds up at the jet hole, going in maybe an inch and out from it maybe a quarter inch. It is not found elsewhere in the bowl, which is evident because not only is it not visible in other places, but a brush slides where this stuff isn't, and drags where it is. Any ideas on what this stuff might be and what mechanism might be causing it stick just there? My wife insists that we save water by "letting it mellow", whereas "they" just flush it. So I'm thinking it might be a calcium phosphate compound, perhaps hydroxyapatite - calcium from the water, phosphate from the urine. But why it would precipitate or grow crystals only at the jet hole escapes me.
