Cleaning cistern

[MickyP10]

Is there a safe chemical/substance which can be used to clean the cistern? I mean to leave in rather than scrub away with a Brillo pad. It's a Flowmaster type, so I suspect easily blocked.

Wifey suggested those cleaning blocks but that sounds a bad idea.

Thanks in advance.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Pour a bottle of bleach into the cistern and leave overnight.

Andy

 

[JohnD]

Parazone bleach cistern blocks

they might last a couple of weeks before being fully dissolved. Seems to happen faster in soft water.

they will also loosen and wash away limescale deposits, first from the cistern and then the rim. It will be more effective than you believe possible, so take a pic when you first do it, and another a month later.

not ordinary blue or green blocks.

 

[just pumps]

Thought bleach damaged rubber parts or is that with prolonged use.

 

[JohnD]

with the bleach blocks, I once had a leak from a bottom-inlet ballcock where the rubber washer perished. It was 30 years old so not a great surprise. The crust of limescale was washed away which may have made a difference too.

I don't know if modern plastic washers last better. At home I have side-inlet valves so the washer is not immersed.

An old plumber told me that when he worked in the city swimming pools, they used glass plumbing fittings to resist the chlorine.

 

[MickyP10]

Apols, is bleach safe to use or shouldn't be used?