Are toilet cleaners with Clorox ingredient bad for septic tanks?

[Dennis S]

And is the a better ingredient? I saw one with some sort of acid, but I didn't remember which one. So, to summarize, what's the best toilet cleaner that doesn't hurt a septic tank?

[Onamuji]

> Are toilet cleaners with Clorox ingredient bad for septic tanks?

Yes. But probably not to any measurable extent. A little bleach in your toilet water will probably bind and react with other stuff before it hits the septic tank. A lot would be bad. But how much is a little and how much a lot? Dunno.

YMMV so might as well play it safe.

> what's the best toilet cleaner that doesn't hurt a septic tank?

Coat liberally with baking soda. Mix a bit of lemon juice and vinegar in a spray bottle and spray to make a satisfying foam. Let it effervesce for a few minutes. Follow up with a toilet brush.

Supposedly, baking soda is good for a septic system. Balances the PH.

...Or use a non-chlorine bleach like OxiClean.

[OWC Jamie]

Chlorine can kill the bacteria in the tank.
The tiny bit of chlorine you're typically going to use to clean a toilet once a week is hardly going to compromise the continuing addition of bacteria from your daily constitutions.


works fairly well on iron stains

[N-OS X-tasy!]

Barkeeper's Friend is another good cleaning alternative.

[Speedy]

No sweat. Bleach away. I bleached our laundry, using more bleach than you will, for over a decade before we got city water and sewer. Ne'er a problem. And we also used the old style Clorox toilet tank tablets containing bleach which resulted in me replacing the flapper valve every few years. Clorox sent us a check for $120 (IIRC) as part of a class action lawsuit over the tablets.