Removing hard water stains near a faucet?

A gentle cleaner is a paste of baking soda and water. Make a paste and sub gently with a sponge or paper towel then wash off.

white vinegar or lemon juice

I would not use anything that is a scrub on my granite, I am a bit picky though and probably extra careful/neurotic about my granite. So, I looked for non scrubby ways to do it and found Bob Villa (gotta love Bob Villa: https://www.bobvila.com/articles/how-to-remove-hard-water-stains/)

wrap the area in a towel with some white vinegar

Ls627 has the right idea: wrap a vinegar soaked dish or hand towel around faucet, leave overnight. Should come off with light scrubbing. We have horrible mineral stains here in SW Gulf Coast FL.

Put down paper towels soaked in vinegar, and make sure it's just on the faucet. Leave on for 1 hour.

Than you ladies for your input regarding hard water stains on my granite. However, almost everyone mentioned vinegar or lemon juice & early on in my research it said NEVER use acidic cleaners on granite. Have any other ideas?

NO VINEGAR! It will etch the granite.

Marble, granite, and stone do NOT like having acidic (ie: citrus-based) cleaners used on them. Citrus or vinegar will actually cause “etching” on granite countertops. Not a good thing. Granite countertops also don’t like it when you use something like Windex on them because it strips the “seal” off of the stone.

If you are trying to remove an old stain, create a dense paste of more baking soda and less water. Then place the paste over the stain, allowing it to function for a few minutes. After that wipe off the baking soda paste. If it is needed you can repeat the procedure until the stain vanishes.

Apparently there are some very nice countertop/granite cleaners out there that do a great job…but $7.00 for a 12-ounce bottle? YOU can do better than that! :-)

After researching several homemade options out there…I discovered they all had the same basic ingredients…just in varying amounts. Some had a LOT of alcohol in them…some very little. I think the following “recipe” has a good balance of the ingredients, based on the information I read.

Homemade Granite Cleaner, 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol (or cheap vodka), 3 drops of Dawn or other dish soap (Castile soap would also be a good alternative if you prefer), Water, 5-10 drops essential oil (optional – to help mask the alcohol smell).

Put the rubbing alcohol or vodka into a 16 oz spray bottle. Add the dish soap, essential oil and fill up the rest of the bottle with water.

Now give it a few shakes….THEN give it a try! It should give your countertops a nice, clean shine. Works on appliances too! All at a FRACTION of the price of the store-bought stuff.