Soap Scum remover

I've been doing some research this morning about easy ways to remove soap scum. We have very hard water here and it just causes a nice thick cover to appear. Doesn't help that I'm not much of a house cleaner, and let it build up to long. Most of the cleaners I've found don't work real well. Best has been scrubbing bubbles foam stuff. This last time I took a putty knife to the stuff and started scraping, which is ok for smooth flag surfaces. But in my searching this morning I found a suggestion of easy off no fume oven cleaner (blue can).

http://www.doityourself.com/forum/cleaning-stain-removal/241497-how-remove-soap-scum-hard-water-stains-fiberglass-shower.html

Any of you guys ever done such a thing, or have another technique you suggest? I know we have a resourceful bunch here.

I have used the Blue Easy-Off and it does work well. I haven't tried using the dryer sheets to remove it, though. I think the Yellow Easy-Off works even better, but IT IS *DANGEROUS*! The fumes will burn your lungs, the cleaner will burn your skin if left on very long at all, and if your shower doors have aluminum frames the lye will start eating it up! Probably better to stick with the Blue can. I've found that either one works best if the shower is dry when applied. For some reason it just doesn't do the job when applied to a wet surface. Might just be dilution, or, as my water is quite acid, the water could be lowering the pH, I don't know.

I don't know why the idea of using car wax after cleaning never occurred to me. Sounds like it would work. I use it on lots of other things like tools outside, etc., although you have to renew it frequently. (Boiled linseed oil actually forms a coating that lasts longer, when I do handles I've been known to do the entire tool, but I don't do the handles nearly often enough. The wax can is usually closer and the rags won't spontaneously combust. And I wouldn't use the linseed oil on the shower!) I'm not sure I'd go with the WD-40. The smell does persist. I really like Rain-X on my windshield; I might give it a shot on the shower. Maybe a side-by-side with wax as one poster mentioned.

Squeegeeing after use definitely makes a difference. Tilex after-shower spray also helps, but neither totally prevents the scum from appearing, especially on glass.

I suspect the effectiveness of these remedies (and the varying comments from different posters on the forum) might differ with the exact formulation of the soap thats doing the scumming and the exact minerals in your water, and maybe even the pH of your water. (My water is very acidic, as well as being fairly hard, which dissolves copper from the pipes and leaves a horrible blue stain that is *very* hard to remove. The Yellow Easy-Off does the best on the blue stain, but doesn't totally remove it. I'm not too picky about appearances, but when/if I sell the house I think I'll have to replace the fiberglass.) IOW, YMMV.

I have no idea of how any distro of Linux, or even BSD, could help.

Linux could help if it was running a soap scum removing bot.

I'm going to get some of the blue stuff to try. Won't even consider the yellow with my asthma history. I just have a shower curtain so no doors to worry about. The worst part is really the bottom because its a nonslip texture and in the curvy places.

Finally got around to doing a full scale cleaning today. I must say it does quite well, much better than any shower cleaners I tried.

I was hoping to hear about the results. Thank you. Glad to hear it worked well. Hopefully your asthma wasn't affected. Did you get the bot up and running?

No it really didn't smell at all. The house did have a bit of a fresh lemony scent.