Krazy Klean Claims to Keep Your Toilet Clean for 10 Years. It Couldn’t Even Handle 6 Weeks.

To see if the Krazy Klean Pro would have any effect on existing mineral deposits in the bowl, I didn’t pre-scrub the toilet before putting the device in the tank. While the company’s site states that the Krazy Klean Pro will not remove old rust or stains, some of its advertisements do show graphics of existing stains melting away from the toilet bowl. After several weeks, I did not notice any reduction in the mineral buildup in my toilet bowl or tank.

When I saw that the stains hadn’t budged, I removed the device, thoroughly scrubbed the iron deposits from the bowl, and put it back in the tank, thinking I would give it a clean slate. It didn’t work this time, either — the toilet accumulated the same level of staining in the following weeks.

The Krazy Klean Pro purports to stop mineral deposits from sticking to the toilet bowl in the first place by using “magnetic fields to alter the structure of minerals” in your water. (The product is also labeled as being “with Bact-o-Bane,” which, according to the company’s FAQ page, refers to a recycled resin that coats the outer layer of plastic and is “specifically designed to prolong the life of the plastic for +10 years.” We did not test the Krazy Klean Pro for that period of time, of course, so we can’t speak directly to those claims.)

While magnetic fields might sound a bit sci-fi, they have shown potential for reducing scale formation and enhancing liquid flow, as in this study, which demonstrated that higher magnetic strength significantly removed scale from pipe walls.

This type of technology might be helpful for large-scale industrial facilities, but plumber Kyle Poe has never seen reliable results from smaller magnetic water treatments made for use in a home toilet. (The Krazy Klean Pro isn’t the only magnetic water treatment available for sale, though from what we can tell, it’s the only one that goes inside your toilet. Because the device sits inside the tank, it isn’t visible while in use.) “Some homeowners may notice a temporary difference” from using small magnetic devices, Poe said, “but the buildup almost always comes back.”

We have not tested additional magnetic water treatments besides the Krazy Klean Pro, but Poe told us that “unlike true water softeners,” which remove calcium and magnesium particles through a process called an ion exchange, “magnets don’t actually remove the minerals from the water.”

I sawed the plastic chamber open to examine the contents, and I found only four stamp-sized magnets mounted inside. They were also rather weak, unable to hold up a spoon or to stick to the side of my fridge without sliding.

Even though a single toilet contains a small volume of water, these small, unpowered magnets don’t seem to make any difference in the water’s composition.

Only a handful of reviews among the more than 4,000 on Krazy Klean’s site state that the product didn’t do much, which does not line up with my experience or the experience of the many other commenters I saw on Reddit. We reached out to a publicist with Krazy Klean for comment but did not hear back.

Krazy Klean’s refund-policy page states that the product can be returned in its original packaging within 30 days, but several Reddit users have reported difficulty in returning it. The reviews on third-party site Trustpilot also paint a picture of dissatisfaction, as many disgruntled reviewers note its lack of efficacy and issues with customer service.