What is the best method to remove stains from the toilet?

Toilet cleaning products are not cutting it. Do I need to use something like CLR?

Please try CLR before any abrasive approach. At the very least, if it doesn't rid your problem, it will do no harm.

Check with a knowledgeable person at your hardware store before trying the abrasive approaches already recommended above. You want to be sure not to cut through the glazing on your bowl.

The pumice stone might be OK, but certain grades of sandpaper are hard enough to dig through that protective finish.

If you need to apply force, I would think a very fine grade of steel wool would be the safest.

Hard water deposits are very hard to remove with any chemical.
Here's a great tip for you shhhhhh don't tell the secret.
Get some good cloth backed sandpaper or a sanding sponge at any hardware. Clean the bowl out as good as you can. Put on some rubber gloves and dip the sandpaper right in the bowls water and scrub it right off. It will not hurt the bowl as long as you just use it on the deposits. It will look like new again I promise.

Buy a Pumice stone at the hardware store or grocery store. It is usually grey in color and rectangular in shape. It works wonders for a ring in the toliet. Lasts a long time too.

Use a little Ajax to scrub it out with. If you don't have septic & are on a sewerline, a little bleach added to the water will do the trick.

Oh wow,,lol I had the worse water in Michigan.. I used tub and tile cleaner by the Works.. you need to empty the water in the toilet, then spray it on and let sit for about 10 minutes.. Also, they make a toilet bowl cleaner.. use it.. If you still have a stain, rinse the toilet a couple of times and use comet soft scrub on it and let sit.. CLR will work to if you have it, just use full strength and let sit..

You can get the work at the dollar general store for cheap!!..
Good luck

The works toilet cleaner or Bar keepers friend, good luck.

CLR! I swear by that stuff. My husbands grandfather lives out on an old farm so he has really bad rust stains etc. Everything came right out. I hope this helps you out.

Lysol toilet bowl cleaner is the best thing I have ever used in my entire life. I hardly had to scrub at all, and the hard-water stains just went away.