Hello,
We live in a very hard water area and the kettle scales up very very quickly, I have always used de scaler tablets or powder to de scale the kettle however I was wondering if there was another way of doing it as the price of de scaler is working out to be quite expensive.
I have Googled it and most people suggest vinegar, bicarbonate of soda or lemon juice, somehow I don't have any faith in those things.
We find running the water through a Brita water filter before putting it in the kettle works. The Brita filters have an ion exchange resin which removes the hardness.
Citric acid was 69p for 150 gms last time I looked. A tablespoon should be plenty
Thanks for the replies Jim and Stuart, I'll give the citric acid a whirl
B&Q does a liquid descaler called Kilrock-K at about two quid which is brilliant.
Peter Scott
In message , David writes
Anything acidic will work. So vinegar will work, but it needs rinsing well afterwards, and it will need leaving for a while as it's not that strong an acid. Ditto lemon juice I guess. Bicarb won't work.
Buying some citric acid powder from a chemist, or hardware shop is probably cheapest
So long as you use it in time. Citric acid won't shift really thick scale once it's built up - then you're back to the sulphamic and the formic.
Personally I didn't mind thick scale so much, as it stayed where it was and I could descale it from time to time. The stuff that really annoyed was thin scale that was brittle enough to flake off the element end up in my tea.
Vinegar works a treat - a 50/50 mix with water is usually sufficient, just bung in enough to cover the element plus a bit more for luck, then pop the kettle on. You might have to turn it off just before the boil to prevent foaming. You can vary the mix if you have a lot of scale to remove - even use neat vinegar.
I've always used it in my kettles and dishwashers - never been tempted to try anything harsher.
Regards.
Under the NuLabr rule of terror, asking for citric acid sees one branded as a drug dealer.
The correct acid to use for descaling is sulphamic acid. This has the advantage that it's impossible to make a strong solution of sulphamic acid because it's not very soluble.
You can buy it here:
You may be able to get it in bulk from a homebrew supplier or commercial coffee supplier.
Where can you buy it Stuart?
+1 for a Brita filter and don't leave your kettle standing with water in it.
Should it be sitting down than?
I get ours from the local vegetarian food shop - strangely named "Veggie Perrin's"!
We always use Waitrose descaler and find that it works perfectly well. You can also slow the build up of scale if you empty he kettle fully after each use.
David - Milton Keynes
Local chemist has it, and so do any of the big supermarket pharmacies. I was asked in Sainsburys what I wanted it for, and I said for drug refining. She said I didn't look the type and handed it over. Silly business
I went into 3 pharmacies last week to buy some isopropyl alcohol, got the same response in each. Oh no we don't keep anything like that anymore and we would not be allowed to sell it anyway thank god for the internet,I bought 5 litres just in case it gets banned completely.
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I used the de scaler from Aldi and it works a treat, so does the cheap one pound one you get in Asda named Keep it handy. I was just wondering if there was an alternative to using chemicals.
Get a tub of Fernox DS3 - costs about £15 but will make over 100 gallons of descaler (literally). Works fast (best in hot water).
Cheapest place is usually your local Indian food shop. Last I bought was about £3 a Kilo.
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