De scaling kettle

[The Medway Handyman]

What do they use it for then?

[The Medway Handyman]

Water is a chemical, as is scale :-)

[dennis]

Dremel and wire brush.

[Dieseldes]

Citric acid is a natural preservative and can be used as a disinfectant and is MAF approved for the prevention of foot and mouth

Des

>

[The Medway Handyman]

I knew it was a food additive, but I never knew that.

Is the preservative effect the reason for its use in Indian cooking then?

[Owain]

I have used lemon juice (from a bottle) and it works okay for light scaling. Bring it to the boil and leave it to cool.

Owain

[Frank Erskine]

I've had similar problems trying to buy both citric acid and bor(ac)ic acid. Once upon a time (not that long ago) you could go into almost any proper 'chemist shop' and buy almost any useful chemicals, such as carbon tetrachloride, saltpetre, chloroform, ether, even litmus paper

- I had no problem buying any of the above as an obvious youngster. Nowadays it seems that the dreaded guvmint thinks that anybody trying to purchase such things must be either a druggie or a terrorist.

Little wonder that this country is now short of scientists/technologists.

ps - the chloroform and ether I used to mix with turnings/filings/scraps of Perspex to make Perspex adhesive.

[Anne Welsh Jackson]

Or, better still, just boil the amount of water you actually need, in the first place! Saves on the electricity bill...

[meow2222]

Any acid will attack the scale. Citric is the one that's safe in all appliances, others can attack parts of the appliance. Also citric is food, many of the others aren't. Its also very cheap, think I paid 40p a pop last time, from chemists'. Expect them to ask if you want it for heroin though, that seems to be its main use.

Add citric, boil kettle, leave it overnight. Rinse well before using the water.

NT

[TheOldFellow]

Long long ago I bought a house with badly fured pipes in a hard water area. It took an age to run a bath.

My Dad, who was an industrial chemist, 'obtained' from work about five kilos of citric acid powder which we dissolved in the cold tank one day before a holiday (having drained the hot tank first). Refilled the hot tank, and ran all the taps for a bit until the lemon juice came out. Then went away for two weeks. (I think he poped in from time to time to run the taps again actually).

When we got back the problem was cured. It took a while for the lemons to disappear from the bath water though.

R.

[Peter Parry]

As a bittering agent and as a cheaper alternative to lemon juice or tamarind in making things like spiced fish. Citric Acid (Tartri or Saji (na) phool or Nimboo ka Sat) is also used in making lemonade, curdling milk to make chenna (Indian cottage cheese) and as an alternative to vinegar.

It's also used as a cleaning agent.

[The Medway Handyman]

A likely story...

[Mike Lane]

On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:58:11 +0000, Anne Welsh Jackson wrote (in article ):

I've often read or heard that advice but when I attempt that, half the time I find I've not boiled quite enough - which ends up being even more wasteful.

[Rod]

Our kettle has quite a decent scale (on the outside, not lumps inside!). Makes filling to the right level quite easy - most of the time. Just need to remember - pot of coffee = 1; pot of tea = 1.5. And we fill it while it is standing flat on a surface - so it reads properly.

(The first kettle I used with a scale had a tube up the side - which within weeks scaled up and didn't properly reflect the contents. This one is an integral 'window'.)

[PeterC]

I can judge it to about +-20ml (sad).

[tinnews]

But not a lot, is it really worth the hassle (and the nuisance when you miscalculate)? Not to mention that the 'wasted' heat isn't wasted but warms up your kitchen a bit.

A 3kw kettle (they're mostly only 2.5kw I think) running for five minutes will consume 3/12 kwh, that'll cost around 5p I think at current prices. So if I manage to save even 30% of that by careful filling I've saved 1.5p per boil. Even three times a day for the whole year that only makes £15 or so, and, as I said it'll heat the kitchen so you'll save a bit on heating.

Now calculate how much you save turning off the standby on the TV in the kitchen as well and you'll realise how stupid most of these 'energy saving' ideas are.

Boiling kettles and standby are not big energy consumers so trying to minimise them is next to pointless.

[Harry Stottle]

Look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves ;-)

[Andy Dingley]

Look after the pounds and you can employ someone to count the pennies for you.

[The Natural Philosopher]

A little of a little makes a very little

[The Crimson King]

And that is more than equal to the cost of a week and half's holiday with the Sun newspaper...

You rich bar stewards might be able to afford =A315 a year but some of us actually live in the real world!