Kettle descalent

[Max Demian]

Has anyone actually tested this? I assume those things are snake oil as they only collect a small proportion of the scale.

[Bob Eager]

They certainly worked for us. No, they don't get it all - but they make descaling less frequent and a lot easier.

[Andrew]

Sainsburys are selling Purple kettles for only about £12.

Strangely, identical lime green or red ones are £22.

Work that one out.

[tabbypurr]

they're strangely effective. I've no idea why.

NT

[Ian Jackson]

I live in the Chilterns, and the water here is so hard that you nearly need to use two hands to stir a cup of tea.

The reason I'm recommending this type of scale preventer is that they really ARE so effective. Possibly it's because the lime-scale has a great affinity for stainless steel, or maybe it's something to with the tight curvature of exposed surface. Whatever is, they do make a vast difference to the rate of scale build-up on the kettle element (it's not just a little bit), and on the inside in general. If the preventer itself is regularly de-scaled (simply by scrunching it) it will probably last a lifetime. Not bad for a pound or two.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

I've used the Pound shop descaler in the past. The results were very poor. A couple of quid has saved me going out to buy a new kettle.

[PeterC]

I've the Lidl one of those. £20, nice clear PP spout, so easy to keep clean and doesn't dribble. Week after I got it Aldi had similar at £25, all metal and a dribblespout. The lower temperatures will help Another change that's needed is for the element to have much larger area to cut the intensity (area-specific power?), then less water would be needed to avoid cavitation on boiling (and

80C+).

[PeterC]

Almost any acid, alkaline, high or low pH will attack aluminium. It's amphoteric.

[543dsa]

Easy, hardly anyone buys purple ones so they want to get rid of those.

[Andrew]

Then, why did Sainsburys order them in the first place ?.

Until they are in store and on sale, they don't know what fickle decisions the customers will make.

[Ian Jackson]

Buyers often make silly choices.

My wife and I wanted a bog-standard white plastic jug type of kettle, so we went to a large John Lewis store. No chance! However, they had what must have been around 50 different designs of kettle - all 'futuristic', bulky, expensive and as ugly as hell - the sort of thing that I can't see many people wanting to buy. In the end, we got exactly what we wanted for ?12 at Sainsburys (white - not purple!).

[543dsa]

Because some do buy those.

More accurately, they don?t know what percentage of purple ones will be bought and when they discover that they sell fewer of those than they expected, they discount those to get rid of the excess.