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Kettle descaler?

Does anyone here sort of 'make their own'? I buy glacial acetic acid off ebay, because the missus uses it (well diluted, of course) as fabric conditioner, although it doesn't really condition it AFAICT, but she seems to like it. Anyway, it's not as good as I'd imagined at descaling kettles, even though I thought it'd be stronger. I think the bought stuff contains citric acid, but I don't want to buy a load of ebay just to have it sit on the shelf for the rest of my life next to the Bradex Easy-Start.

Reply to
Dan S. MacAbre
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I buy citric acid crystals - lowest price I can find on ebay - seems to work.

Reply to
Bob Minchin

Some (e.g. kilrock) is formic acid, the gentler ones for coffee machines use lactic acid.

Reply to
Andy Burns

I use Astonish Descaler, £1 a bottle in Savers and does 5 goes. Works really well, I think its concentrated citric acid so non toxic.

Reply to
Andy Bennet

Willco do citric acid in 500g packs for about £1.50.

Reply to
dennis

Fernox DS3 (sulphamic acid) is not cheap, £16 for 2 kg, but makes up a large quantity, and is said to have an indicator (so it can be re-used until exhausted). I've just bought some for a business, but they are still on their first batch which hasn't run out yet.

Reply to
newshound

To cut down on the need for descaler, do any of you use the lump of stainless steel 'wire wool' in your kettles? It makes a fantastic difference to the rate at which scale forms. All you have to remember is to take it out of the kettle every week of so, and get rid of the scale it has accumulated (instead of the kettle) by rinsing it under a running tap while rolling it between the palms of your hands.

Reply to
Ian Jackson

In my experience, formic acid is damn efficient - much more than acetic.

However, for food usage (eg kettles) and bathroom cleaning, I find citric to be the best - moderately powerful and not toxic.

Reply to
Tim Watts

I use Furnox DS3.

The 2kg tub would probably last a lifetime descaling your kettle. (I believe they do a smaller pack too, but it's poor value for money.) I use it for descaling plumbing fittings too, and I think a tub lasts me 10 years. Usually buy from BES - I've actually bought loads because other people keep asking me for it. There are

4 x 2kg tubs in a box, if you want a convenient boxed quantity.

It has an indicator dye which turns from yellow to blue/green IIRC when the descaler is exhausted. Only time I descaled something that required multiple doses was a secondary heat exchanger in a combi, which had blocked with scale. It also has a smell added, so you can quickly spot if someone tries to make a cup of tea/coffee when you were halfway through descaling the kettle. (The other give-away is the milk curdles instantly when you pour it in if there's even a tiny amount of sulphamic acid left.) Beware of the fumes - scale fizzes vigourously, and the resulting fine spray given off from the liquid surface takes the inside off your nose if you accidentally catch a whiff of it.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Used to do this with old-style kettles with separate elements. On the present "cordless" one the element is built into the bottom of the kettle, and the kettle does not scale up to anything like the same extent. I sometimes put the used "coffee machine" descaler into the kettle, but in truth I don't think it really needs it. I'm not sure whether the water has changed and is now less hard, or whether the deposits stay in suspension and end up in the tea.

Reply to
newshound

On holiday recently I started to fill the kettle and found pieces of scale loose in it.

Our son dislikes the taste of tea made with hard water, so we'd used a bottled water the night before and figure that the soft water sitting there overnight had loosened a bit - or maybe it was just chance.

We couldn't use the kettle as it was and having nothing else to hand, I put a bottle of vinegar in, turned it on 'til the bubbles got a bit high, off, on again, off again, etc. After a few minutes I emptied it out and washed it out with hot water from the tap a few times. Finally I boiled a kettle-full of water and emptied it again.

I don't know if it will harm the kettle in the long term, but it certainly took all the scale off.

The vinegar smell in the house took a couple of hours to disappear though.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

I live just west of London, in the chalky Chiltern Hills. Kettles (all kinds) fur-up rapidly. One boil - and you can see the scale. The 'wire wool' thingy - plus a de-scale every once in a while - keeps the element looking almost like new. After a de-scale, the 'spent' Kilrock K (which is what I use) gets used to de-scale the surface of the taps etc.

I guess that in the old-style 'curly element' type of kettle, the surface of the element is probably hotter than when the element is in the base - and that's why they fur-up quicker.

Reply to
Ian Jackson

Some interesting ideas - thanks all. Interesting that these are all organic acids. I've no idea why that should be, but there may be a good reason for it.

Reply to
Dan S. MacAbre

Safe and non-toxic. There are some acids you might refrain from putting on your chips.

Reply to
Fredxxx

Hydrochloric will dissolve scale much better, but it will also dissolve the metalwork inside the kettle. I do use it where there's no metalwork.

Many descalers will dissolve the zinc out of the surface of brass, turning it copper coloured, but generally that doesn't matter and it's a surface effect only.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Citric acid works very well and can usually be found cheaply in shops selling Indian food.

Reply to
Peter Parry

I don't understand why hydrochloric acid should dissolve metals if it's suitably diluted. But I'm pretty sure that it will, otherwise everyone would use it due to its low cost.

My understanding is that at low concentrations, hydrochloric acid will be fully dissociated into hydrogen ions and chloride ions. The hydrogen ions are what any acid will provide (that's what makes something an acid); and the chloride ions are just the same as you'd get from some dissolved salt.

Reply to
Caecilius

The missus once thought it'd be a good idea to squirt some toilet descaler aound the bath plug hole, like you might with bleach. It took all the chrome plating off, but fortunately I was planning to replace the bathroom suite soon after she did it (it was soon after our lad had dropped a heavy toy boat in the bath, and I had to repair the resulting hole with a penny coin underneath and some araldite). So whatever's in that is presumably quite strong.

Reply to
Dan S. MacAbre

The other thing to be very careful with descaling is vitreous enamel baths. Most descalers will take off the highly polished finish. You really need to ensure you don't get any scale build-up in the first place, and only use cleaning products which state they are safe for use on vitreous enamel, at least whilst the bath still looks like new.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

I think sulphamic is pH 1 but isn't corrosive, so it's a no brainer for mos t descaling. I've never seen it change colour and I've been using the same

10% solution on the shower head for years. Seems to me that salts become so luble in the presence of acid but it doesn't get used up. Then again, I'm n o chemist
Reply to
stuart noble

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