Remove limescale from the electric kettle... the tried way

The 1 ltr kettle 

There are many articles on the internet as to how remove limescaling from electric kettles but I feel that majority of times it doesn’t work and especially not when the kettle which you have is a small one which does not facilitate cleaning by hand by a sponge brush because the opening is too small.

So here is the tried way which I used for cleaning….and believe me that I had used everything which the articles said… vinegar, lemon, baking soda…everything…but the thing which worked after trial and error was pure simple. For my crazy method, you would need just few things –

· White vinegar

· Water

· Lots of electricity

· A well ventilated room

Here I go. By the time I researched and knew that the deposit at the bottom of my 1 lt singer electric kettle was limescale , it had been in use almost daily for just over an year. Changing of the bottom plate would have cost me 500/- + so I decided to try this method. The deposit was very very thick so it took me 2 days to get all the various experiments correct. The articles on the internet talk about using vinegar and lemon / lemon and baking soda 50-50 and leaving the kettle undisturbed for quite a long time but you wont have that much time. Here`s how to proceed-

· Fill the kettle to its mix water level mark with the mixture of white vinegar and water but here is a catch. Firstly, use a mixture which is more loaded in favour of vinegar rather than water. White vinegar acts like an acid to cut the limescale deposit. Don’t use it 50-50. If your kettle can hold 6 cups of water in total, use 4 cups of vinegar and 2 of water. Whatever you do, the vinegar should be more than water.

· Pour all the measured vinegar first and then only put the remaining water.

Now the problem with electric kettles is auto shut off but you don’t want that. You want the mixture to boil and the magic to happen.

· Keep the kettle lid open and switch on the kettle, the mixture would start to boil and with no lid to trap the steam it would never switch off.

· The vinegar would cut through limescale deposit really quick. When you feel that the mixture is boiling very much so as to threaten spilling out, switch off the kettle but don’t unplug it.

· Let the mixture cool down ( bubbles to settle down). You would see pieces of the limescale deposit floating on the top and bubbles coming from the bottom of the deposit where the air pockets have formed.

· When you see that the air bubbles have stopped, switch on the kettle and repeat the process.

· The open lid would mean that the mixture would gradually reduce as it boils and is steamed away in vapours.

· Its your judgement call that you would have to take if you feel that too much pieces of limescale have broken off and have turned your transparent mix into a milky white and the vinegar concentrate might have become too diluted to carry on the work.

· If you feel that, throw the whole mixture, rinse the kettle , and refill the kettle again with the same proportion of mix as at the start, but remember, vinegar first.

· Repeat this whole process until all the limescale deposit has gone from the bottom of the kettle.

· Wash the kettle finally with water and use it.

Its a difficult job of keeping an eye on the kettle and switching it on and off to let the mixture work. Trust me, it would work. Too much of vinegar vapours in the room would make you sneeze so thats the reason I asked to do it in a well ventilated room with probably the switchboard near the door.

The vinegar lemon and vinegar baking soda trick failed for me and it took me full 2 days to get the final result so would advise you that in case you have a very thick deposit in the kettle, do this trick on your free day- it would take a lot of time and electricity but material wise would be very cheaper. It took me just 5 bottles of vinegar costing 30/- each to do that. Now I know that in the future it would take me less than a bottle to do this.