Green tip of the day - Quick tip for descaling your kettle

My friend's bathroom

Limescale build-up in your electric kettle can cause it to take twice as long to boil. You can save energy by descaling your kettle and reducing the amount of time and energy your kettle will use before it boils. This is particularly helpful if you live in a hard water area. It is fairly easy to determine whether you live in an area with hard water due to the obvious encrustations of limescale deposited around the taps in your bathroom and kitchen and the quality of the water, which is fairly hard to lather with a bar of soap. Another characteristic of hard water is its cloudy appearance when boiling. Also, after using hard water to bathe, you will notice that your skin feels dry and possibly itchy.

You will find some quick tips of how you can descale your kettle effectively and save energy at the same time.

A simple and cheap method for descaling around your home

Simply putting some vinegar into the kettle (about half a large bottle or the whole of a small bottle) will quickly and efficiently decalcify your kettle leaving it as good as new. For stubborn limescale, just use a bottle brush to quickly scrub clean any residual limescale crusts on the inside of the kettle after you have left the vinegar to sit for a few hours.

You can mix the vinegar with water and even boil the kettle, the heat helps the calcium to dissolve faster. I usually leave the kettle overnight and then rinse it out in the morning.

This is a quick and effective way to descale your kettle without chemicals, and as an added bonus, vinegar is very cheap and because it is something you put on food anyway, you won't have to worry about chemical poisoning if somebody accidentally boils the kettle to make a cup of tea while you have the vinegar sitting inside. However, I find that leaving a note on the kettle usually helps to alert family, friends and housemates that the kettle should not be used.

Additionally, I have found that using a water filter will help to reduce the build-up of calcium encrustations in your kettle and you will notice the difference in the colour of your tea from dark and cloudy brown to rich and golden.

You can also use citric acid powder derived from lemons and limes to descale your kettle and other things around the house affected by limescale build-up. This also works as well as vinegar due to its acidic nature and helps to decalcify limescale encrustations naturally.

Vinegar and acetic acid is also great to use around the house to keep your taps gleaming and full of shine. You can also use it in the bath to keep the bathtub and shower areas free of scum and dirty build-up, which can leave the area looking unsightly. Spray some on your shower curtain to keep it looking clean and fresh and also around the taps and sinks to keep limescale encrustations away.

Leave me a comment if you have any other household cleaning tips!