How to descale a kettle: we reveal all the secrets. The safest and most effective methods of descaling your kettle

When boiling, a huge amount of salt is released from hard water. Over time, they stick to the walls and bottom of the kettle, and they are called "scale". At first glance, scale does not really interfere with life - so what if the water has become cloudy, and something crunches on your teeth? And if the owners of ordinary enameled teapots can ignore scale for years, then the owners of electric kettles can be upset - with a thick layer of scale, the service life of the kettle is reduced several times, up to six months.

In order to prolong the life of the electric kettle and preserve the taste of the water, it is necessary to regularly descale it, which occurs mainly on the heating elements. Fixed anti-scale products:

lemon acid;
table vinegar 9%;
soda;
salt;
chemical anti-scale agents, for example, "Anti-scale";

In all cases for effective removal scale this or that remedy must either be boiled or left overnight. However, these well-known and available funds can really help in removing limescale. What is guaranteed to give a 100% result?

"Antinakipin"
- According to the instructions, pour the product into the kettle and fill it with water.
- Boil.
- Rinse the kettle thoroughly under running water.
- Boil and drain the water 3-4 more times to get rid of any residues.
The bottom line. Antinakipin coped with scale on the walls of the kettle perfectly. But the high layer of scale at the bottom remained practically unchanged. Of side effects was tagged bad smell throughout the kitchen and fears of drinking water from a boiled kettle. However, you can safely use it if the plaque is small.
Lemon acid
- Put a tablespoon of citric acid in a kettle and fill it with water.
- Boil.
- Rinse the kettle under cold water.
- Boil again.
The bottom line. The walls of the kettle are crystal clear, but the scale on the bottom still lives, despite the fact that citric acid was supposed to split the alkali, which forms the basis of scale. After reboil the results have not changed, but reviews of citric acid use are full of success. Maybe it doesn't work on all teapots?
Soda
- Pour a tablespoon of baking soda with cold water as much as the volume of your kettle allows.
- Boil.
- Rinse the kettle under running water.
- If necessary, you can rub the loosened scale with a sponge.
- Boil and drain the kettle 2 more times to remove any remaining baking soda.
The bottom line. The scale has become slightly looser, making it possible to scrape it off slightly with the hard side of a dishwashing sponge. However, part of the scale, already saturated with useful and not very useful means, remains in its rightful place.
Soda and salt
- Just as in the previous version, put two tablespoons of baking soda in a kettle and fill it with water, but now add a tablespoon of table salt to it.
- Boil.
- Leave it on for 5-10 minutes and drain off the water.
- Rinse the inside of the kettle with running water.
- Boil a new one two or three times clean waterto clean the kettle completely.
The bottom line. Finally, we managed to defeat the scale! The coating has dissolved almost completely, only a small layer remains, which can be easily wiped off with a sponge. The kettle shines, the sediment no longer crunches on the teeth - is this not a real effect?
Vinegar.
- For 1.5 liters of water, pour 200 ml of 9% table vinegar into a kettle and leave the mixture for 15-20 minutes.
- Boil.
- Rinse the kettle thoroughly under a strong stream of running water.
- Boil several times and drain the fresh water.
- Rinse the kettle again.
The bottom line. The entire inner surface of the teapot became absolutely clean, the bottom shone, but the deeply eaten pieces of scale remained where they were. One of the side effects was a specific smell that filled the entire kitchen, but it was easily removed from the surface of the kettle with running water. In general, like using citric acid, this method is good for small layers of limescale, which it will clean off without difficulty.

Many well-known anti-scale recipes are completely invalid under conditions real life, but less common recipes give surprisingly good results. As a result, the best way to descale the electric kettle was soda combined with salt. Well, and most importantly, as a result of the experiments, not a single kettle was damaged.

The water in our taps leaves much to be desired, and the question of how to descale the kettle does not lose its sharpness. For electric kettles, the sediment on the walls is not just a terrible internal, but the deterioration of the thermal conductivity of the metal is proportional to the thickening of the layer, which provokes a decrease in the power of the heater and its service life (work for wear has not done anything better). Boiling water requires increased time and energy costs. Scale has a similar effect on ordinary kettles - the burner also takes much longer. Result: cost overruns, premature wear and tear of household appliances.

Scale deposited on the heating elements of heating boilers often leads to pipe rupture. Whether she can break the heating element of the kettle is unknown. Apparently, because the housewives are used to descaling teapots - we figure out how they do it.

How to descale the kettle at home

There are many ways to clean your kettle at home. The stores offer a wide range of special means... Some of them work instantly, and some don't work at all. It depends on the manufacturer, his honesty. The vast majority of descaling tablets / liquids / gels are based on acetic acid and citric acid.

Regular kettle

At home, add to vinegar and citric acid:

brine;
baking soda;
fanta, sprite, coca-cola;
potato and apple peelings.

Not all products suitable for cleaning ordinary teapots, suitable for electrical processing. The point is in the duration of exposure and the proper temperature: if you need a long boil over low heat, this way you will not be able to descale a regular electric kettle, but a thermos kettle can.

How to clean a kettle with vinegar

Thermos kettle

This method of descaling is suitable for ordinary teapots and thermo-flasks with temperature control. Vinegar must be diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10 (100 ml of vinegar per liter of water), fill the kettle with the solution and put on the stove (turn on). As soon as the water boils, you need to see if the scale has peeled off. If the walls of the dishes have not yet been freed from the sediment, we leave it to boil over a low fire for about 15 minutes (the electric boil will not quietly, therefore the method is not suitable).

Important! After the procedure, the dishes must be thoroughly washed, several portions of water must be boiled in it, the room must be well ventilated.

How to clean a teapot with citric acid

Descaling the kettle citric acid - a universal method, equally effective for conventional and electrical (metal and even plastic) models. Dissolve citric acid in water at the rate of 2 teaspoons per liter. Pour the solution into a kettle and boil.

Tip: do not bring the dishes to a state where descaling will require harsh cleaning. With the help of citric acid, carry out prophylaxis: fill the kettle with the solution, as soon as plaque appears on its walls, and leave it for several hours.

How to descale soda

They do the same with soda as with vinegar, but they boil for longer. You need to pour soda water at the rate of 1 liter per tablespoon, put it on the stove, let it boil, reduce the heat to low and keep it for half an hour so that the solution barely boils.

After half an hour of boiling, the liquid must be poured out, the kettle must be thoroughly washed and clean water must be boiled in it, after which it must also be discarded.

Unformat: soda, brine, cleaning

The obvious vinegar and citric acid can be replaced with non-standard, even unexpected, means. Eating foods and beverages do a great job with scale in the kettle.

Soda

Great tool - "Sprite"

Soda is so “safe” that it does an excellent job of descaling kettles. Why are there dishes - they successfully wash carbs of cars with sweet water. "Sprite", "Coca-Cola" and "Fanta" cope in the same way, but it is better to use "Sprite" - "Coca-Cola" and "Fanta" may well leave colorful stains on the metal walls instead of scale.

The method is suitable for any teapots - you won't even have to keep it for a long time (such a "thermonuclear" composition): you need to fill the kettle with a miracle drink halfway and bring it to a boil. First, it is necessary to rid the water of gas (it is not gas that cleans - the caustic substance is contained in the water itself). The method is excellent in its clarity. It can serve as an aid and evidence base in enlightening children about the dangers of purchased soda.

Brine

Also good way descaling electric kettles - no need to boil for a long time over low heat. how active substance the same vinegar works - brine is not an independent remedy. To clean the kettle, just fill it with brine, boil it, cool it down, empty it and wash it thoroughly. Particularly effective cucumber pickle.

Descaling

This method is ancient - it was successfully used by our grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Potato and apple peelings are used as a cleaning agent (it is not starch that works, but acids). Descaling is simple: just load the peel into the kettle, add water and put it on fire.

After the water boils, you need to remove the dishes from the stove, leave for a couple of hours, then rinse thoroughly, draining the solution. Before the procedure, the peelings are also thoroughly washed if they are potato.

How to descale a particularly neglected kettle

Unfortunately, this method is not suitable for an electric one, but an ordinary kettle, even if it is in a very neglected state, can be cleaned. The success of the method is ensured by complex processing. You need to act in three stages:

Fill with water, add a tablespoon of baking soda, boil and drain the solution.
Fill with water, add a tablespoon of citric acid, bring to a boil and leave for half an hour over low heat; drain the solution.
Fill again, add half a glass of vinegar, let it boil, leave for half an hour over low heat; drain the solution.

Metal kettle that can withstand harsh cleaning

After the procedure, you need to thoroughly wash the dishes, boil several portions of water in it “empty”.

It happens that the sediment remains on the walls, but after such a shock treatment it can be easily removed with a sponge for dishes.

Important! Do not use hard brushes, especially those with metal teeth, or abrasive sponges.

Tip: Buy a glass electric kettle with a heating bottom. It is impossible to start it: transparent walls will not allow; scale does not settle on the walls, but floats in flakes; a special cleaner for dishes, glass, ceramics (Cillit, for example) can easily get rid of plaque.

Model with heated bottom and glass walls

It is not so difficult to descale the kettle at home, but it will take time. Sediment appears due to excessive mineralization of the water, but this can be avoided by using purchased water. It is inexpensive (all the more, we are talking about health: the body does not rejoice when salts and minerals are excessively introduced into it), and you do not have to periodically remove scale.

Scale appears due to impurities contained in poor-quality water. During boiling, they settle on the walls of the kettle and spoil the taste of hot drinks. Also, scale does not conduct heat well, so a dirty kettle will boil longer.

How to clean a kettle with vinegar

The method is suitable for very dirty teapots made of plastic, glass, stainless steel.

You will need:

½ liter of water;
1 cup 9 percent vinegar or 2 tablespoons 70 percent vinegar essence.

Heat water in a kettle, and then pour in vinegar or vinegar essence and leave the solution for an hour. During this time, the scale will soften. Rinse the inside of the kettle with a sponge, boil clean water again and drain it.

How to clean a kettle with lemon or citric acid

The method is suitable for electric kettles made of stainless steel, plastic or glass with a moderate layer.

Not suitable for enamelled and aluminum teapots.

You will need:

½ liter of water;
¼ lemon or 2 tablespoons of citric acid.

Heat water in a kettle and put a slice of lemon or citric acid in boiling water. Leave the scale to soak for 1–2 hours. Rinse the kettle with a sponge and rinse thoroughly. After the first boil, the water will need to be drained.

How to clean a kettle with baking soda

The method is suitable for any teapots.

You will need:

½ liter of water;
1 tablespoon baking soda.

Stir the baking soda well in a glass of water until it dissolves completely. Pour the resulting liquid into a kettle, add the rest of the water and boil it. Wait half an hour or an hour and reheat the kettle.

Now you can wash the kettle and boil clean water in it. True, after it you have to pour it out.

How to clean a kettle with soda

The method is suitable for stainless steel kettles heated on a kitchen stove.

Not suitable for aluminum, enamelled and electric kettles.

You will needa bottle of any lemonade. The most famous option is cola, but it is better to use a colorless drink (it is important that the composition contains citric acid).

Let the open bottle of lemonade sit for 2–3 hours for the gas bubbles to disappear. The rest is simple: pour the drink into the kettle and bring to a boil. Then thoroughly wash and rinse everything.

How to peel a kettle

The method is suitable for enamel and metal teapots with a weak limescale layer.

Not suitable for electric kettles.

You will need:

½ liter of water;
skins 2-3, apples or pears.

Rinse off the dirt and sand cleaners, put them in the kettle and fill with water. Boil the liquid and leave to infuse for one to two hours. A light layer of limescale will go away on its own, rub stubborn dirt with a dishwashing sponge. After rinsing, the kettle will shine like new.

If you have a particularly roomy kettle, and scale has accumulated on the walls, take large quantity water than indicated in the recipes. The liquid must completely cover the dirt.

How to keep a kettle clean for a long time

Pour soft water into the kettle. If you are not buying bottled, use a filter. Or at least stand the tap water for a few hours to allow the impurities to precipitate.
Boil water in a kettle no more than once. Better fill in fresh.
Rinse the inside of the kettle at least once a day. And ideally before each use.
For the sake of prevention, once a month, boil a filled kettle with one tablespoon of citric acid.

Have you ever explored tap water? If not, then we can only assume what is contained in it, except for "ash-two-o". Some substances are easy to detect even without careful analysis - these are salts of the metals magnesium and calcium. The water in which they are contained is called hard.

Take a look inside your kettle. If you see a persistent grayish coating (scale), it means that the water in your water supply is hard.

Hardness of water

There are many ways to get rid of water hardness. You can use chemicals or filters, but the easiest way is to boil the water. In this case, soluble hydrocarbonates will pass into insoluble carbonates and settle in the form of scale on the walls of the dishes.

Immediately, we note that you cannot use hard sponges or knives, this can damage the dishes. Knowing that the walls are just chemical compound, try to act on it chemically.

You can descale the teapot with inorganic and organic acids. Have you ever quenched baking soda with vinegar? Something similar happens to scale when acids are added. Use vinegar to get started. Moreover, it is in the arsenal of any hostess.

We take vinegar

People got acquainted with vinegar a long time ago, when the first barrel of wine from an unlucky winemaker turned sour. But people hardly thought that this spoiled wine would turn out to be quite a valuable tool in the household.

Use at least 9% vinegar for cleaning. In one liter of water, 150 g of the substance must be dissolved. Better yet, use a more concentrated solution - vinegar essence. You can take one (maximum two) tablespoon of it. Pour the solution into a kettle (up to half the volume) and boil. You need to boil for at least half an hour.

During the cleaning procedure, the kitchen will smell like vinegar. Therefore, it is advisable to open a window or at least a window, and remove children and asthmatics to another room. After the procedure, the kitchen must be well ventilated.

If the plaque is large, it cannot be removed immediately. In this case, the cleaning can be repeated. At the very end, rinse the dishes thoroughly to get rid of the persistent vinegar smell.

You can also descale the electric kettle with vinegar. It is necessary to pour clean water into it to the very top and dissolve the required amount of the product in it.

The peculiarity of cleaning the electric kettle is that continuous boiling for a certain time is impossible.

Proceed as follows: wait for the electric kettle to turn off automatically, then wait a little and turn it on again. Repeat several times. After the procedure, boil the kettle with the addition of detergentsfollowed by clean water.

Cleansing "lemon"

It is not difficult to descale a kettle using citric acid. You can purchase it at the grocery store. The advantage of this product is the absence of a pungent odor and absolute harmlessness. Despite the fact that it is a weak organic acid, it is able to dissolve hardness salts.

The entire cleaning procedure consists of 6 stages:

Buy 1-2 packages of citric acid, 25 or 20 g.
Pour two-thirds of the way into the kettle cold water and pour one sachet of citric acid into it.
Boil water for about 5 minutes.
Check the cleaning quality. To do this, remove the kettle from the heat and gently stir the water in it. Flakes in water indicate the effectiveness of the procedure.
When finished, drain the dirty solution and rinse the kettle under running water.
Boil a kettle of clean water twice.

If there is not much scale in the kettle, the cleaning procedure can be carried out without boiling. Dissolve citric acid in water, pour into a kettle, wait about 5 hours. Then proceed as in the previous case.

Soda will help

Now we will tell you how to descale the kettle using soda. First, fill the kettle with a clean tap water... Then dissolve the baking soda - a heaping tablespoon - and boil.

Wait about 20 minutes, then drain the solution and refill the kettle. Then you need to add one spoonful of citric acid and boil. Pour out the dirty water and clean the kettle with a soft sponge.

You can substitute vinegar for citric acid. For cleaning, you need to boil water and immediately add 3 tablespoons of soda to it. After half an hour of exposure, boil the solution again and pour out of the kettle. Then fill it up hot water with vinegar essence (2 tablespoons).

Bring the solution to a boil, wait half an hour and pour out. As in previous version, clean the remaining loose deposits with a sponge. This cleaning can be done for any kind of teapot.

Baking soda loosens limescale, and citric or acetic acid dissolves it. It is very profitable to use baking soda for cleaning, because it is cheap, available and completely harmless.

Coca-Cola against scale

Why Coca-Cola? It contains inorganic phosphoric acid, which is added to the drink to improve the taste. And the effect of orthophosphoric acid on carbonates is similar to the effect of acetic and citric acid.

Of course, the concentration of acid in Coca-Cola is low. Therefore, with a thick layer of scale, it will not help. But with a small bloom it will cope. Moreover, this is the most safe way descale the kettle.

Pour the drink into the kettle up to half the volume. Wait for gas bubbles to come out. After that, boil the water and let it stand for half an hour. Then drain the solution from the kettle and rinse with clean water.

To keep your kettle in perfect condition, descale it every month. With a small layer of contamination, the cleaning procedure can be carried out without heating. In advanced cases, use industrial descaling agents. And do not forget to rinse the dishes well with tap water after any cleaning.

The modern variety of teapots is amazing. You can't keep up with innovations: manufacturers experiment with materials, technologies, shapes and colors. To make the kettle last long, it is advised to use spring, filtered or bottled water. And if this is not possible, stand the water from the tap throughout the day.

Why does plaque appear

Over time, scale will appear in any kettle. But the increased hardness of the water will significantly shorten these periods and will cause many problems. Firstly, scale is dangerous for the heating element. A spiral or a metal disc covered with a coating quickly overheats, loses heat transfer and, as a result, burns out. Secondly, additional electricity costs will be required for boiling. Well, it is clear that water only from clean dishes will give coffee or tea a good taste.

Hard water contains an excess of calcium and magnesium salts. A hardness of 3 to 6 mEq / L is considered normal. White and dark spots on faucets, sink or toilet, clogged holes in the shower pipe, whitish spots on washed dishes, persistent lime deposits in the kettle are sure signs of high water hardness (6 to 9 meq / l).

Many people believe that installing a filter (jug, flow or reverse osmosis) will completely eliminate the problem of scale. In fact, it will reduce plaque formation, but only slightly. The action of most filters is not aimed at softening water, but at its mechanical cleaning from heavy metals and bleach.

How to descale a kettle: special chemicals

Before removing the scale in the teapot, you need to remember: it is impossible to mechanically remove the plaque that has already formed. If you start scrubbing or scrubbing it with your own hands, you will ruin the device. Therefore, in our time, many chemicals to combat scale. Basically, these are liquid or powder preparations based on soda ash.

They all have an identical principle of operation: according to the indicated dosage, we put it into a kettle, fill the device with water up to the maximum mark and boil it. After that, rinse thoroughly, boil fresh water again and drain.

Do not use cleaning gels or powders with coarse abrasive granules. They will scratch the surface and the scale will adhere even more firmly to the bottom and sides of the kettle.

The main disadvantage industrial facilities is that chemical substances can enter the stomach. So it is not harmless. Yes, and not all formulations give the desired effect.

Old-fashioned methods

Rest assured: time-tested folk recipes guarantee a 100% positive result. Ordinary soda, vinegar and "lemon" are recognized leaders among the remedies for descaling in a kettle. To successfully get rid of solid deposits, you will need knowledge of dosages, cleaning steps and rules for use in different types devices.

For a regular enamel teapot

Such specimens are less and less common in modern kitchen interior... But, of course, they continue to be bought, because they are much cheaper than their electric counterpart. It is quite easy to care for an enamel teapot. The main thing is to do everything on time.

Vinegar

Fill the kettle with a solution of two parts water and one part vinegar. Bring to a boil and cool naturally.
Then drain the water, rinse the dishes abundantly.
If the sediment has not completely disappeared, repeat the procedure.

To boil the kettle from limescale with vinegar and not get poisoned by caustic steam, you need to open the windows while working and put on a protective gauze mask. And before using the kettle, you should once again boil clean water "empty" to eliminate the specific vinegar aroma.

Lemon acid

Fill the kettle with lemon water at the rate of 10 g of "lemon" per liter of water.
Boil.
Leave the hot solution for several hours.
Pour, thoroughly rinse off the lime grains.

You can replace the store product with lemon: cut into pieces and boil for ten minutes.

Soda

Boil a soda solution in a kettle, diluted in the following proportion: two tablespoons of baking soda per liter of water.
Wait until it has cooled down and remove soft deposits with a sponge.
If the descaling quality is not satisfactory, repeat twice.
This procedure can also precede the vinegar cleaning.

For electrical appliance

The electric kettle is very easy to use. Heats water quickly and almost silently, looks very aesthetically pleasing and modern. Irreproachable appearance such a teapot also requires internal cleanliness. Regular care is essential heating elements... It is more convenient to clean a kettle with a disc heater than with a spiral one, reminiscent of a Soviet-era boiler. In addition, the first is more durable and heats the water faster. How to effectively descale an electric kettle? What methods are suitable for devices made of different materials?

From glass

Boil water with a couple of tablespoons of citric acid and the same amount of soda powder.
Let it stand for up to 20 minutes.
Wash off the natural acid-base composition.

Remove limescale successfully in electric kettle from glass will help vinegar. Everything is extremely simple: open a window, boil the water and only after turning off the electrical appliance, pour two or three tablespoons of food vinegar into boiling water, cover kitchen towel until it cools completely. Control to shine metal surface the heater is not darkened. Rinse copiously with running water.

From stainless steel

Pour a full kettle of water (standard capacity 1.7 liters).
Add a couple tablespoons of baking soda and boil.
After cooling, remove the white flakes with a soft washcloth.
Rinse thoroughly.

A stainless steel kettle is less prone to lime build-up. Nevertheless, a few more tips will be useful on how to quickly get rid of scale in a kettle made of such material. So, in a container, you can boil a pickle from pickled cucumbers or tomatoes. Cleaning with apple or grape vinegar is also recommended - a glass of the product is poured into a boiled liter of water and left for half an hour.

From ceramics

Beautiful painted ceramic teapots, although very durable, require careful and careful handling. Special Recommendations there is no plaque cleaning, so choose one of the recipes above.

Remember the safety measures when working with boiling water and cleaning folk remedies... This is important because, according to reviews, ceramic teapots quite weighty, keep warm for a very long time and have rather uncomfortable, very hot handles.

Made of plastic

Such an electrical appliance is the cheapest, lightest and most unpretentious. It will be as good as new if you clean it with any product you have on hand. You can also try and evaluate a peculiar way: boil water with apple peelings in a saucepan, let it brew a little and pour into an electric kettle. After a couple of hours, pour the "compote" into the sink and rinse the cleaned dishes with water.

Neglected cases, if the plaque does not go away

Don't know how to remove heavy limescale deposits in your kettle? Running cases will be "cured" by the following method, which consists of six simple steps.

Add three tablespoons of baking soda to a kettle with boiling water.
After half an hour, boil again and pour out immediately.
Collect fresh water and now add a couple of tablespoons of vinegar.
Boil the solution again and pour out half an hour later.
Remove the resulting loose mass with a soft sponge.
Rinse well so that no vinegar smell remains.

Does the Coca-Cola method work?

Salt deposits of calcium and magnesium dissolve under the influence of citric, acetic, orthophosphoric acids. The latter, H3PO4, is part of the popular Coca-Cola drink. To descale the kettle with Coca-Cola, you just need to pour 0.5 liters of the drink into the appliance (this is enough to completely cover the heater). In 15 minutes, soda will remove light deposits without boiling. You can consolidate the effect by boiling this sweet flavored liquid in a kettle and at the end simply rinsing well with water.

This unusual way will fit for a teapot made of glass. And for plastic, stainless steel and ceramics, exclude drinks with dyes, they can pigment the walls of the electrical appliance. Try boiling plain sparkling water.

Practice shows that the best way for removing lime deposits - This is to clean the kettle from limescale with citric acid, boiling water with a couple of tablespoons of "lemon". It turns out cleaner and cheaper than using Coca-Cola, and also without the pungent smell, as in the case of using vinegar.

"Options" for descaling

Interestingly, there are ways to not only descale your kettle, but also how to prevent it from forming. To do this, you just need to select a device with additional "options". Inside some models (although they are more expensive), cleaning cartridges are installed that filter and heat water at the same time. There are also teapots with gilding on a spiral, the function of which is to protect the part from hard deposits and corrosion. But the most "advanced" users recommend installing an electromagnetic water converter at home. So in one fell swoop you can solve all problems with increased water hardness and protect not only the kettle from scale, but also washing machine together with a water heater.