Water contains many dissolved chemicals. Including calcium and magnesium. Whether water is soft or hard depends on its saturation with such s alts. When boiling hard water, a stainless, enameled or modern electric kettle becomes covered with rough scale from the inside.
What threatens limescale?
An unpleasant phenomenon - scale. It is harmful not only because it spoils the appearance of dishes, worsens the taste of water. Over time, the scale begins to destroy the metal. Rust appears, penetrating into the water.
When lime scale builds up in the electric kettle, electricity consumption for boiling water starts to rise. The heating element heats up worse and will burn out if the scale is not removed from it. A running electric kettle turns off due to s alt deposits, never reaching a boil.
Limescale does not conduct heat well, so the water takes a long time to heat up.
How to deal with it
Most affordable,tried and tested anti-limescale agents are: ordinary vinegar, powdered citric acid, baking soda. They were also used by our grandmothers. How to clean the kettle from scale with vinegar? Pour water into a bowl, add a little vinegar and bring to a boil. Sometimes ascorbic acid is used. When the plaque is dense, it lay down in a thick layer - solutions of vinegar, soda and citric acid are used in turn.
In order to prevent lime deposits, the water that is going to be boiled is run through special softening filters. The walls, as well as the bottom of the dishes, are regularly cleaned, the condition of the heating element is monitored.
Cleaning dishes from scale
Use a few simple tricks to deal with stubborn limescale that are easy to learn on your own.
- Add vinegar to a kettle of water. When vinegar essence is used - for a liter of water, about a tablespoon. If you use table 9% vinegar, you need half a glass. Water is boiled for about a quarter of an hour. The solution is then kept overnight. During this time, the scale will become loose and begin to flake off easily. That's how perfectly managed to clean the kettle from scale with vinegar!
- Another good way to clean limescale from dishes is to combine vinegar with ascorbic acid. Having poured water into the kettle, pour in a couple of tablespoons of the usualvinegar and add ascorbic acid. You need about the same amount of powder. After waiting until it all boils, wait fifteen to twenty minutes. After turning off the kettle, leave it to infuse for twelve hours. The scale will be easy to clean off. If after rinsing you smell vinegar, you can boil the dishes for fifteen minutes with plain water.
- For particularly stubborn scale, a three-stage cleaning can be applied. With its help, it is possible to clean the kettle from scale with vinegar and soda, adding citric acid. The cleaning process consists in triple boiling water. First add regular baking soda. One tablespoon per litre. Boil for an hour, then drain the solution. For the second boiling take citric acid. Also per liter of cold water - one tablespoon. After an hour of boiling, everything is drained, after which the kettle is filled again. This time - water with 9% vinegar, about half a glass per liter of water filled. This method will help in the most difficult cases.
Now you can rinse the inside of the kettle with the rough side of the sponge. To completely get rid of the vinegar smell, rinse it thoroughly with clean water.
You need to know
When using vinegar to descale the kettle, follow the safety rules! Do not forget that acetic acid is called differently. This indicates the degree of its concentration. As a chemical, acetic acid is obtained as a white powder and prepared as a 90% solution.
A strong concentration (70-80%) is called vinegar essence.
Regular table vinegar used in cooking - 9% solution.
Knowing the percentage helps you dose correctly and apply it safelysubstance.
If both acetic acid and essence come into contact with the skin, it will cause a serious chemical burn! Even vapors of vinegar, when inhaled carelessly, cause burns of the larynx and nasopharynx. It is unacceptable to get the substance on the mucous membranes of the eyes. Essence can seriously injure the skin. Try to leave the kitchen while you are cleaning the kettle.
Cleaning the kettle
It is also quite possible to clean the electric kettle from the scale of vinegar. To do this, you have to turn it on repeatedly in twenty minutes. But there is another way that takes much less time. Carefully clean plastic with citric acid heating element.
One sachet is enough to boil water in a kettle for about seven minutes. If, after such a single procedure, all the lime deposits are separated in pieces from the walls of the kettle and lie on the bottom, after rinsing thoroughly, you can continue to use it.
If the plaque still adheres to the walls or the heater, you need to drain everything and patiently repeat the cleaning again. Even the thickest scale will give in.
Prevention of limescale
Hard water is characterized by a high content of mineral s alts. When boiled, they decompose, releasing carbon dioxide. It is they who settle on the walls of the kettle.
It is impossible to completely avoid the appearance of limescale. After a while, you will have to clean the kettle from scale with vinegar. However, following simple rules, it will be possible to maintain cleanliness for a long time.
- Use filtered, preferably softened water. You can take bottled.
- When washing the kettle from the inside, do not use abrasive cleaners and metal nets. From them, microscopic scratches appear on the surface. This makes scale build up even faster.
- Do not boil water a second time.
- As needed, descale the kettle with vinegar.
Rinse the kettle of mineral flakes. Fill with water again.
Using bottled water
When buying such water, carefully read the information about it on the label. The manufacturer specifies the hardness of the water. The numbers indicated there mean:
- up to 1, 5 is the softest;
- from 1.5 to 3.0 - soft;
- 3, 0 to 6, 0 - moderately hard water;
- 6, 0 to 9, 0 - hard;
- above 9, 0 is the toughest.
To reveal the individual taste of tea, it is recommended to buy "moderately hard" bottled water. "The softest" water and "soft" - will keep the kettle free of scale for a long time. But over time, you still have to descale the kettle with vinegar.
Shopped or homemade?
Supermarkets offer a variety of anti-calc products, both imported and domestic products.
Often the composition contains harmless organic acids (for example, citric, or sulfamic, or adipic). It may turn out thatpreparations contain especially caustic substances.
Therefore, as a result of such cleaning, a sparkling stainless steel teapot may unexpectedly be decorated with black spots. They may not succumb to attempts to remove them.
Electric kettles are all the more risky to clean with an untested product. There have been cases when Trilon, which is used as one of the components of the descaling powder, has destroyed the nickel-plated coating of the heating disc. Such teapots had only to be thrown away.
Before buying an unfamiliar limescale remover, ask about its packaging. If the composition of the product is not clearly spelled out, there is no instruction or it is written in a foreign language, this is alarming.
With the words "natural acids" or "excipients" the manufacturer hides the real composition of the product from buyers.
Look for the names of specific substances included in the product.
It is better not to use dubious means. It is much safer to use the right tried and tested tools and descale the kettle with vinegar. After all, you can’t risk the he alth of the whole family.
If the choice is made in favor of a purchased anti-scale agent, carefully read the description with instructions; follow the dosage exactly.
