White Vinegar For Descaling Your Kettle

by Mel
(London)

White vinegar is a great all purpose cleaner around the home. It's particularly good for descaling in hard water areas. I use it on limescale encrusted taps and my kettle.

When you put the vinegar on neat, you can actually see it fizzing! I use an old toothbrush on the taps to really brush it in and help loosen the limescale. (It's also good on shower heads).

It's fine to use it neat on your taps, but for your kettle, use one part vinegar to one part water. Cover the limescale areas on the kettle and leave it for a few hours, then set it to boil. You may need to repeat this a few times until all the limescale is gone. Once you're limescale free, rinse thoroughly and boil with fresh water only. Discard the old water.

When you're ready for a fresh cup of tea, refill your sparkling kettle and boil away.

If you're in a hard water area, it's worth doing this every month or so to stop the build up. Also empty the kettle after every use, so there's no water in it between uses.