de-scale a kettle

[miriam_e]

To remove calcium deposits from the inside of a kettle:

• half fill the kettle with normal tap water (don't be tempted to fill it higher because it will overflow)
• add 30ml of white vinegar (get the cheap industrial kind at the supermarket). I've seen various suggestions of 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water, 1 part to 2 parts, and equal parts! Eeek! So just chuck in about quarter of a glass of vinegar... should be fine. 30ml in my half full kettle is about 1 part vinegar to about 20 parts water and it worked really well. I certainly wouldn't do equal parts water-vinegar -- it might eat at the metal parts of the kettle too much.
• boil the mixture and allow to stand for 1 to 2 minutes, and then re-boil the mixture. Repeat this step 2 or 3 times as needed.
• empty the mixture and rinse well.

This works brilliantly! I repeated this whole procedure a couple of times this morning because the inside of my kettle was black with gunk and I couldn't see the water level through its side window. The inside of the kettle is now almost white (it is a white plastic kettle) and the water level is clearly visible through the side window.

Rather than pour the acidic mixture down the drain I shook it up while standing on my dirt driveway where nothing grows. As the stuff splashed out the top with each shake I got more of the top cleaned too. If you do this be careful. I got myself with boiling hot water a couple of times. Ouch.

I've also found suggestions to use lemon juice (cut a lemon into several small pieces and put in the kettle) or Coca-Cola (would have worked better a couple of decades ago before they stopped putting phosphoric acid in it, so now I guess it doesn't work any better than any other carbonated drink... and ordinary soda water -- not the colored, sweetened crap -- would probably work best because it wouldn't leave sugar and coloring and flavoring).

Comments

Hmmm...

[free-dragon.livejournal.com]

What brought this on?

Good to know... esp. about the coca cola thing!

:)

[greylock.livejournal.com]

We use half a lemon, works a treat.

Re: Hmmm...

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

:)
Spring cleaning in mid-winter? No. :)
I've had a weird taste in my mouth for the last week or two and have been trying to track it down.
Plus, I was annoyed at being unable to see the water level in the kettle.

[revbobbob.livejournal.com]

So how do you get an electric frying pan to keep its temper?

We have to wipe on shortening or cooking oil pretty thoroughly before the first batch of pancakes.

Now I've done it. Remembered the traditional Wednesday lunch all over Sweden: pancakes with ligonberry syrup and yellow pea soup (served separately, silly). I ran into it at the SAS cafeteria at the county airport one Wednesday, thought it was strange but OK, enjoyed it the next Wednesday, and the following week I couldn't wait for Wednesday.

Serious yumminess.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

That really is the best solution isn't it. The cleaner manufactures itself in your garden, it is totally non-poisonous, and it smells wonderful. You don't even have to work hard at rinsing it out because a scent of lemon is nice in a cup of tea.

My favorite tea, Earl Grey, uses bergamot scent. I wonder if it (the citrus fruit, not the herb) would clean kettles as well as lemon. It probably would. What a wonderful scent to unleash on your kitchen in the course of such a task. Yum!

I wonder if bergamot citrus trees can be persuaded to grow in Queensland. They're native to Italy I think, which has a climate equivalent to Tasmania... so probably not.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

If the electric frying pan is made of aluminium (aluminum in USA) then there is a simple answer: cook some tomatoes in it. The pan will come up shiny and sparkling like new. Makes you wonder about the tomatoes though doesn't it. :)

I like my pancakes with a light sprinkling of sugar and then lots of lemon juice squeezed over it. Yuuuuum!!!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it, and I have serious problems summoning saliva. That shows you how wonderful it is.

Yellow pea soup... is that like split-pea soup? We have that here and it can be really nice on cold nights. Hmmm... It is quite cold here at the moment, so that sounds like a plan.