Removing limescale from a kettle

So we seem to have quite hard water out here and this furrs up the kettles good and proper. My one at home and at work are both cacked up and take ages to boil. So as well as being annoying it must use more power, and sometimes despite filters you can get cack in your tea.

My mate came round wittering about that vinegar or something - which was useless. I also bought a big bottle of commercial de-kalk stuff in the supermarket and it was also much too weak.

Now when I was a kid we used to pour some shit in the kettle, and it boiled up like a mad thing, gave off evil fumes - and did the job superbly. I am guessing that here in Germany they water the chemicals down too much like they do the bleach?

So my current "best plan" is to bin the kettles, start again, and try and clean 'em every few weeks (yeah - like that is gonna happen!!).

I boil water and lemon juice in equal parts, works a charm and doesn't smell (unlike vinegar). Just don't fill up the kettle too much because the mixture froths as it comes to the boil.

i de-calck my cettle by using industrial vinegar (Essigessenz) and most importantly leave it overnight.
it's maybe 1:9 vinegar to water, but depends.
http://www.surig.de/haushalt.html
the picture with the veggies is a bit wrong.

JE, you need Surig Essigessenz, 98% proof or somewhere along that line. Pour about 200 - 300 ml (half a bottle) into your kettle, fill it up with water, let it soak over night. Boil the water, pour it out, refill, boil again, rinse a few times. If that doesn't work use thermite, buy a new kettle and clean it with Essigessenz once a week. Don't let it get all furry.

EDIT: Like moni said

I use the powder entkalker, not the Bio stuff, that doesn't work, but I always use 2 sachets in the amount of water for one. This seems to work fine.

Get a brillo pad thingybob (without the soap centre) and sling it in the kettle.
The chalk will collect on that due to the high surface area innit. Rinse it out now and again.

Half fill kettle with water, add a 1/4 bottle of the essigessenz you find in every supermarket. Boil. Rinse. Make me a cup of tea, no sugar thanks.

Edit: And Mrs. Angel showed me the delights of the Brita water filters. The little blighters work, no more calk for about 3 months per filter.

Vingegar should work. Calc is calcium oxide or hydroxide. Vinager is acetic acid. They'll react, and you'll have hydrodgen given off which doesn't smell but does bubble.

Or get a modern kettle where the calc just breaks off.

I just buy a new kettle and chuck the old one in the basement.

Incidentally if anyone wants about 15 rarely used but calcy kettles then drop me a PM.

We used that Surig Essig stuff first, but did not leave overnight. Kettles are pretty badly cacked so makes it worse I think.

I was not aware that I was not using a modern kettle??? Mine are like electric and all that innit. I stopped hanging them over a wood fire a couple of years ago.

I am thinking Keydeck has the correct solution. I have a big cellar and Mr. Volvo is changing the car wheels at 1pm today so I have 45 minutes to kick my heels in the shopping centre - which is normally a fate worse than watching German TV adverts for me - but in this case I will go and buy me a "modern" kettle.

Boil enough water to cover the part of the kettle with the worst scaling, then chuck in the Vinegaressence with the heavy hand you would use to serve whiskey at an Irish funeral. Leave it for an hour or too and you'll be fine.

Do not drink the resulting brew.

We use a combination of methods:

Water filter cuts down on the limescale
Modern kettle with hidden element that's easier to clean
Proper descaler - Sidol Universalentkalker

Understood. I can imagine that a mouthful of that stuff would make my face screw up worse than a German granny in a supermarket queue.

Probably great for cleaning your teeth though, but only once.

Plan B is that I tell the nice part-time ladies that work for me, that if I see a speck of limescale on my new kettle they both get sacked. I am hard man. Cruel but fair.

20-25% acid vinegar. Works wonders. Buy the lemon essence kind for that lemony fresh smell.

PS: There is no need to dilute it.

I see you have management talent. You can also casually mention what a bath of vinegaressence does to the human body.

Sarsons!

I think it is very important to be seen as an evil, little-minded, bigoted, short-sighted, unreasonable boss. This gives the troops a common enemy, and something to discuss and bond over during fag and coffee breaks.

Nobody really wants one of those nice, charming bosses that takes you out for a drink do they? It's just not right. Same as women don't actually want boyfriends that turn up every night with kisses and boxes of chocolates. They actually want the bastard that turns up 2 hours late, stinking of alcohol and making feeble excuses about getting stuck at the office. This then gives them something to bitch and moan about amongst their friends.

Bosses should be bosses and a man should be a man.

Frankly the fact that I even had to start this thread means that heads are gonna roll.

You let them have fag and coffee breaks?

I was speaking figuratively for the masses Yeti. At €3 an hour the lazy bastards I employ out here in the sticks know that I expect 110% or they will be back in the fields.

... is the right answer.

Forget all these liquids and vinegar shit. Just put in 2 sachets of this powder into the kettle with the water level over all the calc. It will be like new in 10 mins.

Vinegar is more fun and cheaper.

Yeah, vinegar works wonders

I do exactly the same...gets it all away in 1 go.

Don't you love that volcano effect?

oh sorry - correction, I don't just pop it in there and leave it overnight, I boil the bloody thing.

I used to develop kettles for Philips Domestic Appliances I also have chemistry degrees. I am the most qualified person to give you advice.

Boil it with a little vinegar. Problem solved

JE, can I come work for you? I gave up smoking, I don't drink coffee, and my kettle is always impeccably clear of limescale.

I bet you don't work for €3 an hour either!

A liter of Essig Essenz costs less than €2. Fill the damned coffeepot with that, turn on the heat to get it hot but don't try to boil it. Just warm enough that it's uncomfortable to touch. Let it sit. You can re-use the vinegar.

* Do not breathe over the pot of vinegar. It hurts.
* Wash your finger well if you dip it in to test the temperature.
* Rinse the coffeepot thoroughly.

If you only pour a little vinegar in to get the stuff off the bottom, make damned sure you don't forget to rinse the thing out. Vinegar coffee is vomitaceous.

woof.

Not for such a misanthropic Grinch as you set yourself up to be. The dream was bright while it lasted.

I only pay €3 when you have proven yourself to be a worthwhile, productive and hard-working employee. Trainees start on €1 per hour and are allowed to suck on a wet rag once per shift.

'ere, less of the big words, I haven't got time to look them up. Some of us have got work to do you know!

The Swirl powdered entkalker stuff is 79Cents in Edeka and you get 2 sachets - enough for one very heavily scaled kettle or 2 normally scaled ones.

you tight git!!!

Ensure you do not put your finger in boiling water as this will hurt.
If you have been to the toilet before the operation ensure you have cleaned your hands
Do not reuse the vinegar on salad
Stay clear of charging elephants
Despite what Charlton Hesten says guns are dangerous items, do not use boiling acid solutions to clean these esp if loaded
Bats rarely bite but if you have been bitten ensure you go to the doctor as bats carry rabies
Space travel can be hazardous especially in the late 20th C and early 21st C

* Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

So you are saying that space travel will be safe (maybe even commonplace??) in the 22nd Century? They better hurry up with the shit that makes me live till then!

To be frank I given you all far too much information already. I have many more pearls of wisdom I could tell you as I know so much.

Needless to say space travel will be a safe form of transport in the 22nd C and good news to you Tom 17 you will still be alive to enjoy it. Strangley enough a famous geneticist in 2014 develops the cure for old age when he accidentally spills some special DNA in his kettle while descaling it with vinegar: thus discovering the ageing Gene.

See you all in space.

As long as I can do handbrake turns in space, I will be happy. Thanks for the insight.

Luckily for you Tom 17 all spaceships will be original Mini shapes and will have ionhandbrakes fitted.

When will they crack the furry kettle issue please?

Stop washing your cat in it.

The bigger problem in the future will be fury kettles. Incensed by being cleaned with mild acidic solution the intelligent kettles of the future rebel and kill many space cadets including an attempt on the now immortal Tom 17. Luckily he pulls a handbreak turn and escapes.

I actually caught one in the boot-beam. They make nice pets once you calm them down you know.

Move to Scotland - the water up here is so soft, you only need to descale your kettle every 5 years or so.

If you buy yourself a Brita water filter and use this filtered water in your kettle then you will not get limescale in the first place. Actually when you notice the begining of the accunalation of limescale you then know it is time to change your replaceable filter. This Brita water filter is also necessary if you have an expresso machine and also good for water to take to the fitness.

Don't be silly. Then I would have the problem of getting shampoo out my hair in the shower - this is a major issue in soft water areas. You get out the shower with slimey soapy skin. That is assuming they now have running hot water in Scotland?

stupid question...but seeing as JE mentioned hair and water softness. I have to ask - does anybody know whether the water in Portugal and Italy is harder than here in London? I have always noticed that my hair is so much nicer when over there in comparison and someone once told me it's because of the difference in water softness/hardness...