Living in a hard water area, limescale loves to accumulate in my kettle very quickly. Recently, I’ve been ditching white vinegar and opted for another natural cleaning product – it works much better.
Limescale has taken over a lot of areas in my house as I live in a hard water area – the toilet, taps, shower screen, and more so, my kettle.
If, like me, you use your kettle daily, it is important to clean it and remove the scale regularly.
A kettle with scale and chalky deposits does not work as well. Water contains calcium that precipitates on the bottom and the heating element, ensuring that over time it will no longer produce enough heat.
Limescale has an insulating effect and reduces efficiency. The harder the water, the more calcium it contains, accelerating the accumulation of scale.
While white vinegar is effective at removing kettle limescale, it can often be a longer process, not to mention the pungent odour it gives off.
Instead, I’ve made the switch to using citric acid as there are only pros to this natural cleaner.
It’s an amazing natural cleaning product that packs a mean punch against limescale.
This is because it’s a highly concentrated fruit acid, and as such citric acid is now a key item in my cleaning cupboard.
As well as being useful to clean your kettle, you can also use the leftover citric acid to remove toilet limescale and washing machine mould and limescale.
For this citric acid method, I start by unplugging my kettle and adding a tablespoon of the product to the appliance before adding water – just enough to cover the bottom quarter of the kettle.
I then allow the water to boil, which takes two minutes as I don’t add much water to the kettle.
As soon as the kettle had boiled, I lifted the lid and the limescale had all dissolved. Not a trace of limescale had been left behind.
I finish off by giving the kettle a good rinse out and the job’s done. Citric acid won’t leave an aftertaste, so there is no need to reboil the kettle again.
This time around my kettle hadn’t been descaled for over a month which shows just how incredible this product is at removing limescale.