best way to descale a kettle?

Loanranger

Bottle of lemon juice from the cooking ingredients aisle and job done.

Anne_Marie_2

Loanranger wrote: »

Bottle of lemon juice from the cooking ingredients aisle and job done.

Lemon juice does work as it contains citric acid. I just would check the cost of a bottle of lemon juice compared to a packet of powdered or granular citric acid. I really have no idea of the price of either in the UK.
Citric powder or granules may be more economical than lemon juice, as obviously the lemon juice is not just pure citric acid, and has water in there too, as well as other components.

I am certainly not an expert on the subject, just 7+ years of living in Cyprus with really hard water. I grow lemons, and use them for cleaning all the time..I have put a few posts on this forum about citrus vinegar. Just find that citric acid works that bit better than lemon juice. Not cheaper for me, as my lemons are free. It is more convenient to use a teaspoon of citric acid to the dishwasher, or around the bottom of a stainless steel tap, as well as descaling the kettle or coffee machine.

Main thing is cost and efficiency of descaler. I would rate citric acid better than lemon juice, then vinegar as to efficiency. Citric acid is pretty cheap in Cyprus, but no idea of UK prices.

janb5

I`m a little confused as to why you are giving a tutorial on cleaning a kettle when it wasnt needed. There are plenty of posts already with advice on this subject.....

MandM90

Please remember to be extra welcoming to newbies who are finding their feet in our lovely friendly forum

We do sometimes have some citric acid left over from making elderflower cordial. Had never considered using it for cleaning!

janb5

I quite agree but this style is very unusual and why the tutorial?

Anne_Marie_2

MandM90 wrote: »

Please remember to be extra welcoming to newbies who are finding their feet in our lovely friendly forum

We do sometimes have some citric acid left over from making elderflower cordial. Had never considered using it for cleaning!

Funnily enough I just made some elderflower cordial last week, as found a packet of dried in one of the supermarkets, as have never found the cordial here. First time I have used citric acid for culinary purposes! Turned out really well, so have popped it into ice cube trays....think it will be lovely with soda water or with a cheeky little gin in the summer months.

Loanranger

Where can you buy citric acid? I have never seen it for sale. I wold efinitely buy it for descaling around taps and in the kettle. At present I use lemon juice.

rach_k

Dri-Pak sells citric acid for non-culinary purposes - it works out much cheaper than the food safe stuff but works just as well. I get mine online (from BigGreenSmile) but I think Wilko stocks some of their products and I've seen it in random independent corner shops too.

You used to be able to buy the small food-safe tubs from pharmacies but I think most have stopped now as it's a common ingredient used by drug dealers. I did get some for cordial from an independent pharmacy but they asked a lot of questions!!!

Anne_Marie_2

The stuff I get is food grade and sold in packets in the food aisles of supermarkets. It's often used in home brewing, so if you have a place near you, you could try there. Can be bought online, Amazon definitely sell it.
Certainly if you were only looking for it for cleaning, I'd be going for the cheaper stuff, but I don't have that choice.
There's an older thread about it
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/237548

saro7nmo

If new users are not allowed to write on a topic that already exists, whether they realise it or not, please let us know.

If new users think they can offer additional info we consider helpful, but not on a new post but for a pre-existing topic, please let us know.

If new users are obliged to post content in a style that does not come across as a tutorial, or in a style different to other members, please let us know.

If new users are obliged to write posts that everyone must agree with, or like, please let us know.

I wasn't going to comment again but I'm genuinely perplexed with some of the comments. I'm a research scientist so perhaps, out of habit, I go overboard with detail - for that I apologise, but we're all different..!

I genuinely would like to know what I am doing wrong and how others suggest, as a new user, I should go about correcting what I've written, and how I should write other posts I might consider writing so as not to upset anyone. Are comments such as these made to all new users, or just a few?