How to Descale a Tea Kettle

The interiors of both traditional and electric tea kettles can become clogged with lime scale due to hard water. To keep your tea kettle in good working order it is necessary to descale it every few months or more frequently depending on the hardness of your water. A descaled tea kettle will boil faster and last longer.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 1 qt. water

1. Begin by mixing the vinegar and water together in a large measuring cup.

2. Pour the diluted vinegar into the tea kettle until three quarters of the way full.

3. Boil vinegar water 10 to 15 minutes.

4. Pour out boiled vinegar mixture. Lime scale and other debris should be gone. Refill tea kettle with plain water and boil 10 minutes to clean out the vinegar taste before heating water for tea.

Tips & Warnings

• Make a smaller batch of the mixture with the same ratio of vinegar to water to clean smaller tea kettles.
• Don't leave tea kettle unattended while boiling water.

[lisapollison]

on 10/28/2007 I find using Vitamin C crystals (Ascorbic Acid) to be much less troublesome. Add 1/8 of a cup of Vitamin C Crystals or 1/4 cup for heavily scaled kettles and pots - add 4 cups of filtered or distilled water. Boil at a rolling boil for a few minutes and then let sit overnight. In the morning, you should be able to just pour out the contents and see no more lime scale. Rinse the kettle well with warm or hot water several times. Boil some distilled water once more and you're good to go with no vinegar smell or taste. You can buy a huge bottle of Vitamin C crystals at tarder Joes for $11 that will lasy you for years of descaling.