I must live in an area where hard water is rife because, within a month, my new kettle had limescale inside of it.
Limescale is a hard, chalky deposit that is mainly made of calcium carbonate.
BRITA, a leading expert in water optimisation, said: “Calcium carbonate exists in our drinking water, but it remains dissolved until the water is heated up.”
While limescale isn’t bad for your health, it can be harmful to the performance of household appliances, such as kettles.
If I were to let limescale continue to deposit in my kettle, left undisturbed, the appliance would need to work much harder to heat water over time.
One of the most touted natural solutions to get rid of limescale in a kettle is citric acid from a citrus fruit, like lemon, with one only costing 25p.
“You can remove limescale easily with any mild acid,” BRITA said, as the acid should cause the limescale to dissolve.
Turning to Fantastic Cleaners, the experts revealed how to clean a kettle with lemon and water.
Method
Cut and squeeze a lemon
1. Cut a lemon into two halves and squeeze the juice in the appliance. When you’re done, use the two halves and rub the inside parts to remove any hard water stains. Cut the lemon into small pieces and add the pieces to the lemon juice inside the kettle.
Create a mixture
2. Add approximately 500ml of water to the mixture. You don’t need to fill the kettle to the top, just make sure you pour enough to cover the bottom elements and to fill the appliance halfway.
Boil the lemon water
3. Turn on the kettle and let the solution boil. Let it sit for around 15 minutes. After that, disconnect the kettle from the power source. Leave the kettle for a couple of hours until it’s completely cooled off.
Scrub the kettle
4. Don’t throw out the lemon water yet. Use a soft sponge and scrub the inside and the outside of the kettle thoroughly.
Rinse and dry off the kettle
5. Remove the mixture and rinse the kettle four to five times with warm water. Use a microfiber cloth to dry off the outside of the kettle.
While I’m sure following all these steps would have removed all of the limescale in my kettle, I didn’t follow it step-by-step.
Thankfully, I did have an engagement outside of my home in the evening, so I was able to follow the first two steps.
After coming back home in the later evening, I found that my kettle was too small to reach a hand inside to scrub, and my long bristled washing-up brush wasn’t doing too great of a job.
While some of the limescale dissolved, I think I would rather buy limescale remover in the supermarket rather than go through the faff of the natural lemon route.
