How to descale a kettle – the best methods using household products

Limescale is the insoluble calcium and magnesium deposits that are left behind when hard water evaporates. Slightly off-white in colour, in a kettle it forms when water is heated or left standing. In short, in hard water areas, limescale is inevitable.

While there’s no way to stop limescale build-up altogether, there are steps you can take to slow the formation down. Familiarise yourself with the water hardness level in your area – our handy guide maps water hardness across the UK.

As well as cleaning your kettle regularly, we advise keeping it dry when not in use. You can do this by only boiling the amount of water you need, so no water is left standing in the kettle. If your kettle has a flip lid, leave this open after use to allow any lingering water to evaporate after the kettle has boiled.

While it’s not harmful to ingest, limescale is unappealing. It can give your water a slightly metallic flavour and manifest itself as flakes in drinks – and nobody wants to be picking bits out of their tea or coffee.

It can also be harmful to your kettle long-term. Limescale build up can affect the efficiency of your kettle, meaning it takes longer to boil, which could affect its lifespan in turn.

Most kettles have a flat panel that covers the kettle’s heating element, but if your model doesn’t, limescale can cause it to become less efficient and even burn out.

We recommend descaling your kettle every few months, or more frequently if you’re seeing significant build up that’s affecting your kettle’s performance. The methods below can be used for everything from maintenance to large, more thorough cleans.

We tested two descaling methods on kettles that were in need of some TLC: distilled white vinegar and water, and an eco-proprietary kettle descaler.

For both methods, the following steps were followed before the descaling began.

• Remove as much of the free-floating limescale as you can
• Remove the filter in the spout, then fill the kettle around ¼ full with water and swirl
• Pour the water out and repeat, removing as much of the solid limescale as possible
• Rinse the filter under a running tap to remove any limescale on there, then fit it back into the kettle

Distilled white vinegar and water method

Method:

• Fill your kettle half with distilled white vinegar and half with water
• Boil the kettle
• Pour all of the water out
• Fill your kettle with water again and boil to remove any lingering vinegar. Repeat this step as necessary.

We’d recommend opening a window or putting on your extractor fan, as this method can produce a steamy, vinegary fog once the kettle has boiled. This is a cheap, if slightly pungent, method of quickly descaling your kettle. It proved very effective and doesn’t require much time investment and is free of harmful chemicals.

The kettle didn’t return to ‘like new’ in appearance, but all hard limescale was removed. We boiled a total of four times. One downside we found was that it’s a bit tricky to remove scale from the kettle spout. Neat vinegar can also be an irritant to sensitive skin, so it could also be worth wearing rubber gloves when trying to tackle this area.

Kettle descaler method: Ecozone Kettle & Iron Descaler