To never descale my kettle again.

[HappyHippy45]

Our kettle needed descaled for the first time ever. We live in Scotland so water is soft.
I googled and it came up with vinegar and boiling water as being a good option and cheaper than the "kits" you get in the shop.

Boiled water and vinegar mixture.

House now smells of vinegar. Dh and DS are going around tutting and sighing and saying "the house fucking stinks! Why did you have to do this?"

Dh and DS are complaining bitterly about the smell and are pissed off with me. Dh says his eyes and throat are burning.

He's dramatically gone round opening doors and windows and switching fans on.

I said maybe now isn't a good time to tell you that I ordered bleach to clean the grout in the shower you know that stinks too and is actually harmful

They are completely overreacting aren't they?

They’re being drama queens

Get some scented candles out and open some windows ...

how does your tea taste

I have awful trouble with scaling due to very hard water. I descale the kettle using citric acid. Very cheap at Wilkos and really easy. Boil kettle. Chuck a load of citric acid in. Leave for 30 mins. Empty. Rinse and enjoy lovely cuppa without floaty horrible bits of limescale floating on the top/coating the cup/coating your insides. IS TOTALLY ODORLESS (although I've enthusiastically used vinegar/baking powder mix to clean Windows and stunk the house out for days!)

I use white vinegar and water. Dp does the drama llama scene here, I just laugh. He makes enough smells in the house that I don't enjoy!

Give dh some salty chips and he can add the vinegar through the "taste in the air" .

But, is your kettle free of limescale now?

If not, then YABU
If yes, then tell 'em to shut the fuck up. The smell will fade fairly soon

I thought if the water is soft, it doesn’t need descaling.

We have very hard water and I use vinegar all the time. I run the kettle several times with water afterwards and the smell disappears.

I wouldn’t bother trying to complete the thankless task of cleaning grout. Get yourself a grout pen - Best Buy ever.

I've never descaled anything. I don't even know what to look for!

I thought if the water is soft, it doesn’t need descaling.

That's what dh said and I've never had to before but there is some brown stuff on the bottom of the kettle, so I thought I did.

Definitely drama queens! I live in a hard water area and descale nearly everything using gallon bottles of cheap white vinegar.
I need to descale my kettle every 4-6 weeks as our water is so hard. Kids love to come and watch it fizz if they are at home. Takes their mind off the smell .

Limescale is white, not brown.

I used to do my kettle like that with vinegar , it works amazingly well but it does stink so I did mine outside using an extension cable , much better and the kettle doesn't smell if it's rinsed out 2 or 3 times then boiled using clean water then poured away - kettle comes up like new

HG mould spray is far better than normal bleach for sorting the bathroom grout.

Limescale is white, not brown.

Oops. Now I know then, thanks
It worked on the brown stuff but now I'm wondering what it was

Yeh, I live in Ireland and I haven't descaled a kettle since I lived in England. If you need to descale a kettle the water isn't soft.

I suppose water still has ‘stuff’ in it. It was probably just a general mineral build up from your pipes or something.

Brown sounds like it could be something else, not your traditional limescale.

Pure limescale (calcium carbonate) is white. It can pick up traces of other elements, which can turn it a variety of colours.
(Am ex water company employee)

Apropos nothing, how do you make a good cup of tea in a soft water area?

cross what do you mean?

Apropos nothing, how do you make a good cup of tea in a soft water area?
Tea in soft water areas is better than in hard water areas IMO. I've lived in London and North of England and never had as good a cuppa as I get here. London tea was rank. Floaty scummy bits are just bogging.

@wishiwasa
You could be onto something there. I'm thinking expensive restaurant where you wave your crisps in the air.

I live in a very hard water area and descale with cheap white vinegar. It doesn't smell.

I don't know what you have been doing? Brown stuff?