Limescale is ruining my life!!!!

[londongirl12]

Ok that's a big of an exaggeration, but my god it's annoying!! We live in a really hard water area, and no matter how much I clean, there's always water marks. Got a new kettle this week, and it has limescale in the bottom already. Please tell me your tips for dealing with the annoying stuf!! 😢

What does it have if not salt? When we moved into this house if had a salt based softener and we had to buy bags of salt to replenish it every so often.

In the small Turkish village I used to visit the locals used lemons to clean kitchens and bathrooms. The water was really hard. Just cut them in have then rubbed the halves around taps, shower screens etc
Made the kitchen smell lovely too.

Never re-boil water left in the kettle after a previous boiling. The thing with calcium carbonate (limescale) is that it precipitates out of solution at 60°c.

Ok, sounds like I need a water softener installed. I will investigate thank you!

Yes!!! Citric Acid, eBay for the kettle and toilet..cheap as chips! A cup full in boiling water Does an amazing job in the kettle!

the softener contains a resin that absorbs calcium from the water. When it is "full up" the machine sucks salt in from its container which displaces the calcium and flushes it down the drain. It then rinses away the salt and flushes it down the drain.

The softener works by "ion exchange" and swaps the calcium carbonate in hard water for a tiny amount of sodium bicarbonate, as found in baking powder, indigestion remedies, and soluble paracetamol. You can see from the Sodium Content figures how tiny the amount is.

My excitement of being on the same thread as Piglet John is even greater than my excitement at his explanation. We have a Monarch water softener and all our tap water tastes absolutely fine.

haha!

Water softener, with a hard water drinking tap. Best investment ever, even though I was initially reluctant when dh wanted it.

Ours cost over £1000 and needs salt blocks. Get a hard water tap installed at the same time.

Oh and not only does it stop lime scale, it actually got rid of the lime scale that was already there.

Put a full bag of soda crystals and a bottle of white vinegar on a hot wash in an empty washing machine. It will blast limescale, hair, fur, grease etc away. And, smells so clean afterwards

@PigletJohn I’m thinking of buying a magnetic softneenr as a stop gap. It just fits onto the pipe and is about fifty quid. Is it worth the money?

This one in fact! www.screwfix.com/p/bwt-electromagnetic-one-sided-connection-electronic-scale-inhibitor-12v/13487

The British Gas boiler man told me water softeners can mess up the boiler?

the magnet ones work in the same way that a copper bracelet cures rheumatism, or drops of purified water cure measles. Like this:
www.howdoeshomeopathywork.com/

plumbers are very traditional and distrustful of change. Some are opposed to softeners. I only know of one scientific test carried out, which found no problems. However it may not be suitable for boilers with Aluminium heat exchangers, so the bypass valve should be used, to fill or top it up it with unsoftened water (many people like to have a hard-water pipe to the kitchen for a hard-water tap).

My boiler has a stainless-steel exchanger and I use softened water, plus Sentinel corrosion inhibitor.

Here is a Note by one of the major companies:
www.harveywatersofteners.co.uk/blog/corrosion-report/

[quote PigletJohn]the magnet ones work in the same way that a copper bracelet cures rheumatism, or drops of purified water cure measles. Like this:
www.howdoeshomeopathywork.com/

plumbers are very traditional and distrustful of change. Some are opposed to softeners. I only know of one scientific test carried out, which found no problems. However it may not be suitable for boilers with Aluminium heat exchangers, so the bypass valve should be used, to fill or top it up it with unsoftened water (many people like to have a hard-water pipe to the kitchen for a hard-water tap).

My boiler has a stainless-steel exchanger and I use softened water, plus Sentinel corrosion inhibitor.

Here is a Note by one of the major companies:
www.harveywatersofteners.co.uk/blog/corrosion-report/[/quote]
Ah, that was probably why our plumber, married to a homeopath, liked the idea of the magnet.

We didn't go for the magnet.

Plumber, who is actually very good in general, is due to come back to service the boiler and we will have to steer clear of the subject of Covid vaccination as three of us in our family are involved in the roll-out and plumber's wife has 'all kinds of issues with vaccines'.

Thanks for the tip re white vinegar and kettle!
The amount I’ve spent on kettle descaler over the years 🤦‍♀️

Just want to ask - does this work okay to descale a coffee bean to cup machine also?

Thanks!

My coffee machine uses their own branded descaler, which is Lactic Acid.

Different chemicals may have unwanted effects on the materials.

I have a magnetic one.
It did seem to work initially but 10 years down the line it now seems useless. Hence my interest in the latest technology!
However, whatever it is it has to leave all the taps with drinking water. That's my bottom line. So if nothing exists which can do that then I have to go down to the level of treating each appliance etc.

how do you recognise "drinking water?"

Oust for kettles
Hagesan blue for the loos

I have to replace taps as they get covered in limescle and you can't get it off

Our drinking water comes from the mains water supply, not from a tank, and not through a salt-based softener.
If you can point me in the direction of something I can put on the mains feed to soften it without affecting the taste I'm all ears:)

Water softener is a game-changer. You'll spend 90% less time cleaning, far far less on cleaning chemicals (next to nothing) and will have longer lasting washing machine/dishwasher.
I'd recommend a mechanical one eg Kinetico or Harveys. They last forever, and you just pop salt blocks in when they run out.
There is a separate drinking water tap installed over your sink that is water straight from your cold water supply, we have a filter installed on ours which makes a bit of a difference in reducing kettle scum but still tastes as normal.

How does everyone get those horrible brown marks off your white sinks? Is it viakal? I'm scared to try anything in case nothing works and I'm stuck with it forever!