vinegar to descale a kettle?

[cupcakes]

Sorry - very boring question....
I really need to descale my kettle. Had heard that vinegar was good but only have white wine vinegar and malt. What do I need and how do I do it? Don't fancy vinegar tasting tea!
Any suggestions?

My household tips book recommends half and half malt vinegar and water. Boil it up, leave it for a couple of hours then chuck the water away. You shouldn't find it taints the water at all, but you could always boil up a couple of kettlefuls and throw them away before you use the kettle for tea again!

Pour some malt vinegar in the empty kettle, leave for a while, should rub off easily if it isn't years and years worth. BOil kettle with water in once after, my tea never tastes like vinegar afterwards.

Thanks!! Will get to it tonight! The kettle isn't hugely old (a year and a bit) but it has got really bad recently and I need to clean it properly rather than just swishing the limescale out...
Thanks again!

it broke mine

was the limescale holding it together coddy? this happened to an old kettle of mine; as soon as I descaled it, it started to leak and had to be thrown out!

Do you think the vinegar was too acidic? Our kettle is a stupidly posh one (gift to dh on his birthday). Would hate to ruin it!!!!

Honestly, vinegar is fine! Make sure you put enough in to cover the element of the kettle, if it has one, or to the minimum level on the gauge. If you don't want to use vinegar you can buy little balls that look a bit like wire scourers that you put into the kettle to attract the limescale, or there are descaling sachets you can buy.

ok - the kettle is now on!

We have a stupid, posh kettle too cupcakes, you wont ruin it!!

Is it still holding water, cupcakes?

citric acid (you can get it form a chemist, though not boots) is less smelly. works wonders and is very cheap

kettle looks great! Still holding water...! Have now just filled with water to top (so v dilluted now) and giving it another boil to clean the sides.
Thanks!

Yay!!!

By coincidence I have just done this today as well. A leeeetle tip: buy a catering jerry of malt vinegar - the cheapest is fine. Use it neat to descale kettles etc by filling the kettle with vinegar and leaving for several hours. Then pour the vinegar back into the jerry, just leaving the last dregs in the kettle. You can then swill out the kettle and give it a gentle scrub if necessary. The vinegar can be reused over and over again - I've been using the same 5l jerry for about 8 years and it is just as effective as ever. Any limescale or other impurities just sink to the bottom.

Very cheap, environmentally friendly, and effective. Just make sure you mark the jerry 'NOT FOR FOOD' .

That is a good idea - I've just used a third of our fish'n'chips bottle.

This is a really good method. The big advantage (apart from cost) is that if you do forget to rinse is really thoroughly, you are not going to poison yourself - it just tastes like it!!

This is my first visit to mumsnet. I am an older mum - my children are all grown up. I hope I'm not too old to join you all. After all I'm still a mum.

Anoldermum

PS Any other mums of teens/twenties out there?

Hi,

Just about to descale my kettle and couldn't remember how. Luckily clicked on to mumsnet and heh presto! And I've joined now too..
I'm an older mum too or mum of teens (is 38 in a few weeks old?!!!)

Well off to descale. I let you know if it works for me.