Hi

I’ve had my electric kettle for a couple of years now. I was told adding lemon juice or a product called “McKenzie’s Citric Acid” (dehydrated lemon powder) to the water and boiling it would be good for cleaning out the kettle. The lemon powder does seem to work but I still get a bit of a stain left behind in the bottom of the kettle. It’s one of those metallic kettles with a hidden element at the bottom.

A friend of mine uses caustic soda. I haven’t tried that yet. Would that be safe even after you rinse it out?

What do other people use?

Thanks

I had an electric kettle once that suggested cream of tartar.  I forget exactly how it was supposed to be used, but I think it was just adding some to the water and then boiling it.

May want to try vinegar.  A cup of vinegar…with water…boil it for a few minutes, then rinse and reboil some water a couple of times.

Just remember that vinegar will do weird and potentially unwanted things to aluminum.  Make sure that the results are something that won’t cause the kettle to explode or anything drastic like that.

I’ve used vinegar mixed with water in mine with no problem. It’s worked pretty well.

Mine’s a Russell Hobbs kettle and it’s made of brushed steel, not aluminium. The lid is made of plastic.

There’s a picture of it here. I paid less than that for it though (about $50 Australian). I just prefer not to have to pay for a new one that’s all.

I simply assumed it wasn’t aluminum…brushed steel shouldn’t be a problem, even for vinegar.

Also…if that’s still not working, put some rice into it with a couple of table spoons of vinegar…and swish them about the bottom.  Then dump it out and rinse well.  I always do a couple of “test” runs when I rinse something with vinegar…to sort of ensure the smell/taste doesn’t stick.

A lot of people use what’s being mentioned here:  1/2 lemon or white vinegar boiled, let sit, reboil etc.  You can also buy descaling solutions specifically for kettles in grocery stores.

Thanks everybody for the helpful replies. I’ll see what happens next time I clean it.

Have fun

Fire! Cleanse it with fire! BURN BURN!! AH HAH HAH HAAAA!!!!

*cough*

Or, you know, a little lime-away.

My solution would probably be to just buy a new one…

I have kids…I don’t get to spend money on things *I* want.    And I checked the exchange rate…Peter paid about $45 USD for that kettle…I paid $10 for my stove top kettle…I probably wouldn’t be willing to pay more than that for a replacement. 

Mostly b/c looking at it, I could technically heat water in a pot on the stove, why does it have to be a kettle…except that it makes it easier to pour.  $45 is about 3-4 pairs of new jeans for Jocelynn…could be at LEAST 2 pairs of shoes (possible more, b/c I don’t go all out for shoes, and usually wait until the buy one get one sales start).  Soo…I can understand why he’d want to keep the current one clean.

ALSO…I have gotten products that stop being made for various reasons (often nothing more than to change the color or style) and I can’t find my original…so I have to keep the older one in good shape.