Do you ever descale your kettle?

37 comments

1. If you live in the south of England I would recommend descaling every couple of months to maintain your kettles quality and condition

2. I’m in a soft water area so no need

3. Once a year, if I remember. So probably twice or thrice in the past 7-8 years.

4. In Cornwall, no. I never had to. We never had limescale build up in my kettle. Ever.
   However, when me and my friends moved away for university we were all all confused about why our kettles had “Dandruff” in them and soon learned that we should descale our kettles, unless we want a mouthful of limescale in our tea.

5. Depends on whether your water is hard or soft. Ours is a bit hard so I do mine about every 6 months when it has scale on the element.

6. Every month along with all water connected equipment, as I live in a very hard water area.

7. I live in Scotland so no need.. how products like Calgon get sold and bought here is beyond me..

8. Rinse out as much of the scale as possible, if your kettle has a built in filter remove it first.

   Half fill the kettle, put a table spoon of bicarbonate of soda in it then boil the kettle and leave to stand for a good hour or more.

   Rinse kettle well, fill, boil and rinse a couple of times.

   Put internal filter back and jobs a good ‘un

9. Live in a very hard water area and yes. We get floaty bits in our tea otherwise. We got a water filter jug a couple of years ago and that made a huge difference. We now only have to descale it a couple of times a year.

10. Depends where you live, I think the UK has a big difference in the quality of water depending where you live.

11. I have a glass kettle so use filtered water and then descale every couple of months when the grot starts to show. If I didn’t use filtered… I would be doing it every two to three weeks

12. Never had to do it in Manchester. I think it’s a southern hard water thing

13. Every two weeks in London. Don’t like the floaty bits in my hot water.

14. Are they southerners? I grew up up north and barely needed to descale the kettle. Moved down south five-ish years ago, and it ends up covered in scale within days. I now live back up north while im at uni and we havent scaled our kettle since moving in, because we have soft water.

    If you cant see the scale build up its probably fine. I mean, it wont make you sick or anything.

15. Descale it?? It’s my only source of calcium.

16. London, but I don’t drink tea so the kettle doesn’t get much use, couple of times a year maybe?

17. I live in a hard water area so have to do it quite often. Citric acid and white vinegar are a godsend.

18. Yeah every 2 weeks, our kettle is clear glass so I can see it building up. Takes 10 mins with oust

19. while i lived near London i had to descale it every other day, otherwise all that sand and scales went in my coffee. i got myself a Brita filter which was a godsent. now i live in Liverpool, i descale every 3-4 months, much less limescale in the water than in the London area, but it still builds up over time

20. I live in the East of England and I have to descale after each use.

21. One of the perks of living in Scotland is that I never have to do this. I did grow up in the Midlands though which is hardwater central and I’m moving back south later this year… not looking forward to the return of the limescale, haha.

22. I live in South London where the water is harder than the football fans, so you notice the scale on the kettle within a day and get flakes breaking off within a fortnight – so yeah, we descale it at least monthly.

    If you live somewhere without limescale buildup, don’t worry.

23. Every couple of months. Usually after I fill the kettle up and glance inside and see all the limescale that has built up. I usually just fill the kettle halfway with white vinegar and give it a couple of boils and then rinse it out.

24. How do you even do that?

25. Yes – I live in a hard water area, I do mine every few months or whenever the kettle gets limescaly enough for it to annoy me, whichever comes first.

    I usually do the showerhead at the same time too

26. I personally like the crunchy bits in my brew

27. I’m in the north-west of England. I’ve never had to descale anything, and I’d no idea what limescale even looked like until I just Googled it.

28. No, i have a filter kettle.

29. Descaling is for wimps.

30. When I lived in a hard water area I did once a month. I had a glass kettle so it was really obvious when the limescale was getting bad. My parents live in the same town and never do though, so you’re not alone.

31. We live in a hard water area. We use a Brita jug to filter our water, and have to descale our kettle every 6 months or so.

    If you love in a soft water area you probably won’t have to do any of this.

32. Raised in the South of England – definitely need to descale the kettle there. I now live in Scotland and the water is so soft, there is no need to descale. I don’t even need to put salt in my dishwasher.

33. Literally never but I got a new kettle yesterday and the instructions say to do it at least once a month 😶

34. Every 3 months… I once forgotten I’d done it and made a cup of tea with the descaling liquid in… Good couple of mouthfuls before I remembered

35. I live in the (very, very) south of England and tbh, you’re just fighting a losing battle. I’ve learned to just cope with it.

36. Limescale? Managed to live where the water doesn’t have rocks in.

37. Iive in Scotland, and we don’t have hard water here so no need to descale