Descaling Coffee/Tea Maker/Kettle

[TastyReuben]

My Keurig comes with an automatic reminder as to when to descale it, which I do using a mixture of water and white vinegar.

I also descale the tea maker and the electric kettle at the same time.

Do you routinely descale yours?

 

[caseydog]

Yes. I also use water and white distilled vinegar.

CD

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Occasionally we do, but not for the typical scale (calcium) build up. Being on tank water here in Australia, which is rain water, we don't get a hard water scale that I grew up with and would literally litter the bottom of the kettle and could be tipped out of the coffee/tea mug/cup.

Periodically the inside of the kettle needs a clean to remove the build-up of eucalyptus leaf gum that is deposited from our rain water tanks. It's a brown residue that looks unsightly. Hard to explain and it's not that long since the kettle was last cleaned so it's only just beginning to build up again.


That will steadily get browner and browner until almost black...
Presumably there is something in the gum tree leaves that is water soluble and it certainly resembles the stagnant brown water with eucalyptus leaves in it, that find there way into everything. This is just the run off where the gutters need cleaning out on the shearing shed, but it is way too high to access easily, so we just live with it. Occasionally you'll get bits of dead eucalyptus leaves through the tap which is significantly better than one place we lived in in the UK where we'd get dead wasp parts coming through the taps...

 

[TastyReuben]

Periodically the inside of the kettle needs a clean to remove the build-up of eucalyptus leaf gum that is deposited from our rain water tanks.

That’s why I like to ask questions that may seem rather uninteresting at first - it leads to me learning something new!

 

[kaneohegirlinaz]

When we first got our Keurig, I used their descaling solution, it's a bit spendy compared to a bottle of distilled white vinegar... so that's what I do, actually when I feel it prudent, not when the light goes off. We have very hard water here in Cowboyville Arizona.

 

[TastyReuben]

When we first got our Keurig, I used their descaling solution, it's a bit spendy compared to a bottle of distilled white vinegar... so that's what I do, actually when I feel it prudent, not when the light goes off. We have very hard water here in Cowboyville Arizona.

I used their stuff once - very pricey. After that…water and vinegar.

I also take it apart and clean the parts where the pod goes in. It gets pretty gunky in there, and we rarely use pods.

 

[kaneohegirlinaz]

I do the same TastyReuben. I take apart as much as I can to clean everything.
Here's something I learned recently about Keurig : if you make a Hot Cocoa/Chocolate
(which is super yummy by the way, along with a shot of an adult beverage added 🎶)
you should follow that with a run of just hot water to clear the decks.

 

[TastyReuben]

I do the same TastyReuben. I take apart as much as I can to clean everything.
Here's something I learned recently about Keurig : if you make a Hot Cocoa/Chocolate
(which is super yummy by the way, along with a shot of an adult beverage added 🎶)
you should follow that with a run of just hot water to clear the decks.

When I do use a pod, that’s what I do, no matter what it is, because I mainly use the machine to squirt hot water over a teabag.

 

[Morning Glory]

Don't have any coffee machines just an electric kettle. I don't really descale it - I sort of swill water around and tip out any deposits that are loose. The kettle is transparent so its easy to see. It is hard water here but I reckon a few calcium and magnesium deposits are good for health:

Is hard water dangerous to drink? - McGill Universityhttps://www.mcgill.ca › oss › article › health-you-asked

 

[LissaC]

How to do you descale the kettle with water and vinegar? I should probably do that to mine.

 

[TastyReuben]

How to do you descale the kettle with water and vinegar? I should probably do that to mine.

Here’s one way:

How To Clean an Electric Kettle

 

[LissaC]

Here’s one way:

How To Clean an Electric Kettle

Thank you!

 

[The OMWC]

I use citric acid, but admittedly that can be a bit more expensive than distilled vinegar. Works like a charm, though- we have intensely hard water here and drastic measures are often needed.

 

[caseydog]

The hard water deposits really show up on my immersion circulator (sous vide). That is easy to descale with vinegar/water.

CD