Dealing with hard water and limestone on your tea kettle? Check out these easy tips on how to clean a tea kettle and keep it descaled.
I love my electric tea kettle. Between making coffee in the mornings and tea at night before bed our kettle gets so much use.
We also live in an area with extremely hard water and we don't have a water softener. Because of this the tea kettle gets so much build-up on it.
At first, the hard water build-up was so bad, but then I learned a few tips and tricks to keep my tea kettle clean and descaled.
If you are wanted to descale your kettle check out these easy tips on how to clean a tea kettle.
How To Clean A Tea Kettle
Cleaning your tea kettle doesn't take a lot of time. You will need to bring the water to a boil a few times depending on how dirty your kettle is. It is really that easy.
To really clean and descale your tea kettle there are a few things you will need.
- Vinegar (this does a great job of getting rid of hard water)
- Dish soap
- Bottle Brush (so helpful for scrubbing the inside) I use this one
- Stainless Steel Descaler (I use this one)
Once you get these products you just need a few minutes to get your tea kettle looking like new.
Cleaning A Tea Kettle
To clean a tea kettle you just need a little bit of dish soap and a bottle brush. I don't like to add a lot of soap to the kettle because it can make the tea kettle take on a soapy taste.
Just a small squirt of dawn soap added to the kettle with about a cup or two of water will do it.
Then use the bottle brush to scrub around the inside of the tea kettle. Once you have it cleaned out then dump out the soapy water and rinse the kettle with clean water.
I like to let it rinse under the water for a minute or two and then fill it back up with water and run the kettle through and boil the water. This helps ensure I get out all the soap.
Once you get your tea kettle cleaned and rinsed you can lay it out to dry or if it has hard water you can follow the directions below to descale it.
Descaling Tea Kettle With Vinegar
If you have hard water descaling a tea kettle is something that you will find yourself doing often.
It is pretty easy to do and doesn't take much scrubbing or time.
To descale your kettle add about 1/2 cup vinegar to the kettle and then about another 1/2 cup to cup of water. I don't really measure this out. I just pour in about half a cup.
Then let the tea kettle run. The vinegar boiling in the kettle will remove most of the hard water from it.
Once the water is ready just let it sit for about 5 to 10 minutes until it cools down.
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Then, use a bottle brush or scrub brush to clean around the tea kettle. I use this one from Amazon.
After scrubbing the tea kettle then dump out the vinegar water and rinse the kettle a few times with fresh water.
When you are finished rinsing it out you may want to run one more batch of water through to make sure you get all of the vinegar out. I just fill it up and let it run again.
Using A Descaler To Keep It Clean
If you feel like you are constantly descaling your tea kettle then you can use a steel descaler to help keep it clean.
I use a Kettle Kleen to keep my tea kettle free from limescale and hard water. There are different kinds you can get, but this is the one that I use from Amazon.
It's a small piece of stainless steel about the size of a bottle cork. It helps purify the water for a better taste, reduce limescale in your kettle, and speed up the boil time.
Just drop it in your tea kettle whenever you use it. The limescale and hard water deposits will cling to the Kettle Kleen instead of your tea kettle.
Every once in a while you will want to clean it off. Just run the Kettle Kleen under cold water and gently squeeze it. The deposits will break off and be washed away.
Using the Kettle Kleen is an easy way to keep your tea kettle free from mineral deposits.
With these simple tips, you can do everything from cleaning out your tea kettle to keeping the kettle free from limescale deposits. It really is easy to clean a tea kettle.
Want some more time-saving cleaning tips? Check out how to remove hard water deposits from glassware.
