While making a cup of tea the other day I noticed some chalky stains lurking at the bottom of my kettle and I decided it was time to give it a good clean.
However, after giving the kettle a rinse under the tap I noticed that the crusty stains were not coming off no matter how much I scrubbed away.
After looking on the internet, I discovered that these stains were caused by limescale, which is a build-up of the minerals in tap water that hardens over time if a kettle is not cleaned regularly.
While limescale is completely harmless, if it forms under the heating element of a kettle it will eventually cause it to break down.
I also read that limescale will eventually affect a cup of tea to make it taste bitter or metallic, as someone who drinks far too much tea I knew I had to find the best way to get my kettle clean again quickly.
I did some reading and discovered that white vinegar was the most popular way to descale a kettle but I did not want to use it as I cannot stand the smell so looked for an alternative method.
The reason vinegar is the best natural way to get rid of limescale is that it is acidic, which means it can be the main compound in limescale, calcium carbonate.
I decided to rummage through my kitchen cupboard and discovered I had a bottle of lemon juice, which I knew was also acidic so I decided to try to use it to clean my kettle.
How to get rid of kettle limescale using lemon juice
To my surprise not only was lemon juice effective at getting rid of most of the limescale but it was incredibly easy to do without having to awkwardly scrub at the bottom of the kettle.
All I did was fill my kettle with water and add a few squirts of lemon juice.
I then turned on the kettle, left it to boil and left the boiled lemon water to sit in the kettle for five minutes so it had a chance to break down the limescale.
After the time was up, I poured the lemon water down the sink, filled up the kettle and boiled it once again to rinse it out of any lemon residue.
I then checked on the kettle the stains were mostly washed away. A tiny bit was remaining but I think if I left the boiled lemon water to sit longer than 5 minutes the limescale would be completely gone.
In my opinion, this simple homemade solution is worth trying if you are struggling to clean your kettle as it is incredibly quick and easy to do, but try leaving it to sit for 15 minutes rather than 5 minutes like me.
