How to descale a kettle, iron, washing machine
Hard deposits that appear over time in a kettle or iron are deposits of hardness salts in the water. We are figuring out how to get rid of scale and extend the life of electrical appliances, together with Ilya Sukhanov, head of the testing laboratory of NP Roskontrol.
January 12 2018
Even in relatively soft (as, for example, in Moscow) tap water, the salts are hard enough to form scale. It is not harmful to health, which cannot be said about electrical appliances. The stony shell interferes with the transfer of heat to the liquid, as a result, more energy is consumed, the device operates in overheating mode and quickly fails. So, we are figuring out how to prevent the appearance of scale, properly clean it and extend the service life of household appliances.
Prevention
Purify tap water with a reverse osmosis drinking water filter with a mineralizer. Such water contains almost no hardness salts, the kettle will not build up with scale. Please note: Conventional in-line filters (even multi-stage filters) and filter jugs are not as effective at fighting salts.
Descaling
Use a special liquid or powder descaler from kettles or food grade citric acid (a couple of tablespoons is sufficient). To do this, you need to boil water with such a product several times, and then rinse and boil the kettle again. The cost of one cleaning: from 20 rubles.
Prevention
Pour distilled water into the iron (does not contain hardness salts, sold in stores) or use a reverse osmosis filter for drinking water with a mineralizer.
Please note: expensive water for irons, in fact an ordinary distillate with perfumery scent, can be replaced with distilled water from the department of goods for motorists (about 80 rubles for 1 liter versus 60 rubles for 5 liters). The perfume for the fabric in the form of a spray will cost 150-200 rubles, it will last for a long time.
Descaling
Regularly clean the built-in strainers from scale, 3-5 times a year, use special means to remove scale in irons (water additives, from 150 rubles). During the cleaning procedure, you need to let the iron work out the mixture. Ironing is not allowed at this time, because the fabric will be damaged.
Washing machine and dishwasher
Prevention
With each use, you can add water softeners to electrical appliances (from 300 rubles per 500 g) or supply water that has previously passed through the main filter softener (from 1500 rubles). Both methods are quite costly, and it is cheaper to descale periodically.
Descaling
Wash without laundry (or turn on an empty dishwasher) 3-5 times a year with a special descaler at the maximum temperature.
Choose the tool based on the temperature to which the machine can heat the water. Some products also carry out antibacterial treatment along the way. The cost of one cleaning procedure ranges from 50 to 300 rubles, but the cheapest means are not always effective.
Prevention
Many coffee machines have built-in filter softeners, but their resource is short and the price is high. Therefore, despite the advice of manufacturers, it is better to remove this filter and use tap water purified with a filter for drinking water of the “reverse osmosis” type with a mineralizer. It is not cheap (from 8000 rubles), but replacing branded filters in coffee machines will cost much more in the future.
Descaling
Use special descaling agents for coffee machines according to the instructions. Please note: the coffee machine (except capsule ones) also needs to be cleaned from coffee oil and other coffee residues on various internal parts. This cleaning is done only by a specialist. But if you save on this, then a drink even from good grains will have excessive bitterness or even a rancid aftertaste.
The methods of cleaning with soda, which are widely promoted on the Internet, we do not undertake to recommend, since their result cannot be predicted. After all, soda contains not only acid (which removes scale), but also sugar and other components, the effect of which on devices has not been fully studied. Plus, many decent descaling products are cheaper than a bottle of drink.