Kettle descaling tip leaves cleaning fans surprised with their ‘amazing results’

The kettle is one of the most essential kitchen appliances, helping to boil water for cups of tea or to make pasta.

However, kettles take a lot of punishment, and despite how essential they are, kettle cleaning never seems to be high on anyone’s priority list.

The inside of a kettle can quickly build up with limescale, and since households will be directly consuming the water from the kettle, it’s really the last place they want to see it.

Those who live in an area with hard water, they’ll know just how quickly limescale can build up. One minute everything is fine, and the next minute the appliance is covered in a flaky chalk substance.

Limescale buildup can actually clog the heating element in the kettle, which makes it worse at heating water.

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Sharing her “forever life hack” on the Mrs Hinch Facebook page, Jodie Marie Prosser said that she was “shocked” with how well a lemon descaled her kettle.

She wrote: “Omg I tried the lemon kettle descaler hack and I’m shocked. This is a forever life hack.

“I first bought [descaling] tablets from B and M, but you have to soak one tablet for 40 minutes before you can even start boiling the kettle.

“However, this lemon hack took only 10 minutes and gave amazing results.” Jodie posted before and after photos and the kettle appeared to be sparkling in the latter picture with no sign of any limescale left behind.

Chelsea Harris wrote: “I use lemon juice, about 30p a bottle. Boil half the bottle in the kettle, leave for 10 to 20 minutes and rinse.”

Group members in the comments agreed with this hack and shared how they either use a lemon or lemon juice to descale a kettle.

Joanna Rees said: “A chemical-free way to get rid of limescale in your kettle, using just one ingredient lemon juice. Add the lemon juice, leave for one hour, add a small amount of water and boil. Just like that, the limescale will start to disappear.”

Alison Barclay said: “I use lemon juice to clean my kettle. I use lemon juice rather than an actual lemon, and I add it to a kettle full of water, then boil a couple of times, rinse and bingo.”

Some Mrs Hinch fans suggested using straight citric acid instead of lemon juice as it is the citric acid in lemon juice that removes the limescale.

Anne-Marie Piftor commented: “Buy yourself some citric acid. It’s basically the same thing as lemons, just much more concentrated. Doesn’t leave any residue or smell when rinsing and it’s food safe anyway. I always have citric acid in my cupboard.”

Posting a photo of a bottle of lemon juice from Tesco, Debs Bridgett said: “These bottles from the supermarket maybe last me five to six times.

“Just squeeze enough to cover the bottom of the kettle and leave for 10 minutes. I always rinse it out and boil some clean water in it and empty again before using.”