Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Dan S. MacAbre" writes:
Dan S. MacAbre wrote:
Does anyone here sort of 'make their own'? I buy glacial acetic acid
off ebay, because the missus uses it (well diluted, of course) as fabric
conditioner, although it doesn't really condition it AFAICT, but she
seems to like it. Anyway, it's not as good as I'd imagined at descaling
kettles, even though I thought it'd be stronger. I think the bought
stuff contains citric acid, but I don't want to buy a load of ebay just
to have it sit on the shelf for the rest of my life next to the Bradex
Easy-Start.

Some interesting ideas - thanks all. Interesting that these are all
organic acids. I've no idea why that should be, but there may be a good
reason for it.

Hydrochloric will dissolve scale much better, but it will also dissolve
the metalwork inside the kettle. I do use it where there's no metalwork.


The missus once thought it'd be a good idea to squirt some toilet
descaler aound the bath plug hole, like you might with bleach. It took
all the chrome plating off, but fortunately I was planning to replace
the bathroom suite soon after she did it (it was soon after our lad had
dropped a heavy toy boat in the bath, and I had to repair the resulting
hole with a penny coin underneath and some araldite). So whatever's in
that is presumably quite strong.

Many descalers will dissolve the zinc out of the surface of brass,
turning it copper coloured, but generally that doesn't matter and
it's a surface effect only.