On 2 Aug 2005 17:17:54 -0700, wrote:

We use one of those knitted wire thimble things in the kettle.

So long as you wash it out every couple of months, it totally solves
the scale problem.

Our kettle is about ten years old and the inside is perfectly clean,
but previous kettles have been badly furred up within just a few
months use.

Your water isn't particulary hard if it takes a few months to become
baddly furred, either that or you don't use the kettle that much. B-)

In a real hardwater area a kettle becomes badly furred in a few weeks.
Our rapid boil kettel would start to trip on the safety cut out if it
wasn't descaled every 5 weeks or so. The water Co changed the source
of our water about a year ago, from a local adit to a reservior in the
next vally. Haven't descaled the kettle since and there is virtually
no scale in there, pity about the brown stain, presumably from peat.

The knitted metal ball things do help with only mildly hard water and
are easier to clean, just scruch up under running water. But with
really hard water I doubt that it would make much difference.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail