Descaling Iron

[pixi]

My iron needs descaling and I heard somewhere you can use vinegar or lemon juice to do this.  I cant remember which but have both in the house, does anyone know which one I should use.   Thanks in advance

[d0gsb0dy]

Can't help with the descaling, but we live in hard water country, Bedfordshire, and my wife only uses home-filtered water in her iron. We never seem to have a scale problem. Same goes for kettles. A good filter only costs about a tenner.

[Clanad]

You can use vinegar, but don't use it full strength.  About 1 cup vinegar to 1 cup water is probably about right.  Additionally, use caution on using the iron following descaling since a lot of the scale will be loosened but not washed out through the steam vents and will ruin clothing being ironed.  Actually, best process is, considering that they are relatively inexpensive, is to buy a new one and then, as d0gsb0dy states, use only distilled water... Luck!

[shaneystar]

Could you elaborate on that filter dOgsbOdy...please?
I am forever descaling the iron and kettle.I am on my third iron in twelve months and am now using bottled water in it.We are in a hard water area here in East Anglia.

[pixi]

Thanks dogsbody I will definately look into that, the kettle gets really bad too.   Until I get one I will try Clanads idea, thanks for that Clanad, my irons already putting scale marks on the clothes so it must be bad.  Hi shaneystar, I'm in West Yorkshire and the waters hard here too

[morg_monster]

We live in a really hard water area and we use a standard Brita water filter for water going in the kettle or the iron, no limescale or residue at all.  (mum reckons it tastes nicer too but i don't really taste a differenfce...)

[pixi]

thanks morg_monster looks like finding a filter is my mission for the weekend

[netibiza]

Only yesterday I descaled my iron with vinegar and it was fine. I filled it with neat vinegar, heated it up then uplugged it and layed it on a cake cooler over a tray and the smelly water slowly dripped through and took all the white stuff with it.  Then filled it with clean water and let it steam for a few mins. It is fine.

[netibiza]

...meant smelly vinegar dripped through......

[pixi]

Thanks neti, poo I bet that didn't smell right clever, remember to wipe it off before you cool your next batch of baking (the cake cooler i mean) lol

[netibiza]

pixi - I don't bake cakes, the rack is only used to decal irons.  Used the iron today and it was fine, but I put smelly ironing water (can you get that over there) in it soit smelled OK and the clothes were without deposit.

[netibiza]

....sorry the word decal is spanish, same as descaling.