Tea kettle

B

Bonnie Scott

Active member
I have been working on cleaning an enamelware tea kettle for my daughter. The lime scale was really thick so I am pretty sure the seller thought it was ruined. After seeing the layers of cement like scale coming off of this piece I am beginning to rethink walking away from all the cast iron kettles I see. My question is, will lye remove hard water deposits? This boiling vinegar method is very time consuming.
 
Lye only works on the fat and grease left in seasoning. Once the seasoning has been cooked on enough to reduce it to mostly carbon, lye will not budge it. And, as you may have read, lye dissolves aluminum.
 
Thanks Doug, I was looking for an instant magic fix but I kind of new it wasn't going to happen. Boiling half and half vinegar and water is working slowly but surely.
 
Have you tried Lime-A-Way found at your local food mart/hardware store? I use it to dissipate the calcium hardness build up in my hot water pot for making coffee in the mornings. My pot is stainless steel and I usually fill it with water and add a few ounces of the cleaner and bring it to a boil...let it cool naturally and while still warm take a tooth brush and loosen all the build up at one time. I also use on my tile in the shower and it works well there also.
Good luck....
 
I actually soaked the kettle overnight in a half and half mixture of lime-a-way with no luck. A couple more hours boiling in vinegar and water took it off. It looks pretty nice now.
 
Bonnie Scott said:
I actually soaked the kettle overnight in a half and half mixture of lime-a-way with no luck. A couple more hours boiling in vinegar and water took it off. It looks pretty nice now.
Click to expand...

Hmmm.. Thanks for this. I have Vinegar, and a large, LARGE 1-Gallon+ Revere tin tea kettle that I got in a lot that has a lot of calcium inside. This thing is huge, at least 12" across. I don't need/want it, but I want to clean it up before passing it on. Will try the vinegar tomorrow night.

Vinegar = Miracle Liquid ! :p
 
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