Month: March 2012

Removing Limescale with Vinegar

Limescale is off-white, chalky deposits you see inside cooking pots and kettles, taps and water pipes, and in appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers. They usually appear to be off-white, light brown to orange in color. This is because of the chemicals such as iron, calcium and magnesium, that are present in the water and are left as the water evaporates. Limescale also form when water elements combine with soap, thus leaving soap scum in the surfaces of sinks, bath tubs, and draining pipes.

Limescale can be very unsightly, and getting rid of them is such a pain even with the use of commercial descaling agents. Good thing there are materials readily available at home which could effectively remove those nasty limescales- for example, vinegar. Here are few simple ways of eliminating limescales using the ever-useful vinegar.

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Aside from cooking, vinegar is an effective limescale cleaner.

1. To clean your kettles and pots, you will have to make a solution made of 1 part white vinegar and 1 part water. Pour this solution inside the pot or kettle, and bring it to a boil. Turn off the stove and leave the solution until it cools down. Dispose of the solution and you can now clean the insides of your utensils with ease.

2. You may also use this solution in cleaning coffeemakers. In place of just pure water, put the vinegar solution in the water compartment. Turn on appliance on so that the solution runs in all its parts of tubes. Do the same thing afterward with pure water to rinse off the coffeemaker.

3. This vinegar solution can also help in removing limescales in washing machines and dishwashers. Just pour in a generous amount of the solution inside the machine and run a normal washing cycle, without clothes and dishes of course. This is best done after you just used the machine in washing your clothes or dishes.

4. To clean your faucet, you need double ply bathroom tissue, sandwich bag and rubber band. Soak the tissue paper in the vinegar solution until it is evenly drenched with vinegar. Attach this paper now in the sandwich bag, then you can now use this to wrap around the faucet. Use the rubber band to keep the bag in place. Leave it overnight for best results. Rinse the faucet afterwards.

How to Maintain your Dishwasher

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Just like any other appliance at home, your dishwasher’s life can be prolonged by regularly cleaning and maintaining it. Your dishwasher is an indispensable item in the kitchen, and you do not want it to work poorly. Here are few tips to help you take the best care of your dishwasher.

Use your dishwasher often. Using your dishwasher at a regular basis prevents the building up of food debris. Consider using the dishwasher once a day, say during evening when you are just too tired to wash the dishes you used for dinner.

Just use the right amount of detergent. Just because you put in more amount of dishwashing detergent doesn’t mean that your dishes come out cleaner and good as new. Follow the instructions as to how much amount of detergent should be used and you find out you do only cannot save up detergent, you also prolong the life of your dishwasher.

Scrape off bits of food from the dishes. Removing pieces of food left on the plates before putting them in the dishwasher doesn’t cost you much energy. Besides, the debris of food, especially the big chunks, can destroy your appliance when they accumulate inside it.

Just put the right amount of dish at one time. Overloading your dishwasher is not a good idea, and so is under loading. Putting too much dishes to clean do not only destroy the machine, they also end up not cleaned well. Make sure the dishes have enough spaces from each other so that they will be cleaned effectively. On the other hand, putting less number of dishes in the cleaner for washing may also destroy both your dishwasher and dishes. Aside from it being a waste of electricity, water, and detergent, the dishes are prone to breaking because they easily bang against each other inside the machine while being cleaned. It doesn’t hurt if you just hand wash these few items in the kitchen faucet right away.

Clean your dishwasher with home-made stain-removing solutions. In time, your dishwasher gets stains and scratch marks. Get rid of the stains using a solution composed of 1 cup of baking soda and 1 ½ cup of vinegar. Empty your dishwasher, spray the solution generously inside, and run it in the “light” cycle. This doesn’t only help remove molds, mildews, rusts, and stains from your dishwasher but the vinegar-baking soda solution also keeps the machine fresh and odor-free. This is best done after you just used the dishwasher for cleaning your dishes.