Can acetic acid be used to clean scale?

We may find such a phenomenon at home, that is, we may see some white or yellowish-white dirt in the kettle, in the water heater, or in the teacup. This is the so-called scale. The main component of scale is often calcium carbonate, and it also contains some other trace impurities. Traditional cleaning methods cannot completely clean it. Here we will introduce how to use acetic acid to clean scale.

After using the thermos for a long time, a layer of brown substance will be left on the inner wall of the bottle, which is scale. Scale is formed by the long-term accumulation of trace sediment substances contained in water. Its main components are insoluble salts of calcium and magnesium and alkali, which will affect the heat preservation of the thermos. Scale is very hard. It is generally difficult to remove scale by mechanical methods, but daily vinegar can remove it, and white vinegar is particularly effective.

White vinegar, also known as "vinegar essence", is made by diluting glacial acetic acid. The 36-degree white vinegar sold in general oil and sauce stores contains 36% acetic acid. Take about 30 ml of 36-degree white vinegar, pour it into the thermos, cover the stopper, let the thermos lie flat, and turn the thermos every 15 to 20 minutes so that every part of the inner wall of the thermos can be soaked in white vinegar. It only takes about 1 hour to remove all the scale inside the bottle, restoring the bright silver-white color inside the bottle. The originally colorless and transparent white vinegar in the bottle turned brown. This brownish white vinegar can continue to be used for descaling by adding some 36-degree white vinegar.

The principle of vinegar descaling is that acetic acid can react with insoluble calcium, magnesium salts and alkali in scale to form soluble acetate, thereby achieving the purpose of removing scale. If there is no white vinegar in the experiment, rice vinegar can be used instead, but the descaling effect will be worse because the acidity of rice vinegar is weaker than that of white vinegar.

Through the above introduction, friends already know that acetic acid can be used to clean scale. In fact, there is a scientific basis for using acetic acid to clean scale. In addition, sometimes it is not necessarily possible to completely clean the scale directly with acetic acid. At this time, you can also use a little fine sand to rub the utensils repeatedly to achieve the effect of completely removing the scale.