Recently, a woman in Handan, Hebei Province was trying to remove scale by boiling water mixed with vinegar and sugar. The water suddenly exploded about one minute after boiling. The scalding liquid caused severe burns on her face. The person involved said in response: There was scale in the thermos kettle. I searched for tutorials on the Internet, boiled white vinegar and sugar in a pot and poured it in to remove the scale. I waited for about a minute to see if it had any effect. Then it exploded and water sprayed on my face, which was burned.
Public information shows that using vinegar or soda ash to remove scale is effective. Certain methods can be used to reduce scale before or after boiling water.
Before boiling water, you can try to remove metal ions from the water, that is, soften the water.
After boiling water, you can use chemical methods to dissolve the precipitate, or use physical methods to peel off the precipitate and then filter it out.
Therefore, if you add soda ash (Na2CO3) or baking soda (NaHCO3) to the water before boiling it, you can increase the carbonate concentration in the water, allowing calcium and magnesium ions to precipitate out in the form of calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate and filter them out, which makes the water softer.
After boiling water, the amount of scale will be greatly reduced. If you add some quicklime (CaO), the effect will be even better because calcium hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide can be generated.
After boiling the water, an insoluble precipitate has formed. These precipitates are a mixture of various insoluble mineral salts.
Some of these salts can react with bases, such as calcium bicarbonate. Some can react with acids, such as magnesium hydroxide.
They will precipitate directly on the inner surface of the kettle and adhere tightly to the surface, making it difficult to peel off directly by physical methods.
At this time, whether acidic (vinegar) or alkaline (baking soda, soda ash) substances are added to the water, part of the precipitate can be dissolved, thereby forming a large number of cavities and weakening the adhesion of scale on the surface of the container. The scale can then be easily peeled off and filtered out.
However, alkaline salts account for most of the scale formed by boiling water at home, so using acid to remove scale is more efficient.
Here’s a reminder: Be careful when studying online tutorials, and be sure to pay attention to safety when cleaning your home.
