How To Clean A Hot Water Dispenser
Cleaning a hot water dispenser is a must do task if you’re looking to prolong the life of your appliance. For some, it’s a rarely needed activity. But for others, especially those in hard water areas, it’s something you’ll be all too familiar with.
Cleaning the outside of your hot water dispenser is fairly straightforward, you simply need a damp cloth to lightly rub the surface over with, and then just towel dry using a soft material to avoid scratches.
However descaling the appliance is often far more important, and yet commonly overlooked due to the fact that most people don’t see the limescale buildup inside the machine.
Why Descale A Hot Water Dispenser?
Although limescale isn’t dangerous to us, it can cause even the best instant hot water dispensers to break – making the descaling process a great way of saving money.
Having excessive buildups of limescale in your machine’s element forces it to work harder – placing excess stress on the dispenser, hindering its performance, making it take longer to boil and using more electricity.
All of which are things we want to avoid. The good news is descaling your hot water dispenser is a lot easier than you might have imagined, here’s how:
Descaling Your Instant Hot Water Dispenser
Most hot water dispensers will have instructions that teach you how to descale your appliance. They will usually advise you to use a descaling product that comes in a sachet. You can usually pick these up at any supermarkets such as Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury’s etc.
- Oust - Designed to restore good-as-new shine and performance to your household appliances. Great results in just 10 minutes!
- All purpose - Specially formulated to work quickly and easily to restore small household appliances
- Universal: CARE + PROTECT descaler is suitable for all types of kettles and coffee machines on the market
- Deep cleaning: CARE + PROTECT descaling powder removes limescale and all tea and coffee residues from the inside of coffe and espresso machines as well as kettles, even in the most hidden parts
- Removes limescale build up effectively
- Could save on energy costs
How To Descale Using A Descaling Sachet
- Fill your hot water dispenser’s tank up to its maximum with regular water
- Place a cup under the spout ready for the water to be dispensed into it and press the start button
- After the water has been dispensed into the cup, add your descaling sachet to the cup
- Pour the cup of hot water (with descaling product inside) into the hot water dispenser’s tank
- Place the cup back under the water spout and press the start button
- When the cup is filled, pour this back into the hot water dispenser’s water tank
- Repeat the process of filling the cup and tipping it back into the appliance another 5 times
- Next, remove the water tank and give it a thorough wash in the sink to remove the descaling product
- Fill the water tank to its maximum and place a cup under the spout
- Press the start button and let the water dispense into the cup. Repeat this process until the water tank is empty.
Your hot water dispenser is now clean and ready to use.
How To Descale A Hot Water Dispenser With Vinegar
Vinegar is a cost effective and convenient product you can use to descale your hot water dispenser. Here’s how:
- Natural and eco-friendly: Pure Chem's White Vinegar is made from natural ingredients, free from harsh chemicals and additives, and is a safe and eco-friendly alternative to traditional cleaning products.
- Versatile cleaning agent: This vinegar's acidic properties make it a powerful cleaner, cutting through grease, grime, and stains on a variety of surfaces. It can be used to clean floors, tiles, countertops, and even as a natural fabric softener.
- NATURAL CLEANING AGENT: Vinegar has been used for many years as a natural cleaning agent, perfect for removing streaks from mirrors and stainless steel, a fabric softener and removing limescale.
- NEUTRALISE ODOURS: The solution will also remove unpleasant odours from your home.
- PERFECT FOR COOKING - Use in vinaigrettes, sweet-and-sour dishes, marinades, pickles, chutneys, and butter sauces. Or infuse with fresh herbs to make flavoured vinegar. Whatever the occasion our Fresh White wine vinegar will be perfect.
- FABRIC SOFTENER - This white vinegar is perfect for households that have pets and children around as well as commercial premises where health and safety is of paramount importance
- Add one cup of regular water to your hot water dispenser’s tank, and one cup of vinegar (white or malt)
- Leave the solution inside the tank for 1 hour
- After the time has passed, place the cup under the appliance’s spout and press the start button
- When the hot water dispenses into the cup, put it back into the tank.
- Press the start button again and repeat this process an additional 5 times.
- Now remove the hot water dispenser’s tank and give it a thorough wash in the sink to remove the vinegar solution
- Feel the hot water dispenser’s tank to its maximum and place a cup under its spout
- Press the start button and allow the hot water dispenser to fill the cup with hot water
- Repeat this process until the tank is empty
Your appliance is now clean and ready to use.
How To Descale A Hot Water Dispenser With Citric Acid
Citric acid can also be used to clean your hot water dispenser and is available from almost any local pharmacy. Here’s how you use it:
- Purest Food Grade Available
- 100% Anhydrous Citric Acid
- 102 percent Natural Ingredients
- DESCALES, DEGREASES and REMOVES RUST
- ✔ A WORLD OF GOODNESS: We actively seek sustainable sources for our goods, asking our suppliers the tough questions that we know matter to our customers and making sure all our products are 100% GMO Free. We follow strict hygiene processes to provide the best quality ingredients and have achieved a maximum of 5 Start food hygiene ratings.
- ✔ Anhydrous Citric Acid: Our citric acid is food-grade and safe to eat, but it is also a highly helpful home product, thanks to its strong acidity, which makes it an excellent cleaning agent. With its strong acidity, it performs an outstanding job of removing quicklime, especially since it is non-toxic to humans; and because it is very water-soluble with no odour, it comes off quickly and without streaks!
- Fill a measuring jug with 500ml of regular tap water and add 25g of citric acid
- Pour this solution into your hot water dispenser’s tank and leave it for 1 hour
- After the hour has passed, place a cup under the spout and press the start button to dispense water into the cup
- Put the water that comes out of the hot water dispenser back into its tank
- Now press the start button again and repeat this process 5 more times.
- Remove the tank and give it a good wash in the sink to remove the solution
- Refill the hot water dispenser’s tank to its maximum capacity and place a cup under the spout
- Press the start button to fill your cup with water
- Repeat until there is no more water in the dispenser
Your hot water dispenser is now clean and ready to be used.
How To Descale A Hot Water Dispenser With lemon Juice
If you don’t have any citric acid, and you’re not keen on using vinegar or a descaling sachet, there is always lemon juice. Most people have a lemon rolling around in their fridge since some time ago, even when it goes soft and wrinkly, the juice is still great for descaling your hot water dispenser.
- Tropical Sun Lemon juice makes it easy to add delicious lemon flavor to dipping sauces, marinades, or even sodas or juice without slicing and squeezing fresh lemons.
- Tropical Sun lemon juice has a sour and fluid consistency with a tangy flavor that blends well into a variety of dishes and drinks.
- Premium quality lemon juice
- Made from lemons grown in Greece
- 🍋 100% NATURAL AND ORGANIC LEMON JUICE. Biona Organic Lemon Juice is made from 100% natural organic lemons with no added sugar. Winner of the Great Taste Awards
- 🥗 NOT FROM CONCENTRATE. Our pure pressed lemon juice is not from concentrate and has the tart, refreshing taste of freshly squeezed lemons. Filled in a recyclable glass bottle
- Add one cup of water to your water dispenser’s tank, and ½ cup of lemon juice, fresh and strained is best but bottled lemon juice will be fine as well. Be sure to remove any pips, pith or skin as any foreign bodies could potentially clog the pipeworks and inner workings of the hot water dispenser.
- Leave the solution for 3-4 hours (more if possible)
- After the solution has been soaking for a few hours, place a cup below the spout and hit the start button.
- Tip this cup full back into the water dispenser’s tank.
- Press the start button again, catch the solution in the cup again, and repeat 4-5 times.
- Once the solution has been emptied for the 5th time, remove the tank, and thoroughly wash it under fresh running water to remove all traces of the lemon juice.
- Refill the tank on the water dispenser to the maximum level, and replace the cup under the spout.
- Hit that start button again, and throw away the cupful of water.
- Keep pressing, emptying, and throwing the water away until you drain the tank completely.
Then refill with fresh water and it’s ready to be used again.
How Often To Descale Your Dispenser
How often you need to descale your hot water dispenser will depend on your answer to these two main questions:
- Do you have soft or hard water?
People who live in soft water areas (or use a water softener) will not need to descale their dispenser as often as those who live in a hard water area. - Do you use it a lot?
Hot water dispensers that are frequently in use will need to be descaled more often than those that are not.
As a general rule, we’d advise you to descale your hot water dispenser once per month if you’re in a hard water area and you use it a lot. Or descale it once every two months if you’re in a soft water area and you don’t use it very often.
This advice is given as a general rule – It’s always best to check the instructions on your specific model and follow their directions on how often to descale.
