A lot of people use vinager to descale the coffee machine and kettle.
We get the question very often:
'Can't I just simply use vinegar instead of those expensive descaling products?'
The short answer is: NO
Vinegar is a very effective in removing lime scale HOWEVER there are a lot of problems which comes with descaling with vinegar:
- Vinegar (acetic acid) attacts rubber seals and some metals
- Boilers will absorp the odor / taste of vinegar
- No surfactants to release coffee residues
- Too aggresive
The modern descalers are all acids (just like vinegar) but made from food grade ingredients. This makes them perfectly safe to use for descaling of coffee machines and water boilers. Citric acid and lactic acid leaves no taste and gives a corrosion protection to stainless steel!