How much money will descaling your kettle REALLY save on energy?

Since we switched to a Breville HotCup, we’ve really rather neglected our kettle as it’s been shoved in the back of the cupboard for a few weeks. But I recently shared a money saving tip and was keen to give it a go for myself.

Cleaning brand Oust suggested that descaling your kettle could save you money in the long run, as a result of your kettle running more efficiently. A box of descaling sachets costs £1.65 on average, but would it really save me money on my daily cuppas?

After an unsuccessful trip to pick some descaler up from Sainsbury’s, I ordered the Ecozone Kettle and Iron descaler sachets on Amazon for £1.62, and they arrived the next day.

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To work out just how much money I would save a year, I timed how long the kettle took to boil one jug of water before and after descaling - and I was pretty surprised at the results.

Our kettle had built up a layer of limescale on the base, so it felt like a pretty fair experiment. After filling and boiling the kettle, I noted that it took two minutes and six seconds to boil.

I added two sachets of the descaling solution to the boiling water and left it to sit for half an hour, though you can use up to three sachets if your kettle is quite heavily scaled.

Thirty minutes later I returned to rinse out the kettle and gave it a wipe. The solution had worked pretty well, though if I was being super picky, I’d have done the extra sachet.

I then added the same volume of water to the kettle as I had previously, flicking the switch and setting my timer - and here’s what I found: The first boil before descaling took two minutes and six seconds to boil a third-full kettle, but the