My electric tea kettle is something I use daily. I try to clean it every week, but it is so hard to get inside and scrub with a washcloth. I wondered how to clean an electric kettle without scrubbing it. So I tried a no scrub method and it worked like a charm! Here is how I got it sparkling clean!

Black tea kettle with blue and white teacup and moss covered bird house

I make a cup of coffee in my french press every morning and a cup of iced tea every afternoon in the same french press. I use my electric tea kettle at least twice a day and sometimes more.

I also use it to start boiling water before I boil something on the stove and sometimes I even add hot water from my tea kettle to my bathwater in the winter. I am obsessed. I know.

So you can imagine that I have some hard water mineral build-up inside my tea kettle.

I clean my coffee pot with vinegar so I wanted to give it a go in my electric kettle as well.

What you need

Tea Kettle (mine linked here)
White Vinegar
Water
Ecloth towel (my favorite set)

how to clean an electric kettle

This is the inside of my electric kettle before cleaning.

It’s so easy but so satisfying!

Add Vinegar
Add 1 cup of white vinegar to your kettle
Add Water
Fill the rest of the kettle to the recommended line with water. My kettle has this stick in the middle with a fill marker.
Boil
If your kettle is electric like mine just turn it on and let it boil until it clicks off. If it is a stovetop kettle let it come to a boil for a few minutes.
Empty
Pour out your boiled vinegar and water. I poured mine into my silver watering pot and I am going to add Epsom salt while it’s hot and pour it on some weeds in my walkway.
No waste!
Clean the outside of the kettle
Use your ecloth towel with warm water to wipe down and clean the outside of your kettle.
Admire
All of your hard water and calcium build-up should be gone and your tea kettle should be perfectly clean. This is the after-cleaning picture!
Repeat if necessary
You can repeat this if your kettle was in pretty bad shape until it is clean, or you can repeat this every week or so.