Mondo Knows Facts
Hard water leaves white calcium carbonate scale inside kettles
Boiling hard tap water precipitates dissolved calcium minerals onto heating elements
Tap water in hard water areas contains dissolved calcium and magnesium bicarbonate minerals. Heating water inside electric kettles decomposes soluble bicarbonates into insoluble calcium carbonate, which precipitates out of solution to form a chalky white mineral crust on heating elements.
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Tags: kettles, water, chemistry
Hard water leaves white calcium carbonate scale inside kettles: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Boiling hard tap water precipitates dissolved calcium minerals onto heating elements. The figure is taken from NIST, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
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