New Kettle Plasticky Taste

[bibblebub]

I bought a new electric kettle on Friday and the boiled water all too often has that "plastic" taste (best description I can come up with); looking in the kettle afterwards I can see that there's a patchy surface layer of something or other on the water. I have tried descaling it but that hasn't made any difference, and so currently I'm emptying the kettle and giving it a rinse after every use.

I expect this problem to disappear eventually but is there some way to make that happen sooner rather than later?

[excelsior-1]

the problem is the boiling of the kettle, in lower quality kettles, the plastic can marginally melt on the inside when the water is heated. this releases plasticisers into your water, which make it taste bad. you can try boiling it with vinegar in it, it might help to remove any excess plasticisers from manufacturing. sometimes the taste goes away on its own over many boilings.

other wise i would suggest you throw the kettle away, and buy a new better one, preferably metal(make sure it doesnt have a plastic lining).

[mazie]

Make up a solution of Bi-Carb and pour it into the kettle bibble. Let it stand over night

[buildersmate]

If Excelsior is right (and it sounds perfectly plausible to me, but I don't buy cheap kettles) then you could really do with a thin coat of limescale in the inside to isolate the water from the plastic.
So I'd boil it a few times without putting either vinegar or bicarb added - which will act to remove the limescale layer as it forms.
Or buy a better-quality kettle.

[bibblebub]

it's a Breville that cost £30

[woofgang]

I'd be returning it to the shop and buying a metal one.

[Iluvspikey]

I too had a Breville kettle - I took mine back in the end, the woman told me they'd had 36 in stock, they now had 20, with 12 returned. I also had a Breville sandwich toaster, the 'plates' were coated in a mineral oil that had gone thick and sticky, and as it said not to use anything abrasive on the plates I ended up heating neat washing up liquid and trying to use the washing up brush to get it off, the one cheese and ham toastie I did do tasted like it had been cooked in old chip fat - I gave it to the jumble sale! (the toaster, not the toastie!)

[deggers316]

well our asda £12 "plastic kettle" has no problem at all i've only had one kettle that did taste a bit of plastic and that was a small travelling kettle 25 years ago

[BRIGHT SPARK]

....snap bibble ..we had the same kettle from Argos and had the same problem.We tried to live with it for a couple of weeks and then took it back.

[gingejbee]

Actually bibble, emptying a kettle, rinsing it and leaving it empty until next needed - when you put a measured volume of water in to heat, is the BEST way of using any kettle.
You should never keep topping the water up, particularly in a hard-water area.

[x-osn]

Notice> All kettle manufacturers should provide the following info for their customers!

"How to remove the plastic taste from any new kettle!"

Method 1)
a) Fill the new kettle with 1 liter of cool fresh water¨
b) Add 1 teaspoon of salt in to the 1 liter of water & stir it well w/ a wooden spoon!
c) Boil this salted water & then empty it in to the kitchen sink!
d) Thoroughly rinse out the kettle out & fill the kettle w/ the same amount of 1 liter of cool fresh water that was used for method 1 detailed in # (1a) above but w/ no salt!
e) Re-fil the kettle w/ fresh water to make your coffee / tea & drink it - then you'll find that the plastic taste in your drink has gone!

You may need to do method 1 above twice or three times for all the plastic taste to be completely gone - but it will be!
Thanks for your time!