Despite recently descaling our electric kettle, its filter kept clogging up. After each boil, the hot water would only drizzle out in spurts. “What’s with this thing?” I thought, “I just cleaned it!” I took out the filter at the spout, rubbed it, shook it, and put it back.
The situation improved slightly, yet two days later, I was back where I started. “Does it have to do with the steam that remains after each boil?” I wondered. “Have we been closing the lid, trapping the steam, and that calcifies the filter?” For days, I couldn’t figure it out.
I was just about to descale the whole device again out of desperation when, suddenly, it hit me: “What if it’s the water?” I checked our other filter—the one we run our water through before we boil it in the kettle—and sure enough, we hadn’t changed the cartridge in weeks. It was way past due. I switched it, tried again, and voilà! Who knew? You boil limescale-free water in your kettle, and your kettle stays limescale-free.
Our inclination is to blame first the tool, then ourselves—but when the raw material is tainted, the result can never be clean. Keep your inputs tidy, and all machines will run smoothly until the end.