Descaling agent

A descaling agent, also known as descaling, anti-limestone, anti-limescale, anti-lime, or anti-scale, is a solution to remove limescale, e.g. from water taps, kettles, toilets and water pipes. Descaling agents usually contain an acid as the active ingredient, e.g. acetic acid, lactic acid, citric acid, phosphoric acid, hydrochloric acid, or sulfamic acid.

Descalers do not necessarily need to be acidic (although many are). Often the mechanism of descaling is done via chelation. Descalants of this sort can be the most powerful. Phosphonates in particular are well known theshold effect scale inhibitors.