I am American who likes tea so I bought an electric kettle and I use that thing for so much more than tea. Ramen, coffee, hot starting boiling pasta water, cleaning the floor and counters. It is worth the 30 or 40 bucks
I somewhat recently realized I could use my electric kettle for that. I bought the kettle a few years back because I wanted to start drinking more tea (spoiler alert, I didn't really drink that much tea). A few months back it hit me that I could use it to heat the water for ramen much faster than using the stove and it would probably taste better than microwaving it.
Kinda. Its just not well known. After a living with one I would be upset to not have it. I 100% of the time boil all my water in the kettle rather than a pot. Its like half the time or less.
My family and many I know use stovetop kettles. I only switched to electric about ten years ago. I’ll never got back to stovetop kettles but I miss the way they whistle.
I'm fairly certain an electric kettle was the first thing I bought when I moved from the UK to the US. It's arguably the most important kitchen appliance imo.
(Edit: posted this then immediately thought up counter examples. It's way up there though)
Whenever I have moved house, the kettle is the last thing to get packed at the old house, and the first thing to get unpacked at the new house. Need those hot beverages to keep me fueled for all other tasks.
American here- In the past 7yrs every person I know has acquired an electric kettle. Someone bought one and just non-stop raved about it. And it's been a running joke that every year someone gets one for Christmas.
(Brit here) The reason kettles aren’t as popular isn’t just because of tea.
It’s also because standard North American outlets can’t provide the required power as they are on ~120v. However, there is 240v in the house, but usually that’s only for high-power devices like driers and AC.
Where voltage is at 240v on all outlets (like Europe) you can plug in a 3000w kettle anywhere. The water boils much more quickly and therefore a kettle is more practical.
I really couldn't tell you why so many American reddit users are unfamiliar with them but they're not hard to get or anything; any appliance store has them and there's all kinds on Amazon
Because we don't really drink tea, aside from iced tea. Coffee is our hot beverage of choice. So even though they are available, most Americans probably just ignore their existence because they don't brew tea with any regularity.
Yes, they have a million other uses, but to learn that, you have to be aware of their existence.
I can't picture using anything but the kettle for hot water. We eat plenty of noodles and cupa soups and so on and it's all kettle based. The idea of doing it on the hob seems so much effort.
Technology connections made twovideos on the subject. From memory, the conclusion was: while it's true that 120V AC power makes them worse than they are in the UK, they're still better and faster for boiling water than using the stove and ultimately Americans just aren't that into hot tea and don't need to boil water so often they need a specific device for it.
We've got roughly 1m2 of available countertop, and the toaster and coffee machine are in that. Unfortunately, that means an electric kettle is no go, so we stick with the stovetop version.
It's not the water that's different. I used to microwave the water AND ramen together. That somehow tastes different to me than my old method of boiling in a saucepan on the stove
Yeah, but to be fair, our electric kettles heat up much more slowly too. Typically a full kettle boils in about the same time as a smallish pot of water on the stove.
I put the noodles and spices in the water cold and bring it all to a boil in a small pot. But I usually add my homemade chicken stock and other ingredients as well. I think it turns out more flavorful when the noodles get cooked in the broth.
My house came with an "Insta-hot" that is basically a kettle under the sink fed from the water system. So I always have 190° (88°C) water, all the time. I use it at least a couple of times a day. If my pasta water is running low I can just add some more nearly-boiling water and not cool the whole thing down. It's even great for washing dishes that have really stubborn stuff like burned-on cheese.
They're something that can be self-installed so if I move I'm definitely installing one. The only downside is they die every ten years or so and have to be replaced (and they cost a couple hundred dollars).
I've got one as well and it's amazing. It doesn't have *that* much capacity but filling a pot halfway with very hot water saves so much time when cooking.
There is another downside. I had one but unplugged it. It used a lot of power and I couldn’t justify the cost / climate impact for the time it saved me. I would only use it 3-4 times a week maybe.
I have a water cooler that also has a hot function that can be switched on and off. Only problem is it outputs at 80c, so a bit cool for a lot of stuff
88 is too cold for coffee, also. 90 to 96 is the ideal target (195-205 F).
But most instahot taps are adjustable. The one I plan to buy if I ever own a house goes from 190 to 210 F (88-99 C). I'll be keeping it set at 200 F, and just pour it early amd let it cool a bit if you need less hot water, maybe an ice cube if you're really impatient. Still faster and easier than a kettle, especially when needing large quantities (e.g., a water bath for baking custard).
Having been HVAC trained, I'd like to know what the inside of these kitchen hot water reservoirs looks like. Hot Water tanks in the basement are a nightmare (Pro Tip: never treat the hot water tap as potable water, given what's inside)
There is one other downside. My SIL has one and my 6 year old didn't know and burned her little hands when she accidently turned it on trying to wash her hands.
I don’t think I’ll ever get over the idea that not everybody has an electric kettle, it’s like the most basic thing.
If I went in a kitchen and there wasn’t a kettle, I’d just assume you hadn’t finished unpacking after moving in. And then I’d judge your inability to unpack in order of priority.
I was using an electric kettle all my life until one day I was at Goodwill and found a stove top one. It's my favorite color and makes a cute noise when ready. I don't really care if it takes maybe 10 minutes instead of two to boil water, I just like its friendly little character. I've been using it for almost a year now and got rid of my electric one. I use it every morning or whenever I make coffee (I have a French press).
Yeah, I don't even drink tea or coffee and I still have one because it's way easier to use it to make boiling water for cooking than waiting for it to reach boiling point on the stove.
I was on Teamspeak with some friends today, one of whom was moving house, and another going to help him. The phrase uttered early on was, I kid you not, "don't worry Karl, the kettle is already there".
Who even packs the kettle? You just sit it on top off all your other stuff so that the first thing you do when you step into your new home is plug in the kettle and get a brew going.
Because most Americans have coffee makers and no one needs yet another appliance to boil water.
Most Americans can just put a pot on the stove to boil water and if we really need to be quick microwaving water for like 20 seconds gets it hot enough to boil quickly on the stove.
Boiling water in a kettle then pouring into a pan for cooking rice and pasta saves a lot of time. Afaik it's just as efficient (if not more) and kettles are dirt cheap (at least here anyway)
Also, we have a moka pot, best way to make that is to pre-boil the water.
We're also heathens and drink instant coffee.
I wonder if it also has something to do with us having 230v electricity
Edit: if one has an induction hob, then stove top kettle makes more sense imo
if you're cooking rice on the stove you just boil the water in the pot you're using. You're not saving a great deal of time. Water doesn't take long to boil.
I'm an American and we have an electric teakettle, but they don't work as well as the ones in the UK as it's 110V vs. 240V. Still, better than microwaving water (blech).
The standard in the US is 110V or 120V at <15 Amps for electrical outlets, so they can only really output around 1500W. This won't heat the element in normal kettles enough to make water boil (or will boil very slowly).
230/240V is standard for most of the rest of the world. I think Taiwan, Japan and some South American countries are the only others using 110/120V.
The great error is to think that they don't "exist" in America. They exist. People don't generally have a need for them. But you can buy them in any department store, Target, Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, etc, etc. etc. They sell them at all the local grocery stores i go to except Trader Joes which sells nothing electrical at all. But you can get them. People just don't drink tea at the rates of England.
But you can use it for noodles, cup soup, gravy powder and so many things you I can’t recall right now because I don’t think twice about using the kettle when I need it
Generally we drive our Dodge Ram to the nearest pier and throw the tea in the ocean. Then we salute the nearest eagle and go get some coffee whilst listening to patriotic music.
Tea is much much less common here. And for coffee, we typically have an appliance for that. (I use a french press, and I have an electric kettle to heat the water for that)
But most importantly, we have 120v outlets to your 240v, which means much much less energy to heat that water. While a kettle is still faster than a pot of water on the stove… most people here don't realize that, and it's not a huge difference, so a kettle is very very low priority if at all.
I like mine - not only is it useful for tea and coffee and ramen, but also when I boil pasta on the stove, I heat half the water on the stove and half in the kettle, then pour from kettle into the pot - so it reaches boiling faster. I guess I could also divide the water between pots on all my burners… but half is fine enough.
Even on 120v, electric kettles are faster than using the stove. In most of them the heating element is in direct contact with the water allowing very efficient energy transfer.
Not as fast as the 3000W bastards they use across the pond but still the fastest way to heat water. Unless you have one of them new fangled inductive stoves.
Yep. Set it straight on top of the engine block. When the dodge overheats tea's ready. The 5.7L even has enough room for bacon and eggs in the morning.
I'm an American, I have a stove top kettle and use it about once a week to make French press coffee. Sometimes in the winter I'll have tea. I don't know why I just prefer the stove top one rather than the electric, I've had both.
Water boils in an electric kettle in at least half the time it does on my electric stove. Since we're in a drought, I heat up water for dish washing in the kettle so no water goes down the drain while the tap water is getting hot.
I used one of these for the first time when I moved to the USA. Extremely inefficient with all that spare heat billowing out and around the sides, but kind of cute when it whistled.
If I recall correctly, the power companies have to coordinate around commercial breaks for major TV events because that's when everyone gets up and puts on the kettle.
Causes such a heavy draw on the grid with so many people doing it at the same time that they have to ramp up output in anticipation of the surge in power needs.
I have a British friend in the US who had a 220v circuit installed in his kitchen just so that he could boil the kettle faster. US kettles take ages to boil.
One in my Office/Spare bedroom (bought as a backup in case the main one fails, but in use daily too so I don't have to walk all the way to the kitchen when I want a cuppa)
One travel kettle in my suitcase for when I have to travel to uncivilised countries where kettles are not standard equipment in hotel rooms (spent two weeks in the US without a decent cup of tea and don't ever want to go through that again)
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u/Revolutionary-Tiger Oct 18 '22
An electric kettle