Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My car charger can boil water really fast [video]

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 75 posts

Re: My car charger can boil water really fast [video]

#41

Post by spike021 »

lxgr wrote: post #16

Great video, but coincidentally two weeks too late for me: I never knew about the boil auto-shut-off mechanism and the overheat/"boil-dry" protection circuit being two different things in some kettles. In those, pouring out the entire water before the auto-off had a chance to kick in can cause a situation where the kettle stays on (due to not enough steam being present to trip it), but the boil-dry protection circuit…

I have an electric water boiler like that also. I have to be very mindful to press a button to turn it off if i return it empty to the induction plate/holder otherwise it starts clicking and beeping and freaking out.

Re: My car charger can boil water really fast [video]

#42

Post by buildbot »

mesrik wrote: post #22
wcoenen wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a small amount of water, I would be afraid of flashing the water into steam, and the resulting steam explosion.

Well, that's about what happens in Sauna with electric stove. In Finland we do it every day and have done decades already. Those who may not know electric stoves have been about fifty years common use at least in urban environments. Stoves have anything from three, one in each of three phase current used heating elements (resistor coils) 400V 6-8 kW power draw commonly in small house stoves and 2-3 times that swimmin…

It’s a good point but there might be a pretty big difference in force because the ladled pint of water is not contained on any axis. A pint of water in a cup, with up as the only exit, subjected to the full current of a 3 phase 480v circuit is probably going to generate a good size jet of steam straight up.

Re: My car charger can boil water really fast [video]

#43

Post by emchammer »

crote wrote: post #31
throw0101c wrote: post #9

He mentions induction 'hot plates' towards the end, and says that they're limited to the same 1800W and 120V as kettles, but there are "commercial" portable induction stoves that are 220V and can go up to 3500 and 5000W; e.g.: * https://www.vevor.ca/induction-cooktop-c_10592/vevor-portabl... * https://www.trueinduction.com/Commercial-Single-Induction-Co... Just need a NEMA 6 plug (GFCI/AFCI per code as well probably)…

Sure, but over in 230V-land 3500W hot plates are completely standard, and can plug into any regular wall socket. Same with microwaves and hot-air ovens: just put it anywhere on your kitchen countertop and plug it into the nearest socket. We do also have a "kitchen plug" for high-powered appliances. Those go up to 7.3kW in their regular dual-single-phase 16A version, 11kW when wired with three phases (quite common in…

What is the specific standard for domestic 16 A and 25 A 3-phase plugs you’re referring to?

Re: My car charger can boil water really fast [video]

#44

Post by mesrik »

buildbot wrote: post #42
mesrik wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that's about what happens in Sauna with electric stove. In Finland we do it every day and have done decades already. Those who may not know electric stoves have been about fifty years common use at least in urban environments. Stoves have anything from three, one in each of three phase current used heating elements (resistor coils) 400V 6-8 kW power draw commonly in small house stoves and 2-3 times that swimmin…

It’s a good point but there might be a pretty big difference in force because the ladled pint of water is not contained on any axis. A pint of water in a cup, with up as the only exit, subjected to the full current of a 3 phase 480v circuit is probably going to generate a good size jet of steam straight up.

Yeah, that's true that water thrown to a stove isn't much contained anything but that bathing room. Some of water will of course flow between stones bit deeper, but there is plenty of room to expand when it boils to steam.

Some firm hissing, minor clanking noise from stones is normal and even bit sharper noise when a stone cracks is what water use on stove causes when stones get old and are used lot. Stove should be cleaned periodically when it's cold depending on how much it's been used and there is need to replace stones or even all of them if it's been long time and there is some sand accumulation stove bottom grill or plate, whatever it has to hold stones falling trough. Family houses cleaning perhaps 1/yr and public saunas open 6 am to 8 pm 300 plus days a year, they will do stove maintenance every or every other month.

And yes, getting good amount of steam of course is what's been whole goal in this kind of sauna use and what we prefer. Some other places where they have begun to call it sauna too, they may not even allow to use water nothing but as drinking water and usually they don't warm up that 'sauna' as hot as we tend to do or if they do it's more like Turkish bath type then.

Re: My car charger can boil water really fast [video]

#45

Post by jrmg »

JonChesterfield wrote: post #18

I'm sure there was a period where one couldn't find a 3kW kettle in the UK on power efficiency grounds, one was supposed to run a 2kW one instead to save the planet. But now when I search I find 3kW models again. So either that was a nightmare of some sort or sanity has prevailed. Chatgpt thinks this was threatened in 2010 then postponed in 2016 then cancelled, which vaguely aligns with my timeline of interest in tea…

People are downvoting you because your story seems crazy, but you’re right (and wrong).

In the early 2010s there were reports that the EU was set to ban 3kW kettles in the anti-EU tabloid press.

The ‘plans’ were discussions, were general (about ‘high energy appliances’, not specifically kettles), and never got beyond the initial discussion stage - according to the same press because of fears they would drive Britons to vote for Brexit, although I’m not sure I believe that. As other commenters say, unlike other appliances that could be made more efficient, kettles are almost 100% efficient already, so the power draw doesn’t really matter. I still have some faith the authorities looking into home appliance energy efficiency would know that.

https://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/eu_not_banning_kettles

https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/politics/eu-pauses-p...

Re: My car charger can boil water really fast [video]

#46

Post by gcanyon »

silexia wrote: post #2

I am a farmer with giant water pumps and center pivots that run on 3 phase 480 volt power. One of my pumps has 85 horsepower. I wonder if I could wire up some sort of custom made tea kettle and get water to boil in five seconds?

I would love to see that.

Re: My car charger can boil water really fast [video]

#47

Post by maccard »

jchw wrote: post #26
Nextgrid wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would turn an inert device that costs a couple bucks to manufacture and has affectively no usage limit into a bomb that costs a couple hundred bucks (due to lack of economy of scale) and is limited by the battery's rated number of cycles. The battery's proximity to the heat source wouldn't help.

If people are willing to rewire their homes for kettles, I guess a couple hundred bucks isn't that bad. > limited by the battery's rated number of cycles Obviously the battery should be replaceable. (It should be in most electronics, really...) > The battery's proximity to the heat source wouldn't help. That doesn't seem like a particularly tricky problem to me. The standard kettle already tries as hard as possible t…

> Obviously the battery should be replaceable. (It should be in most electronics, really...)

This is super wasteful when we can just hook up a heating element to an insulated tank and keep it hot like Quooker [0] does. Assuming the 3L tank, that would mean probably 20 minutes to heat the tank if it's entirely emptied for the US, but that's how long it would take to boil that water with an electric kettle _anyway_. If you want 5l of water for cooking, you cna use your 3L tank and fill it up with the "slightly lukewarm water that keeps coming through the tap", and then put it on the hob _anyway_. In the best case you're boiling 2L of water instead of 5 anyway.

> That doesn't seem like a particularly tricky problem to me. The standard kettle already tries as hard as possible to insulate the heat. If you were really worried it'd be possible to put the battery on a separate power brick instead probably.

Dunno what kettle you're using but no kettle I've ever used has been insulated. They're either plastic, or stainless steel. They do usually have a lid, which helps.

[0] https://www.quooker.co.uk/tanks

Re: My car charger can boil water really fast [video]

#48

Post by maccard »

emchammer wrote: post #43
crote wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but over in 230V-land 3500W hot plates are completely standard, and can plug into any regular wall socket. Same with microwaves and hot-air ovens: just put it anywhere on your kitchen countertop and plug it into the nearest socket. We do also have a "kitchen plug" for high-powered appliances. Those go up to 7.3kW in their regular dual-single-phase 16A version, 11kW when wired with three phases (quite common in…

What is the specific standard for domestic 16 A and 25 A 3-phase plugs you’re referring to?

Not OP but - I can't answer the specific regs, but 16A/240V is absolutely bog standard for the UK and every high street store stocks ovens that will draw this down. They need to be on their own circuit, e.g. this [0].

I've never seen a single oven pull more than this, but devices like [1] are fairly common where you have two independent ovens in one, and it can pull 21A - this would necessitate the 25A supply.

As for three phase - https://www.howdens.com/-/media/howdens/assets/clh_asset_pro... this hob (which I have) will take 3-phase 16A, or single phase 32A. I've not come across any 32A 3-phase devices for home usage, though.

[0] https://ao.com/product/b54cr71g0b-neff-n70-slide--hide-elect...

[1] https://www.smeguk.com/products/DUSF6300X

Re: My car charger can boil water really fast [video]

#49

Post by maccard »

quickthrowman wrote: post #34
JonChesterfield wrote: post #18

I'm sure there was a period where one couldn't find a 3kW kettle in the UK on power efficiency grounds, one was supposed to run a 2kW one instead to save the planet. But now when I search I find 3kW models again. So either that was a nightmare of some sort or sanity has prevailed. Chatgpt thinks this was threatened in 2010 then postponed in 2016 then cancelled, which vaguely aligns with my timeline of interest in tea…

A larger heating element is very slightly more efficient due to less heat escaping as the liquid is heated more quickly. Resistive electric heating is always 100% efficient no matter the size of the heating element. Keep in mind that heat is constantly being transferred between things that are different temperatures, the faster something reaches the set point temperature, the less time there is to lose heat. https://…

If we really cared about efficiency of these devices, they'd be insulated.

Re: My car charger can boil water really fast [video]

#50

Post by quesera »

jchw wrote: post #26
Nextgrid wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would turn an inert device that costs a couple bucks to manufacture and has affectively no usage limit into a bomb that costs a couple hundred bucks (due to lack of economy of scale) and is limited by the battery's rated number of cycles. The battery's proximity to the heat source wouldn't help.

If people are willing to rewire their homes for kettles, I guess a couple hundred bucks isn't that bad. > limited by the battery's rated number of cycles Obviously the battery should be replaceable. (It should be in most electronics, really...) > The battery's proximity to the heat source wouldn't help. That doesn't seem like a particularly tricky problem to me. The standard kettle already tries as hard as possible t…

I'm in the midst of a kitchen remodel (in 120V land).

I decided to pull an extra 240V line to the countertop explicitly for a tea kettle, which I have not purchased yet but seem to be available from Amazon UK for ~2x the price of an ordinary US-market kettle.

The most disappointing thing so far is the short list of kettle options that ship from the UK to the US.

Also not sure if I should get a UK receptacle (this would probably offend the bldg inspector, so I might swap post-inspection), or just rewire the kettle itself with a standard US (240V) plug.

FWIW, the extra wire + breaker cost was about $100. I expect to pay another $30 or so for the receptacle or appliance wire, and a bit over $100 for the kettle (and its replacements every few years). Not the least expensive option, but not too bad.

Post reply on HN