311–320 of 528 posts
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You sure? Germany is a (shit) coffee country and everybody has had electric kettles since the 90s.
What do they use the kettles for? For most non tea drinking households in the US there is no essential use for a kettle. They do sell them here, people buy them, they are usually tea drinkers.
French press coffee.
Instant coffee, hot cider, hot chocolate, etc.
Heating water for instant soups, etc.
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Continuous vs noncontinuous overcurrent rating.[1] Depending how you get your appliance approved, you can draw more. The actual requirement is 3 hours, but like all regulations you have to look at intended usage: [1] https://www.csemag.com/articles/understanding-overcurrent-pr...
The comment I replied to said the U.S. was limited to around 1100W which is why The U.S. doesn't use tea kettles. I reply with a very commonly used device that uses over 63% more power than 1100W showing that obviously isn't the reason the U.S. doesn't use tea kettles. And you reply with essentially, "Oh, but that's because the hair dryer isn't used continuously for 3 hours". Did you think a tea kettle is used for 3…
Why would a manufacturer bother trying to prove discontinuous draw when they can just current limit, use the same element they do everywhere else with the same resistance, and not worry about it?
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Honestly it seems more likely for an American household to have a Keurig machine (or hell, even multiple Keurigs) than to have any kind of kettle.
A Keurig machine is just an electric kettle with an electric pump inside of it.
How much of cooking protocol is to smooth over differences in heat flux? Recipes almost always seem to call for pre-heating an oven or bringing a pot to a boil before adding pasta/noodles. But temperature is temperature (when it comes to slow cooked foods, ignoring searing / maillard reactions). Are there any reasons not to just start cooking immediately while the oven/water is still coming up to temp, if I control f…
Water boils at a particular temperature. While boiling, at STP, it is at that temperature and stays there. Thus, when you immerse something in boiling water for a specific amount of time, you know this food item is experiencing a particular temperature for a given time. Boiling water allows for standardization on the temperature end, so you can assure yourself that, if you get the time right, well, you've standardized both of those things and your macaroni will be like someone else's macaroni, assuming they came from similar boxes.
The stability of the boiling water temperature takes away a lot of the guesswork.
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A better way to save energy is to use an electric kettle to get the water up to boiling. This is about three times as energy-efficient as a gas hob. Combined with passive cooking it could save real money… Technology Connections on YouTube has a good video about how electric kettles are the superior way to boil water: https://youtu.be/_yMMTVVJI4c
Americans don't really do electric kettles, largely on account of using 110V mains, which limits power to around 1100W, making it a lot slower than ~2000W electric kettles in the 200+V world.
Most sources I can find indicate the usual (but not maximum) draw of US electric kettles 1500W, and checking a few popular models confirms that 1500W is common.
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I know it's heresy to the British, but you can heat water for tea in the microwave just fine. And at least in my European imagination, every American has a microwave in their home.
You can end up superheating the water that way and scalding yourself. I also prefer to control the temperature of my water which you cannot do in a microwave. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/boil-on-troubled-waters/
For superheating to occur, you need very pure water in a smooth container with no imperfections. Tap water in most places cannot be superheated because it contains too many minerals, and most ceramic cups aren't smooth enough to prevent boiling.
If you're making tea, an easy way to prevent superheating is to drop the bag in the water before you heat it. Another way is to put a wooden stirrer in the cup.
There's a mythbuster video here where they show water being superheated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_OXM4mr_i0, but note that they use distilled water (which nobody drinks) in a Pyrex container (which nobody uses). And they actually use a mug of tap water as a control.
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Once introduced, it's hard to downplay the usefulness of an electric kettle.
I'm American and learned about electric kettles during trips to Asia. They are definitely handy, even at 110V. We make our daily coffee in a French press, so the electric kettle is a no-brainer.
Moka pots are much better. Your French press will start letting the coffee powder through at some point. I use these: https://www.rommelsbacher.de/en/coffee-tea-co/espresso-maker....
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Alec, of the Technology Connections YouTube channel, shows it's not just energy saving, but faster and cleaner. Even with US outlet power limits a kettle will boil a volume of water much more quickly than a gas stovetop, and my indoor CO2 sensor won't spike by hundreds to a thousand PPM of CO2. While the time savings is modest, if you have an electric kettle it's a no brainer to prefer that over gas. Though induction…
Your gas stove will likely dramatically outperform an 1800W electric heater if you use a proper pot: https://turbopot.com/ I would still rather use a nice induction range, but it is possible to get decent efficiency out of gas.
Low-energy prep of steel-cut oats for several breakfasts: 1. Boil water in an electric kettle — we have a gas stove-top but we buy wind power for electricity; it's a Texas-grid thing. 2. Pour boiling water into a pot, add oats, bring back to a boil on the gas range, then immediately turn off the gas. (I use a ratio of 1 cup of steel-cut oats to 3 cups of water.) 3. Put a lid on the pot, put the pot on a trivet, cover…
I wouldn't stake my life that this method is more efficient, but it feels like it should be (microwaves are a pretty efficient method of heating a small volume). Takes a bit of forward planning, though.