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We do? I have one. Know lots of people that have them. They sell them at Walmart for like 20 bucks.
I think certain regions of the US do have them and others do not at all.
For example, where I am at, I have only met one other person in real life that has one. But I do hear about a lot of my friends on the east coast having them. Dunno.
I’m east cost as well. So you might be on to something there.
Why do people think we don’t use these? Almost everyone I know has one.
No you don’t, the justice department found no evidence of kettle use
Case closed! Wrap it up everyone. Pay no attention to the single missing page in the Walmart catalogue submitted as evidence.
I have a kettle sitting on my counter right now for use, along with my coffee maker and the MLK files.
We…do.
I…what? I do, most of my friends do. They’re amazing.
120V vs 240V.
One has much more power available to achieve the same in a different time.
For example: I can easily boil 0.5L to 100°C of water in about 2-3min.
And the kettle is rated for 2kW.That’s very true. With that said, I still find 110v kettles to be pretty fast for my needs. Especially if just making a single cup.
Voltage is only half of the equation. It’s wattage that determines how fast a kettle can boil water, but the UK does generally have higher wattage kettles than the USA. Most are 1800 here in the us, while they can be up to 3000 in the UK.
That’s exactly the point. Home connections are limited to a specific amperage (15 or 16) pretty much all across the world - certainly not beyond that anywhere. Voltage remains the only difference: 120 vs 240. With 120V at 15A you can only go up to 1800W which does take a long time to boil water.
Yes, you could have multiple phases to get to 240V in 120V countries to boil water faster but these would be special outlets and not meant for a kettle that you could buy from a Walmart.
actually that the why they are slower. most plug in devices in the usa are limited to 1.5 Kw. weather you used a 120v or 240v current it would just change how many amps it draws
2 kW @ 120 V is 16.7 A, which exceeds the 15 A limit on most household wiring in North America. To be able to achieve that you’d need to get a 20 A rated circuit installed by an electrician which means pulling out and replacing the wiring with a heavier gauge.
The advantage of 240 V rating in the UK is that you can draw more power with less current, so you don’t need the wiring to be so heavy for a high power appliance like a kettle.
yes. a 1.5 kw heater at 120 and a 1.5 kw heater on 240v would draw different amps but they would heat water at the same rate.
It was mentioned above that British kettles are 2 kW, not 1.5.
Well yeah.
But if both are rated for 6 or 8 Amps and can only supply 240 or 120V, you are bound to that.
Thus the volts are important as well.Something rated for so few wouldn’t be a good heater. At 1.5 kw that typical cut off for small devices in USA. You draw 12 amp. Plug it into a larger 240 vlot circuit and it draws amps but you still only get 1.5 kw of heating. Same time to boil water
I think the better question is; why is there a weird stereotype in Europe that Americans don’t use these? We have one and just about everyone I know who regularly drinks tea does as well. It might not have been as prevalent a decade ago, but these are extremely common now.
Too much clutter on my counters already. I can just leave the kettle on the oven.
I do. And my kettle boils water faster than the electric stove.
So when I boil larger quantities of water I prefer to boil ~2/3 in the kettle and 1/3 on the stove with a lid on for max speed; my time rarely feels more wasted than when I’m waiting for water to boil.
I also use the kettle for hot drinks, of course. I’ve kept one since I lived in the UK.
The thing we use hot water for the most is coffee, which has its own device. For the few times we would need it for something else we either use the stove top kettle we inherited from grandma or the microwave.
Having said that, it’s not like electric kettles don’t exist here. They seem to be becoming more popular.
I have an induction Cook top just seems to be a waste.
I switched to induction and could not be happier. Love that thing. So much power, instant temp control like gas, low fire risk. I recommend induction to everyone.
I have one, but it only gets used a few of times a month. Usually by my wife when she just wants to make a small amount of coffee in the French press, or to boil water for instant foods. If you don’t really drink tea, they aren’t that useful for the amount of counter space they take up, and I can see why they aren’t as common here as they are in the UK.
I bought an electric kettle as soon as I left home. I had one in college. I never had a coffee maker though. I’m happy with instant coffee.
I do. I have a nice temperature control pouring kettle. But I imagine that unless a person is into tea or a coffee enthusiast, most Americans are probably fine with a drip coffee machine and a microwave is fairly fast at boiling a mug too.
I do. So convenient and low maintenance.
I have one, I make drip coffee. Used them on a trip to Australia and got one soon after.
110v power takes forever. 240v in europe is much quicker.
