this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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This one seems silly, but one really useful cheap thing I bought that I use much more than I thought I would is an electric kettle. (I should point out I'm in the US) I use it to make iced tea, my wife uses it for hot tea, and we both use it for boiling water for whatever cooking project needs it. We have a gas stove, and it takes about twice as long to heat up a liter of water as this kettle. It uses a normal US 120v outlet and I think it draws 1,000w. (Edit: I looked it up and it's 1,100 watts)
Seconding an electric kettle, even a cheap one was a game changer over not having one at all. Crazy how 99.99% of people I know as an American don't own one
Boiling water is only for pasta to Americans
And coffee, though we usually have a dedicated machine for that.
Most Americans don't drink tea. The only things that I know they are used for are tea and instant noodles.
Don't let the pour over coffee crowd hear you. You'll be done for. A proper gooseneck kettle is like top 3 priority.
And if we do drink tea it's frequently iced, so timeliness of the boiling isn't a huge concern.
I wonder if they're more popular now. I took this in a Walmart in California. https://imgur.com/d5ae1Po Although about half of those are not electric!
Why does America look like poor Poland villages. But even poor Poland Villages have electric kettles.
Why don't Americans use electric kettles? https://youtu.be/_yMMTVVJI4c?si=t7nyeDTJIuVDfsQq
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Most Americans have a coffee pot instead of an electric kettle. Coffee is a cultural staple in the US. Tea is not.
Can't say I know what that looks like, but the US is a big place. There's a lot of different looks to it.
We do have them. You can get one at nearly any big box store. They're cheap too. Most Americans still don't own one because we have no particular need.
Dear god, I won't even look at a kettle that's less than 2200w.
In fact ours gets so much use I just ordered one that I can shout at across the room to switch on
At 110V that's a 20A kettle. So you aren't getting that high of wattage kettle in the US. Most standard US residential breakers are only 20A (some are only 15A) and they aren't designed to continuously run near the max amperage so the biggest we can run on a "normal" circuit is probably around a 1760W kettle but it would also have to be the only thing running on that circuit at the time.
Unless you run a dedicated 220v circuit to your kitchen or tap the kettle into an electric car charger ๐ง
(Don't do this)
This is where the 120 volt power makes it a little worse for us Americans. 2200w would be 18 amps, easily taking most of the power on a breaker.
If kettles ever got more popular in the US maybe they could put 240v outlets in kitchens for kettles, but that would be a huge change.
plus one and I use it for a lot of non cooking where you want water of a specific temperature. Unclogging drains and filling the carpet cleaner comes to mind.. Its like I want 135 degree water. Oh also nasal irrigation water. Its great for it to have a wide temperature setting.
I live in the UK and I have a 3,000W kettle. Imagine how fast it is :)
Of course Brits that their kettle game seriously.
How long does it take? My little one in the US takes 4 minutes to boil 2 cups of water.
I don't know, a minute or two depending on how much water I need.