How common are electric kettles where you are?

[Edith The Hutt]

Something which bugged me recently. I'm British, and pretty much every kitchen I've ever been in in the UK has had an electric kettle (a stand-alone plug-in device capable of boiling 2-4 pints of water in less than 3 minutes) The most common use I've seen for a kettle is making tea or coffee, sometimes I've used one to bypass heating water on a stove for cooking but most of the time it's for the preparation of hot drinks. To me the idea of a kitchen without a kettle is strange and confusing. Occasionally I'll see American or other works where a person heats water for tea or coffee on a stove rather than use a much more convenient electric kettle; this got me wondering how much of a British phenomenon this is.

Standard UK BS 1363 plug sockets are capable of carrying about double the power of a North American NEMA 5-15R socket meaning that at max load a kettle in a UK plug socket should be able to boil water twice as fast. Also: Brits are famously prolific tea drinkers (which requires water as close to boiling as possible for good tea) so I'm wondering if this is one of those peculiarly British things: we have a consistent need for a few pints of boiling water several times a day and plug sockets which can handle the load of an electric heating element meeting this need in a hurry, thus we have more electric kettles than other countries without our plugs or tea addiction.

Or have I got this entirely wrong and the rest of the world has electric kettles in their kitchens too?

 

[Foolery]

Pretty common in my part of Canada. Everyone loves coffee or tea. Coffee more so. I'm a tea drinker, myself. That said, I also have a kettle that goes on the stove, and I'll use to make tea just almost as much as the electric.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Not very common in Argentina. I think I've seen maybe one. Electric coffee machines are way more common because it does the heating/filtering thing for you. But how much time/effort do you save between a regular kettle and an electric water kettle?

 

[Leemaster777]

As an American, I don't own one, and I can't say I can recall seeing one before.

I don't drink tea, but my sister does, and she just boils the water on the stove. So... yeah, sounds like a largely British thing to me.

 

[Lilani]

My boyfriend has one, and I got one recently as well because I've recently gotten into hot tea. I know coffee makers are more common here in the US than kettles, so I feel like most of the time when people around here make tea they either use the coffee machine to make hot water or they just heat the water up in a microwave. As far as the type of kettles people do have, I feel like older people have regular kettles and most younger people have electric ones. Partially because it's easier, and partially because young people tend to be in situations where they don't have access to a stovetop and so need an alternative like an electric kettle (like college dorms).

But how much time/effort do you save between a regular kettle and an electric water kettle?

I suppose it depends on the kind of electric kettle you get, but mine is worlds easier than a regular kettle. I fill it up however much I want (there's a thing on the side that shows how much water the kettle has, the most it can do is 1.7 liters), put it on the stand, and turn it on. You can set the temperature to whatever you want up to 212 degrees. Then it heats it up to that temperature, stops when it gets there, and will continuously reheat it as needed to maintain that temperature for up to an hour.

So when I make tea in the morning, I just fill the kettle with some water from the tap, put it on the stand, turn it on, and in less than five minutes my tea water's ready. Then when I'm done, I pour out the excess water from the kettle into the sink, turn off the stand, and leave the kettle standing open so it can evaporate out on its own. And the stand itself doesn't get hot, it's safe to touch pretty much as soon as you lift the kettle off. Way safer than using a stovetop.

 

[Esotera]

My parents are British and generally heat their kettle on a stove over winter along with the house - it's more convenient than an electric kettle as you can just leave it on there the whole night & fill your cup instantly. Outside of the rural UK though, I don't think I've ever seen a non-electric kettle.

 

[Shinsei-J]

I use mine every day and from what I can tell it's pretty much a must own kitchen appliance along wath a fridge in Australia.
How else do you expect us to make our instant ramen.

 

[Frezzato]

snip

Back when I had roommates, we had a visitor from the UK. He drank tea maybe 5-7 times a day and clearly missed his fast acting electric kettle. See, we had one of those water coolers that had both hot and cold taps, and he was so impatient for tea that he ran hot water from the cooler and boiled that on the stove so his tea would be done in about a minute. It was perplexing.

I think the reason there aren't too many electric kettles here in the US is that the market isn't focused on tea. In fact, America used to be big on electric coffee percolators. This was like 30 years ago really. Incidentally, percolated coffee is by far a superior way to make coffee in general, and even makes store-bought canned coffee taste wonderful. But now even percolators have gone out of fashion. Also, they're incredibly dangerous as the cords get super hot to the touch.

I guess what it comes down to is that small appliances have become poor quality and I'm probably not alone when I say that I grew tired of buying junk or stuff that would stop working after a few months. I think the last small appliance I bought was a Biolite Stove, and that was equal parts benevolence and curiosity.

 

[Lilani]

My parents are British and generally heat their kettle on a stove over winter along with the house - it's more convenient than an electric kettle as you can just leave it on there the whole night & fill your cup instantly. Outside of the rural UK though, I don't think I've ever seen a non-electric kettle.

Wait, WHAAAAT? My parents would have a conniption at the very thought of leaving the stove on all night unattended, and so would every fire-fighter friend of mine. And so would I.

 

[Eleuthera]

Dutch here, we tend to be coffee drinkers more so than tea. However, I don't think I know of anyone who doesn't own/use an electric kettle these days. Probably some older people, but they're very common. I still own a kettle, but it hasn't been used in years.

 

[Weaver]

Pretty common in my part of Canada. Everyone loves coffee or tea. Coffee more so. I'm a tea drinker, myself. That said, I also have a kettle that goes on the stove, and I'll use to make tea just almost as much as the electric.

Canadian here, I also have one. Most of my friends use one instead of a stove kettle as well.

My parents both use stove top kettles though, not sure why.

Still, they're pretty common. If people see one they know what it is, it's not some weird device lol.

 

[username sucks]

I'm an American who drinks almost nothing but tea, and I have never even seen an electric kettle. I have always made tea with the stove, but judging by this thread an electric kettle sounds amazing.

I'll have to buy myself one of those once I get some money.

 

[Foolery]

My parents are British and generally heat their kettle on a stove over winter along with the house - it's more convenient than an electric kettle as you can just leave it on there the whole night & fill your cup instantly. Outside of the rural UK though, I don't think I've ever seen a non-electric kettle.

Wait, WHAAAAT? My parents would have a conniption at the very thought of leaving the stove on all night unattended, and so would every fire-fighter friend of mine. And so would I.

Yeah, that does seem a tad weird, but I grew up with a wood stove and my mum would often leave a pot of water on top to add humidity to the house. Wood makes for a very dry heat. Especially in northern climates.

 

[FinnAhern]

Here in Ireland we tend to drink a lot of tea. It'd be weird for a house to not have one.

 

[dyre]

I don't own one personally, but my roommate had one (before he left it on for a night and burnt it out).

An automatic coffee maker serves the same purpose, so I just use that when I don't have time to boil water conventionally (on a stovetop). If you leave the coffee bean repository empty, it just gives you hot water.

 

[Esotera]

My parents are British and generally heat their kettle on a stove over winter along with the house - it's more convenient than an electric kettle as you can just leave it on there the whole night & fill your cup instantly. Outside of the rural UK though, I don't think I've ever seen a non-electric kettle.

Wait, WHAAAAT? My parents would have a conniption at the very thought of leaving the stove on all night unattended, and so would every fire-fighter friend of mine. And so would I.

I meant night more as in when the sun goes down, but I can't see what the problem would be with leaving a wood-powered stove on overnight, as it will die out pretty safely. Leaving some other form of stove on could be very dangerous though...

 

[Scarim Coral]

Heh, I didn't knew having a eletric kettle is somewhat uncommon/ rare outside of the UK (yes I'm a brit).

 

[Hazy992]

Well I live in the UK as well so yeah, pretty much everybody I know has one. Also, the idea of boiling water on a stove when a kettle is so much faster just seems odd.

Not very common in Argentina. I think I've seen maybe one. Electric coffee machines are way more common because it does the heating/filtering thing for you. But how much time/effort do you save between a regular kettle and an electric water kettle?

I'm guessing you guys don't drink all that much tea, then?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Well I live in the UK as well so yeah, pretty much everybody I know has one. Also, the idea of boiling water on a stove when a kettle is so much faster just seems odd.

Not very common in Argentina. I think I've seen maybe one. Electric coffee machines are way more common because it does the heating/filtering thing for you. But how much time/effort do you save between a regular kettle and an electric water kettle?

I'm guessing you guys don't drink all that much tea, then?

Every night for the past 6 years.

 

[Hazy992]

Well I live in the UK as well so yeah, pretty much everybody I know has one. Also, the idea of boiling water on a stove when a kettle is so much faster just seems odd.

Not very common in Argentina. I think I've seen maybe one. Electric coffee machines are way more common because it does the heating/filtering thing for you. But how much time/effort do you save between a regular kettle and an electric water kettle?

I'm guessing you guys don't drink all that much tea, then?

Every night for the past 6 years.

Huh. So do you boil the water on a stove then?