electric kettles are the way and the light
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2025
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Electric kettles are actually a scam. Look up any BIFL forum, they'll all say that stove top kettle is the way to go.
Yep , I never realized how fast they are. 2 cups boils in under 2 minutes.
Ur body is already made of like 70% water and also its already warm. Just eat the tea bag, thats what i do.
Using cold water is the quickest, most energy-efficient and convenient way to make tea. Or coffee. Or hot chocolate.
1 coffee mug/tea cup of water in the microwave for 1 minute is perfect for a single serving bag of tea. it doesn't have to be boiling, just hot. 1 min is also not long enough to dangerously superheat water. hot is water is hot water, it doesn't matter if you do it kettle or microwave.
No. Just no. You get shit cups of tea from coffee houses because the espresso machine doesn't dispense boiling water. The water needs to be boiling for black tea.
Also how do you microwave water? It takes ages to get water to boil in there and can explode. Use a stove if you must, buy a kettle if you can.
Also if you put a cup, teabag, and milk in the microwave at the same time I will find you, and I won't just force you to make a good cup of tea I will force you to make a perfect cup of tea that will ressurect the Queen of bloody England!
The culinary arts of my home country may be shit. But you fuckers make it worse by fucking up the most simple recipies!
microwaves water for tea
this is why america is fucked
doesn't have to be boiling
Depends on the tea.
Black generally should. Green absolutely shouldn't.
Europeans when they discover that no, most Americans really do not own a kettle rule.
They're getting more common. I personally used a stovetop kettle as recently as six years ago. But electric kettles are a world of difference.
Minor problem for me is currently living in a very old house that we don't own and using a proper electric kettle will pop a breaker. I recently bought a travel kettle that uses like 1/5 the wattage instead
Hmmm. Most of the Americans I know have electric kettles now. It's probably my most used kitchen gadget. Great for making tea or coffee, or boiling water for oatmeal. I just used it tonight to get some warm water to soak my lizard (not a euphemism) and to thaw out a frozen mouse for a snake. Honestly it gets used probably 5 or 6 times a day most days.
to thaw out a frozen mouse for a snake
Was... Was that an euphemism?
So, I'm Greek and I also have never used a kettle. In fact, you won't find one in most households. But all of us have a briki. It's like a mini pot!
We use it to boil water/make cofee/tea/boil 1-2 eggs etc
let alone an electric kettle
I can’t imagine life without an electric kettle…
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Now we need to get the South Asians and East Asians fighting about putting milk in tea.
I went to a Thai restaurant and they said, "Milk?" And I made a disgust face. A good Thai dude at another table said, "It's not western milk." And I tried it.
Wow.
Then he said, "Try it on toast." And fuck me. Another wow!
This. It's so sweet and good.
lol no shit many Americans don’t own a kettle, they apparently rank 36th in tea consumption per capita. Breaking news lads, they aren’t as enamored with it as the next higher usage countries.
List of countries by tea consumption per capita
The UK is 3rd, behind Ireland and Turkey. Get your shit together, UK.
Facts.
BUT as an American southerner, our iced tea consumption is through the roof and it fuels our economies, sweet tea and fried chicken
Growing up, we'd make sun tea, and I feel like that'd send a lot of tea drinkers running. In the morning, you'd take a gallon jar of water, a dozen teabags, bunch of sugar, and let it sit in the sun during the day, and drink it that evening.
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Something something typical US circuits can deliver less power than typical Euro circuits. Not a lot less though.
I used to own a $15 plastic electric kettle, but it died after a year or two. When I went to target to get a new (hopefully better) one, I realized I could instead buy a plug-in induction plate on sale for $50, and a plain stainless steel kettle that somehow cost only $1.50 (less than the shitty bread that I was also buying? how?). The induction plate was honestly one of the best purchases I've made in a long time. Sure, I have to wear earplugs to tolerate the high-pitched scream that the frequency driver makes, but it boils water just as well as an electric kettle and is also soooo much nicer to cook on than the resistive curlicue burners that came with my apartment.
Technology Connections did a video on this rule.
regular US outlets are 120V. regular EU outlets are 240V. P=VI, so to produce the same amount of power as a 240V kettle, a 120V kettle needs to draw twice as much current.
the gauge of a wire determines how much current it can carry without setting insulation on fire. home outlets are typically wired for 15A, around the world. so in EU, 15A service can deliver twice as much power since that's 15A of current at 240V = 3.6kW, while in the US at 120V = 1.8kW.
so EU kettles are twice as powerful, typically.
Every plug in my kitchen is 20A…USA chiming in.
The majority of my circuits are 20A. The breakers with the bars between them are 240V circuits. My house was built in 2002. 20A is becoming a lot more common.
At least here in Australia, 15A circuits are not very common. Only one of the places I've ever lived had a 15A outlet in a shed, which was likely installed by the previous owner for running a welder or plasma cutter, or some other high peak power tool like that. 3.6kW is massive overkill for general household use.
The standard circuit here is 10A, which gives you 2.4kW to play with. It's been a while, but if I recall correctly that was part of the point Technology Connections was making - that the difference isn't actually that great between 120 and 240V countries in practice. The change to boiling time from an electric kettle was pretty inconsequential between the two.
I believe he postulated that the real reason Americans don't have electric kettles was that they didn't have much need for them. They mostly don't drink tea, and their coffee is largely prepared using drip coffee makers that heat their own water.
I didn’t bring my 3Kw UK kettle over because I heard it would probably blow the circuit. But my Australian colleague who moved back over here brought his UK toaster and it actually did blow the circuit.
Hmm for some reason the numbers 1600 and 2000 W were rattling around my head for US and Europe respectively. I know most US appliances don't like to pull the full 15 A because that's when the breaker trips, but that would scale roughly the same for Europe so the power ratio should still be as you describe. I guess I either was misremembering or got the EU number from an abnormally low-current circuit.
I forgot TC did a video on this. I'll have to watch when I have the time.
Honestly if you want to boil water quickly just use a pan. Takes like 30 seconds.
Are you boiling 50ml?
That sentence you constructed. I have some opinions about it.
My kettle doesn't even boil in 30s....
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