Tea Kettles

[daveamkrayoguy]

I just threw away my old stove top kettle, as it got so splattered w/ grease from cooking going on around it, and that the handle is wrinkled & warped from all the heat the pot's gotta take, and the inside has gotten so discolored from 10-years-of use, that I'm not sure if that is just lime or rust inside of it...

 

So I went back to my plug-in electric kettle that we got for a wedding gift, that the same number of years of dust had to be scrubbed off of & luckily placing it in the sink & running soap & water to give it an honest scrubbing didn't qualify as immersing though it's ironic, it being a BR<span style="font-size: 18pt;">A</span>UN that it's a brand, that you surprsingly can't do--or is because it's from 2000-something?!

 

Likewise I'm experiencing the mostly-disadvantages of this kind'a kettle as it shuts off when the water is heated but it doesn't stay hot for as long as a stove top kettle as I can always set it on the stove over a burner set to the lowest setting--I would have to turn it back on & cycle it some more or just microwave cups of beverages it makes that are lukewarm or tepid...  I've likewise looked at other kettles in different stores but they are very expensive, some of the handles seem to be placed backwards & make the pots look a little bit unsafe to use--and the quality of them doesn't look like they're guaranteed to give me a long life, either...  

 

Plus, I want a train whistle or a harmonica sound! (Not the ordinary "Teeee-Ohhhh-Weee..." whistle!)

 

 

-- Dave

 

  

 

 

 

[bajaespuma]

I swear by these now.

...but it's very hard to find models that run on US current.

 

I LOVE my Braun electric kettle. I bought it for 8.99 at a thrift store 4 years ago and I've since replaced it with the identical unit, exactly the one you have pictured. It heats 2 quarts of water from cold to boiling in 7 1/2 minutes flat, faster than anything I've ever tried (maybe a powerful induction unit would be faster), but mine keeps the water hot for a good long while and if I do have to start in again, it takes seconds to come back to a full boil.

 

When my first one broke, it started to cycle off and on but it took me a while to realize that it was going bad.

 

Sometimes I do miss the whistle because I grew up in a house where they let the kettle shriek for a long time before taking it off of the stove but I find the very quiet noise of the Braun and then the gentle "snap" when it shuts itself off, in my small house, enough of a signal.

 

[kb0nes]

I have a 10 year old Cuisinart electric kettle. It gets at least 3 cycles a day every day and it has been perfect the whole time. That is like 10,000 uses (watch it fail tomorrow now). It is all stainless with a solid bottom so cleaning is a snap. I'd never go back to boiling water on the stove. Alas it doesn't whistle

 

[gizmo]

I have one of these.

It has a little bell inside the handle, when it boils and shuts off, a striker in the switch taps the bell so you get a little chime when it boils. Cute and effective. TING!

I also have a Breville rice cooker with the same trick - a chime when it switches from cook to warm. It's also the only rice cooker I've used that doesn't overcook and catch on the bottom of the pot.

I also have a Kenwood travel kettle that can be switched between 110v and 230v. we took it to the USA in 2015 and it was a lifesaver. As well as making good tea for my partner, we also used it in our room at the Grand Canyon to cook some potatoes for a nicoise salad. (we were sick of overpriced crap food at tourist places and wanted to make a simple real meal in our room.)
To prepare potatoes in a travel kettle - cut up potatoes into chunks. place in kettle and cover with water. start kettle as normal. Her comes the trick - when the water boils, switch the kettle to 240 volt and plug it back into the 110v supply. When set to 240 but plugged to 110v, it produced enough heat to simmer the potatoes. Drain off water, tip potatoes into bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Add to a bowl of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, canned tuna chunks and capers. Add black pepper. You could also have boiled an egg beforehand, and add egg wedges. (but I don't like boiled egg so we didn't)--so that is my Grand Canyon Salad...

The Kenwood has a concealed element below the floor of the kettle, so it is easy to clean after using it as a saucepan...

http://https//www.thegoodguys.com.au/breville-the-soft-open-ssteel-kettle---polished-bke495pss

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Well, like I said, the shortcomings of that electric kettle are the need to reheat the water that becomes tepid or lukewarm, after it sits in there, long after it shuts off--and that was getting to me so much, that I'd found the happy-ending to my kettle dilemma, given that it isn't worth saving all eternity to buy--if I ever even find!--a new metal stove top kettle that meets my such lofty expectations...

 

So, my need for SOMETHING that I can heat water with & keep at a reasonable & usable temperature has gotten to me enough, that along comes a good glass kettle, w/ an ordinary steam whistle, but I will never experience a train our harmonica sound, after all, then--just wanted something cheap to get by until I can get, otherwise this, here, will do:

 

 

-- Dave