For one thing it’s safer. You can google “Super heating water in microwave” if you want the science… the tldr though is that people get nasty burns from water boiled in microwave when removing it from microwave because of the super heating phenomenon . When you remove the water a speck of dust can cause superheated water to suddenly boil and spill over and give you nasty burns on your hands.
A kettle also boils water more evenly. Microwaved water does not heat evenly… And you can taste this too. Take it from an Englishman… Microwaved tea tastes disgusting. The uneven heating makes.the tea taste weird.
Kettles also tend to boil water faster than a microwave. But if you’re not worried about speed… Please boil water in a pan on the stove instead of the microwave so you stay safe. If you boil water often though… Get a kettle.
@haydesigner Yes. It’s easy, it’s tidy, it’s pourable. You can make your tea and your ramen with one prep device. And it’s not going to add a bunch of heat to your home.
I use my electric kettle almost daily.
I use my microwave about once a week, and usually end up angry at it.
@haydesigner Yes the superheating is a valid microwave hazard. Uneven heating of the water? water mixes fast by convection when heated, even in a microwave. The outer maybe 1/4 inch is what is heated by the microwave, and convection takes over.
More likely it’s that the water is too hot when added to the tea.
Avoiding superheating and just automated speed to heat an amount of water up to a full kettle are the advantages of a kettle.
I bought one of these things with the Sur La Table imprint at Costco a year and a half ago and I use the h*** out of it. It’s well built, it boils water at five different temperatures and it’s very fast. If you drink tea or pour-over coffee, or make any sort of instant soup or ramen, this thing is indispensable (although it does dispense water very well indeed).
@ellett Thanks for the information that it’s got 5 preset temps and not a continuous range. (Hopefully @troy can chime in and correct the information if that’s actually not the case for this specific model.)
@phendrick I think the disconnect here is that yes, water flashes to steam if heated past 212F at STP (with a certain caveat about quiescent heating in a microwave), and therefore the formal “boiling point” of water is 212F/100C/373(ish)K. But water in a kettle makes boily noises long before the majority of the water approaches that final temp, and those lower levels are useful for many things. I suspect you knew that.
@ellett@phendrick I think “heat” is the better term. Some drinks want water at less than boiling, because the chemicals react differently. Green tea, matcha, certain other teas probably, or if you want to heat water for baking to a specific temperature. IDK if it’ll do just 100 F though, for dough or something.
@troy It looks like this kettle uses a pretty standard base, too. That could be handy; I’m a fan of not needing to have multiple bases in order to be able to make use of different kettles with specific features.
@babakool@dtranberg@troy the simple answer is yes. I came here looking for the same info, but since there was no response, I watched a few YouTube videos.
At the 3:01, you can clearly see that the inside of the lid is entirely plastic. In the QVC video with Carla Hall, she never opened the pot, so there was no way to tell
I spent a whole lot of years just using a kettle on the stove… but these are so easy, so convenient! If I didn’t already have one (that doesn’t do different temp settings, harrumph) I’d get this… but would I recognize the usefulness without the experience?
i have an electric kettle on the counter that i use at least once a day, usually a couple more (pour on ramen or sponges and swedish dishcloths…) and i wish i had a spare couple of sawbucks around so i could get this one with the temp settings.
Can you override the auto shutoff so you boil your water for longer? I am struggling with mine as I need boiled water that has been fully boiled for 5 minutes to make sure it kills off everything and none of the electric kettles let me keep boiling.
@shirlema If it’s the same as the all-but-the colors twin from Costco, no. Once it hits the target temperature, it either turns off or switches to steep mode for a few min.
@shirlema The auto shutoff I actually saw a video about a while back, it actually happens when the water vapor is being produced fast enough, the pressure trips it and turns it off. This works regardless of elevation, because it doesn’t use temperature, otherwise somewhere like Denver, the water boils at 203F, and never gets to 212F.
This is also why you don’t want to heat water below the minimum mark, it may boil away and overheat the whole kettle without shutting off.
Totally unrelated trivia: CH is the international letter code for Switzerland. Being part-Swiss I will see the CH that way since I don’t know the cooking network personality. And no, this kettle is not from Switzerland.
I have a Costco version that only boils. I use it a lot, mostly for tea. I make different types of tea that require different temperatures. Nothing worse that green tea made with boiling water. I wonder how accurate the temps are? I bought a kettle on-line that was really far off, and worse the error was not consistent. For $20 I may have to give this a try. I’m thinking these are the colors that didn’t sell, but this is meh, right?
Kettle tip because a lot of people don’t know this…
Just put as much water (or slightly more) than you need in the kettle. Don’t completely fill it and just reboil every time you need boiling water.
Heating water removes oxygen. This impacts flavour in drinks like tea/coffee (chemistry… Oxygen in water reacts to the organics in tea/coffee). It’s best you boil just once for flavour.
Specs
Product: Carla Hall 1.2-Liter Mini Electric Kettle with Digital Temperature
Model: K89741116000, K89741D67000
Condition: New
What’s Included?
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Thursday, Aug 7 - Monday, Aug 11
Is that color Tomato or Georgia Red?
Honest question… is this really any better than heating up water in the microwave?
@haydesigner yes. Yes. Yes.
For one thing it’s safer. You can google “Super heating water in microwave” if you want the science… the tldr though is that people get nasty burns from water boiled in microwave when removing it from microwave because of the super heating phenomenon . When you remove the water a speck of dust can cause superheated water to suddenly boil and spill over and give you nasty burns on your hands.
A kettle also boils water more evenly. Microwaved water does not heat evenly… And you can taste this too. Take it from an Englishman… Microwaved tea tastes disgusting. The uneven heating makes.the tea taste weird.
Kettles also tend to boil water faster than a microwave. But if you’re not worried about speed… Please boil water in a pan on the stove instead of the microwave so you stay safe. If you boil water often though… Get a kettle.
/showme an awesome honest question
@haydesigner Yes. It’s easy, it’s tidy, it’s pourable. You can make your tea and your ramen with one prep device. And it’s not going to add a bunch of heat to your home.
I use my electric kettle almost daily.
I use my microwave about once a week, and usually end up angry at it.
@haydesigner Yes the superheating is a valid microwave hazard. Uneven heating of the water? water mixes fast by convection when heated, even in a microwave. The outer maybe 1/4 inch is what is heated by the microwave, and convection takes over.
More likely it’s that the water is too hot when added to the tea.
Avoiding superheating and just automated speed to heat an amount of water up to a full kettle are the advantages of a kettle.
I bought one of these things with the Sur La Table imprint at Costco a year and a half ago and I use the h*** out of it. It’s well built, it boils water at five different temperatures and it’s very fast. If you drink tea or pour-over coffee, or make any sort of instant soup or ramen, this thing is indispensable (although it does dispense water very well indeed).
@ellett i can only think of 3 trmperstures for water to boil at
(at standard pressure,)
100 C
373 K (rounded)
212 F
Help me out with 2 more?
@ellett @phendrick LOL!
OK, but a bit below boiling is ideal for tea: you want to steep, not scald.
And presumably if you’re doing something like canned soup, an even lower temp would get you to ideal.
I’m tempted, but whew. I have too many appliances.
@ellett @phendrick I gotcha, pal: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale_of_temperature
Rankine and Wedgwood are two.
Also, obligatory Finnemore sketch:
@ellett Thanks for the information that it’s got 5 preset temps and not a continuous range. (Hopefully @troy can chime in and correct the information if that’s actually not the case for this specific model.)
@phendrick I think the disconnect here is that yes, water flashes to steam if heated past 212F at STP (with a certain caveat about quiescent heating in a microwave), and therefore the formal “boiling point” of water is 212F/100C/373(ish)K. But water in a kettle makes boily noises long before the majority of the water approaches that final temp, and those lower levels are useful for many things. I suspect you knew that.
@ellett @phendrick I think “heat” is the better term. Some drinks want water at less than boiling, because the chemicals react differently. Green tea, matcha, certain other teas probably, or if you want to heat water for baking to a specific temperature. IDK if it’ll do just 100 F though, for dough or something.
What’s this made of?
@dtranberg glass for the vessel, stainless for the spout. A mix of plastic and stainless everywhere else
@troy It looks like this kettle uses a pretty standard base, too. That could be handy; I’m a fan of not needing to have multiple bases in order to be able to make use of different kettles with specific features.
@dtranberg @troy Any idea if the lid has plastic that is exposed inside and could come in contact with water or steam?
@babakool @dtranberg @troy the simple answer is yes. I came here looking for the same info, but since there was no response, I watched a few YouTube videos.
At the 3:01, you can clearly see that the inside of the lid is entirely plastic. In the QVC video with Carla Hall, she never opened the pot, so there was no way to tell
I spent a whole lot of years just using a kettle on the stove… but these are so easy, so convenient! If I didn’t already have one (that doesn’t do different temp settings, harrumph) I’d get this… but would I recognize the usefulness without the experience?
I know the movie trivia reference! It’s Daniel Day-Lewis and his gal pal in The Phantom Thread.
@UncleVinny Nice, you got it! (I didn’t know this one till it told me.)
i have an electric kettle on the counter that i use at least once a day, usually a couple more (pour on ramen or sponges and swedish dishcloths…) and i wish i had a spare couple of sawbucks around so i could get this one with the temp settings.
Can you override the auto shutoff so you boil your water for longer? I am struggling with mine as I need boiled water that has been fully boiled for 5 minutes to make sure it kills off everything and none of the electric kettles let me keep boiling.
@shirlema If it’s the same as the all-but-the colors twin from Costco, no. Once it hits the target temperature, it either turns off or switches to steep mode for a few min.
@shirlema The auto shutoff I actually saw a video about a while back, it actually happens when the water vapor is being produced fast enough, the pressure trips it and turns it off. This works regardless of elevation, because it doesn’t use temperature, otherwise somewhere like Denver, the water boils at 203F, and never gets to 212F.
This is also why you don’t want to heat water below the minimum mark, it may boil away and overheat the whole kettle without shutting off.
@kevinrs @shirlema So that means it won’t shut off if you don’t have the lid on it? I’ve got one that doesn’t, this must be why.
“AI” Garbage.
@DrunkCat lol okay mr. “incorrect fact”. bot some more
@DrunkCat
Your effort to change opinions
About the usefulness of AI
With your creative writing skills
Really shows off your lack of talent
What a coincidence, I’m watching Top Chef right now.
The QVC page for this has a video with Carla Hall demonstrating and it’s much more informative than what’s in the short little video here.
https://www.qvc.com/carla-hall-sweet-heritage-12-liter-mini-electric-kettle.product.K89741.html
@Kyeh Thanks for linking! We’re not allowed to use the QVC footage, but can’t stop our audience from sleuthing around
@Kyeh Most helpful, thank you for posting.
Q&A on the site includes details such as that it’s 7.75" tall and borosilicate glass.
Totally unrelated trivia: CH is the international letter code for Switzerland. Being part-Swiss I will see the CH that way since I don’t know the cooking network personality. And no, this kettle is not from Switzerland.
I have a Costco version that only boils. I use it a lot, mostly for tea. I make different types of tea that require different temperatures. Nothing worse that green tea made with boiling water. I wonder how accurate the temps are? I bought a kettle on-line that was really far off, and worse the error was not consistent. For $20 I may have to give this a try. I’m thinking these are the colors that didn’t sell, but this is meh, right?
Kettle tip because a lot of people don’t know this…
Just put as much water (or slightly more) than you need in the kettle. Don’t completely fill it and just reboil every time you need boiling water.
Heating water removes oxygen. This impacts flavour in drinks like tea/coffee (chemistry… Oxygen in water reacts to the organics in tea/coffee). It’s best you boil just once for flavour.