This is pretty stupid. I just bought a new teakettle. After bringing it home, I read the instructions that were inside the kettle. They specify that high heat should not be used! WTF!!! It’s for boiling water, the faster the better! Who uses medium heat with a tea kettle? By the way, it was not cheap and was a good brand.
I am going to boil it whatever way I feel like and if it breaks I’ll just trash it.
(Yes I know, mundane and pointless…)
Is it a tea pot or a tea kettle?
Tea kettle – the kind you normally boil on the stove. Not the cute little thing you brew tea in on top of a doily.
Why not take it back and get one made for boiling water?
Because I’m too lazy!! 
Once my grandparents bonded an enamel kettle to their glass cooktop. I guess the two are specifically not supposed to be used together?
Just a WAG, but perhaps it does its job perfectly well when used as designed, and turning the heat up higher doesn’t get the job done any better and will only damage the kettle? Not that you’d expect the manufacturer to know about his own product, obviously. :dubious:
Well, the thing about a stovetop kettle is that it will not go over 100 degrees Celsius until all the water has boiled off. It doesn’t matter how hot the burner is until it boils dry. Once it boils dry, then it matters very much and you could melt the solder off the bottom plate. Perhaps this is someone trying to warn you not to let it run out of water…
Is yours glass like this?
I have a glass one and IIRC the directions said not to use high heat. But, I’ve had it seven years and it hasn’t broke yet on a electric range.
Now, gas??? It might melt the gas. I’m not sure. The kettle is rated for gas/electric.
I’m betting it’s made in the People’s Republic of China. Their directions are often misleading.
Just use common sense and you will be fine.
No, it had a separate warning for that.
It’s stainless steel (supposedly).
True up to a point, but this does assume that the kettle is a superconductor - clearly it’s possible for the base of the kettle to exceed 100 C and there will be a temperature gradient to consider across the thickness of the base. That could cause distortion if you’re brutal.
I’d just use it as directed. I had to replace a burner on someone’s stove a few weeks ago because the bottom of his kettle partially melted onto it. Generally I assume directions and warnings are there for a reason.
Judging by the picture, I think it’s the same kettle we have. Which we’ve used for several years now on high heat with no noticeable damage to kettle, stovetop, or anything else. Of course, I didn’t think to read the directions on ours (it’s a teakettle, fer Og’s sake!), so I don’t know if it came with any warnings or not.
I wonder if the directions meant high heat as in not for use in the oven, don’t put it in the oven, and as long as it’s just used on a burner with water in it, it’s fine.
(Not that anyone with a brain would put a tea kettle in an oven, but manufacturers have to direct to the lowest denominator most of the time!)
I have an enameled kettle I’ve used since 1993 with no problems - it’s heavy, though. If you’ve got a fairly heavy-weight steel kettle, I can’t imagine you’ll hurt it on the stove.
All this is why I got myself an electric kettle.
It was great until some negligent dumbass PUT IT ON THE STOVE.
I have an oxo that looks almost exactly like that, and I’ve been using it on the stove on high for about 6 years now with no problems. I have no idea whether the instructions said not to use it on high.
I bought my kettle from Ikea a decade ago. I like it because it has a neat two-tone whistle. I can’t seem to find another like it. (Not that it needs to be replaced.)
I second the motion to just use it as directed and see how quickly it heats up. I’ll bet it heats up more than quickly enough.