Oh yes, it’s very annoying - I buy travel kettles because I can’t lift a larger kettle, and it’s annoying paying more for worse performance. But that’s what I meant by mini kettles.
Looking at Curry’s as a reasonable gauge of what powers were available, though, there are also a surprising number of full-size kettles available that are around 1400w, and cost about £12-16. Almost all of the full-size kettles were 3000w, but there are a few that aren’t. I just mentioned them to be clear about what types were available, TBH.
Thank you for all the contributions to this thread. It answered my question “can I use the kettle with less water than shown on the scale?”. Mine is a cheap jug-kettel, 0.5l to 1.7l, simple on-off boil. Its a UK 230v 3kw model, little tube to receive steam vapours and so forth. It has boil-dry protection (usual in the UK, to protect against fire). I put in a mug of water from empty, and it boiled it, and switched it off as it should, just fine. I have measured water required for the tea pot previously; “good enough” is accurate enough. It saves me time, a very, very little money and a little CO2. However you can save more if you regularly use a limescale remover, or citric acid crystals, and this makes much the biggest difference. And for similar reasons, in a dishwasher, washing machine, coffee maker etc.
discussions about electric kettles on this chat site prompted me to buy one. I used to heat water on the stove in my little cast iron tea pot, and I’d just let it go until it boiled. Some water usually spilled out, which annoyed my husband. So my husband is grateful for all of you, even if he doesn’t know it.
The new kettle has a thermostat, so I can set it to heat to boiling, or to 200F, or 180F, or really, anything I might want for tea or coffee. And then it holds the temp for about half an hour, and then it shuts off.
Kettles with an automatic turn-off are great - I’m old enough to remember the time before they were invented, and people would have to remember to turn the kettle off. It was interesting to hear of the boiling ethanol etc., experiments still tripping off an electric kettle, I always thought it was a temperature threshold trip. Maybe it is, and it’s the enthalpy of condensation that dumps enough energy in the cut-off mechanism to trip it, even with ethanol. I’m curious now, am looking it up… here we go: it seems to vary, either a bi-metallic disc spring that changes shape when heated, or a pressure-sensitive trip. Either way, these are located in the handle, so no contact with the water, but there is a steam path to the trip mechanism, and neither type works with the kettle lid open. Apparently the trip temperature threshold is quite low (hence the tripping on boiling ethanol), but without steam being generated there’s no way to heat them sufficiently to trip.
In the case of someone boiling a modern kettle dry (by leaving the lid off, say) there will be a one-shot thermal fuse near the element to cut the current. This was not always the case, as Father Bigley can no doubt testify.
If you go on a cruise from a British port, you will most likely have an electric kettle, mugs, etc in your cabin. When they sail from American ports the kettles ae all taken away.
