My new kettle

[Tukaram (Tim)]

We have a paper thin, bare aluminum kettle, that I really don't like.  Super cheap and has lasted 7 years so far... I should like it...

Working on a balikbayan box now and trying to pick a kettle. I always used a Chantal enameled steel kettle in the US (it was 30 years old) but I left it with one of the kids.  I kind of don't want to spend $100 on one now.  So I am looking for a good kettle.  All the ones I have seen here are paper thin.

Aunt & uncle, next door, cook on wood or uling, so morning coffee is more complicated than it should be.  So for christmas  we bought them an electric kettle.  They seemed very happy about it. Especially the aunt (as she is the one lighting a fire to heat water I bet).

[JDDavao II]

20 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

Back in USA, I had never even heard of these things. I only learned about them during travels.

They fascinate me. Some of them have colored LEDs that light up the counter below them while they're working. They're like lava lamps. A watched pot does boil because I stare at the damn things, mesmerized.

 I had a gf in college whose parents gave her a hotpot electric kettle so she could make ramen and coffee. At the time, (1987), i thought it was the coolest thing but also that I'd get cancer from the heating element.

[graham59]

Steve.... I brought my cheapo leccy kettle over from the UK with me (stuffed it with socks in my travel bag).

It's been working fine and making multiple cups of boiling water every day for at least 4 years now. 

Oh, and you're far more tolerant of the locals in your house than I would be.  I'd have thrown them all out by now. lol 

[stevewool]

33 minutes ago, graham59 said:

 

Oh, and you're far more tolerant of the locals in your house than I would be.  I'd have thrown them all out by now. lol 

 

 It’s family is all I hear , but if my family acted the way these have I would have disowned them years ago, maybe that’s where I have been going wrong , I cannot forget how they have treated myself and Emma over these years but somehow Emma does. But it has made my future plans more clear .

[Jack Peterson]

10 minutes ago, stevewool said:

 It’s family is all I hear

 Steve mate, it is what it is unfortunately 

[Arizona Kid]

On 1/7/2020 at 11:00 AM, stevewool said:

Well it’s been just over a week living in the building site and sharing the family house and my kettle in that time has had its whistle melted off and I lost count of it boiling dry while left on the stove , this morning I watch in amazement how they can just boil the right amount of water just for one cup inside this thing, well once it’s broke there is not going to be another one , god knows what they used before most probably a saucepan or did not have hot drinks .

 

Its so much more fun in the Philippines.

It's a learning process. Chalk it up my friend.

[hk blues]

20 hours ago, stevewool said:

I am 61 and as a kid our kettle was always halfway on the ring at a low heat just boiling and ready for the next brew

I'm Scottish Steve - we already had electricity up there by that time! 

[hk blues]

10 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

Okay, okay, HK... so maybe I spent much of my life as a troglodyte?

Honestly... I never encountered an electric "kettle" (as you call it) similar to the one I have now until during the past maybe 5-10 years. In USA I just had a regular coffee brewing machine or used a water kettle on the gas or electric stove. Sure... back in the 50's and 60's, we had electric coffee pots, but I never saw a kettle such as they make now. So I had a sheltered life...

I'm bemused by your post, Tom - are you saying electric kettles (what else would we call it?) only appeared in the USA in the past 5-10 years? 

[Tommy T.]

Sorry for the misleading post, HK...

I really don't know how long that type (I call them zip-pots - maybe from New Zealand?) of electric kettle has been around in USA - no idea at all. When I lived in USA, the daily routine was just using an automatic coffee maker that I loaded up the night before so when I woke up there was fresh, hot coffee already made. I never had need for one of these others. For the rare occasion when I needed boiling water for tea, hot chocolate, etc., I just used a standard tea kettle on a stove burner. Various friends did not have the zip-pots so I never saw one until after I left the country in '93.

Same thing on the yacht - just used a regular, old-fashioned coffee pot or tea kettle on the stove.

I think I first saw a zip-pot was when travelling around New Zealand in the mid-90's and staying in campgrounds. So I guess my posted time frame was inaccurate. Since then I have seen and used them on the rare times I stayed in hotels. But it was only two years ago that I stayed in a hotel in USA for the first time and that one had a coffee maker, not one of these...

[hk blues]

16 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

Sorry for the misleading post, HK...

I really don't know how long that type (I call them zip-pots - maybe from New Zealand?) of electric kettle has been around in USA - no idea at all. When I lived in USA, the daily routine was just using an automatic coffee maker that I loaded up the night before so when I woke up there was fresh, hot coffee already made. I never had need for one of these others. For the rare occasion when I needed boiling water for tea, hot chocolate, etc., I just used a standard tea kettle on a stove burner. Various friends did not have the zip-pots so I never saw one until after I left the country in '93.

Same thing on the yacht - just used a regular, old-fashioned coffee pot or tea kettle on the stove.

I think I first saw a zip-pot was when travelling around New Zealand in the mid-90's and staying in campgrounds. So I guess my posted time frame was inaccurate. Since then I have seen and used them on the rare times I stayed in hotels. But it was only two years ago that I stayed in a hotel in USA for the first time and that one had a coffee maker, not one of these...

I thought your time frame was a little out, Tom - thanks for clarifying.

I was quite serious when I said that I grew up with electric kettles only - the exception being very old people who still used gas only so no option to use electric kettles.  So, I would say electric kettles must have commonplace in the UK from the 60s.

I suppose this is another example of the tea drinking UK culture Vs the coffee drinking USA culture.  So, I would seriously doubt if you could see many coffee machines in the UK before the end of the 1970s or even later.  

On hotels - I cannot recall seeing a coffee machine in many, if any, hotels but in most of the 3 star or better ones have electric kettles.  You cannot make tea in a coffee machine so it makes sense to have an electric kettle.