Except for people who lives in areas where they’re not popular.
I’ve never seen a hot water kettle in action. Not one that you don’t put on the stove anyway.
I bought a plastic one several years ago to try because it was cheap enough and easy to get, but drinking out of boiled plastic isn’t that appealing to me.
So, tell me about your hot water kettles. What’s good about them? Does yours have any special features that makes them better than others? What should I look for if I get one?
I used to think that paying a bit more money for a recognised branded kettle that looked a bit more stylish was the best way to go.
However, they seemed to only last a year or two, then stopped working - usually not long after the guarantee expired!
I got sick of paying so much money for something that had to be replaced so quickly, I just bought the cheapest kettle I could find from a supermarket.
It only cost me £5 about ten years ago - and it’s still working fine. I took the pic above from the same supermarket website, it’s the same kind of basic model and it now costs £13.50.
I think that’s good value if one is going to get 10 years regular daily use out of it.
These modern jug kettles are easier to use than the old style ones you had to push a plug in at the back.
I think modern electric kettles are also a lot easier to de-scale and seem to need de-scaling less often - they are also much easier to keep clean than metal kettles you use on a solid fuel stove or gas stove.
On our canal boat, I use an electric kettle when we’re on a permanent mooring, linked up to mains electricity, and a metal kettle on a gas hob or the solid fuel stove when we’re travelling.
Water quality may vary depending on the area we’re travelling in, but I have never noticed that water from the same supply tastes any different after being boiled in plastic kettle or metal kettle.
When we have a power cut, we have a cup of tea with boiling water from a saucepan, for some reason although the water source is the the same, it tastes different, worse in fact.
My kettle is called Ermengarde, she is about 3 years old. Although she isn’t very talkative she has a pleasant nature and hardly ever sulks or has tantrums. I keep her free of limescale with lemon juice which she appreciates. She enjoys classical music and hopes to see an end of poverty.
I have a whistle kettle for the Aga and plastic cordless jug types from Currys which are electric. Both can heat from just a cupful to 3pts. I do have a larger one for the Aga that holds 6pts if I need that much, but its not super quick.
We were chatting about this yesterday. Do you remember the days when you could actually repair things like replace the element in a kettle? Nowadays the manufacturing process makes it nigh on impossible without specialist tools. Partly why we throw away so much stuff.
It’s just a kettle ……
