After burning my hand on my tea kettle [1] for the umpteenth time yesterday, I decided enough was enough.
Six years ago, I made the mistake of buying a steel-and-enamel kettle for its looks, rather than functionality. Colorful, yes. Expensive, definitely. But my pretty, costly kettle turned out to have a sadistic side. I have burned myself almost daily on that thing, and I guess I've finally reached the breaking point. I'm ready to throw it out. Ideally, under a steamroller, where I hope that it will die a slow, painful death.
I use a kettle daily (twice a day, really, because I use a French press [2] to make my morning cuppa joe [2] and usually drink tea [2] in the evening.) The primary reasons that I hate my kettle are the poorly-designed handle, (which gets awfully hot and requires an oven mitt to remove it from the stove), and the unpredictable ways that boiling water leaks and spurts out everywhere.
Worse, the kettle has one serious flaw: No whistle. I never realized how handy they are until I forgot I'd left it on the stove. Forgetting a kettle on full boil, I've learned, can quickly turn into a fire hazard.
So, to spare myself (and home), I decided to select my new kettle based on functionality rather than aesthetics. The customer reviews on Amazon.com [3] immediately steered me away from several chic, but problematic kettles.
As I poked around, a few commenters noted that electric kettles [3] are far more energy efficient than their stove top [3] cousins. A little more surfing [4] revealed that a regular kettle on a stove — whether its gas or electric — is a really wasteful way [5] to boil water.
Maybe everyone already knows this, but I had no idea; I'd never thought about it before. But it turns out that a stove top kettle is a bad idea because:
- Most of us boil far more water than we need for a mug of tea or whatever, which means we waste energy (and water).
- A stove top kettle heats the shell and — as I know all too well — the handle.
- Energy is also lost via the heating elements.
- An electric kettle, it seems, uses 35-40 percent less energy.
In fact, energy experts say that the best way to heat water is in a microwave [5]. For me, the ritual of making tea is nearly as important as the tea itself, so the idea of using a microwave doesn't appeal to me.
But I am willing to convert to an electric kettle. It has tons of advantages [5], and I'm glad that using it will save more than my fingers.