Microwave : boils water
Stovetop : boils water
Electric stovetop : boils water
Induction stovetop : boils water
Electric kettle : boils water
Open flame : boils water
Bri'ish "people" : *pretending they have any sense of taste* "mIcRoWavE wA'eR taSte difFerenT."
Brits will scoff at microwaved water then straight up eat mushy peas at dinner.
I mean we can pick at things. Americans put marshmallows in their potatoes and eat cereal that are the same shade as crayons. Asians put cheese slices in their instant noodles. Italians eat Prosciutto and Melon, The French eat Escargot and Frog. At least most of these are consider guilty pleasures or 3am grub rather than cuisine.
Americans always shit on British food then come over and remark at how great it is.
Americans try to substitute good food with size, sugar and oil.
I’m pretty sure Americans have a panic attack when what they’re eating isn’t at least 50% high fructose corn syrup.
Haha I was just in England/UK/Britain and the food was whack, in England especially. The reason England is famous for its fish and chips is because it's the only thing that is good.
Curry is bomb though, but idk (honestly) if that counts. Colonizing India is the best thing that ever happened to England, sadly you cannot say the same going the other direction lol
Haggis fucking rules though!
Isn't haggis from Scotland or some shit?
Yeah, but it's in the UK. Only mentioned because the rest of the food in the UK was pretty bland.
Is this some kind of beans on toast thing I'm too colonies to understand?
Yeah I will never at all understand this weird superiority complex in the way in which people boil fucking water of all things. The result is the same.
The reason why a kettle is nice is because it boils a large quantity of water quickly. If you only want a single cup, then a microwave is a great option if you don't have or want a kettle.
You’ve missed the way that British people actually boil water though, thus missing the true reason that we’re superior.
We get it, you boil water with your anus.
By the grace of God and our monarch we boil water however the fuck we please 🇬🇧💂🇬🇧💂🇬🇧
Ah, so with the Queen's anus, got it.
King's anus, at least keep the insults relevant and up to date please.
They still have a Queen. It's just not Queen Elizabeth II, it's Camilla.
In our defence (spelt correctly) all of the above are acceptable, except the microwave. Reasons being that a) the microwave doesn't boil it evenly, and you get pockets of mega heated water that bubble up and splash up in the microwave, then drip off the manky ceiling of the microwave and into your cup. B) microwaves stink. I don't know anyone that uses one for anything other than popcorn or melting butter. But if you're using it to cook as well.... 🤢
Clean out your fuckin microwaves.
Convection currents stir the water automatically, heating it unevenly doesn't matter. A stovetop also heats water unevenly.
Stop microwaving fucking fish you dirty bastards. I will punt any mf who microwaves fish into the fuckin Gehenna.
Convection currents don’t stir water in a microwave because the heat source isn’t on the bottom. That’s the difference. You get temperature stratified water where the surface is hotter than the bottom of the cup and they don’t naturally mix.
Of course, here in America, we have this incredible technology called a spoon. Pull that bad boy out, give a little stir, problem solved.
Convection currents don't need the heat source to be directly at the bottom to stir the liquid, it just needs cold water to be on-top of hot, because cold is more dense.
Microwaves don't really heat top to bottom either, it's shooting waves through the body of the water and even the cup, directly exciting a bunch of individual H2O atoms in hot spots where the microwaves peak at, (e.g. the actual microwaves not the name of the machine) heating the liquid very unevenly. The wave could very much be heating a fraction of the top, middle, and bottom at different points in 3d space. it just depends on the peak of the micro-waves.
I'm well aware of temperature stratification. It doesn't happen in a microwave in the same way.
Micro waves don't heat purely the top surface, they penetrate the entire waters body creating super-heated localized hotpots that shift the water around from Convection currents because the hotter more excited water atoms are less dense than the colder less excited water atoms above them spreading temperature out from those hotspots.
Temperature stratification only comes into play if there's no nucleation point, in which you get this.
Also, your link is dead.
I'm well aware of temperature stratification. It doesn't happen in a microwave.
It empirically does. We can argue about the theory all day but the research says microwaves produce stratified temperature gradients when heating liquids. However, I’d point out that, in atmosphere, when we have localized hot spots the warm air can effectively travel in bubbles without significant mixing for quite some distance. There seems to be a similar phenomena at work when microwaving liquids.
See the screenshot below.
I pulled this from “Multiphysics analysis for unusual heat convection in microwave heating liquid” published in 2020 in AIP Advances.
Relevant excerpts:
“ Usually, the fluidity of liquids is considered to make the temperature field uniform, when it is heated, because of the heat convection, but there is something different when microwave heating. The temperature of the top is always the highest in the liquid when heated by microwaves.”
“ The experimental results show that when the modified glass cup with 7 cm metal coating is used to heat water in a microwave oven, the temperature difference between the upper and lower parts of the water is reduced from 7.8 °C to 0.5 °C.”
“According to the feedback from Midea (microwave appliance makers), when users use the microwave oven to heat liquids such as milk or water, the temperature at the top of the liquid will be significantly higher than the temperature at the bottom.”
That's not really showing temperature stratification which is a more extreme separation of temperature from surface heating :
That's just showing that the hottest atoms gather to the top, which btw, proves Convection currents.
Again, microwaves don't heat purely the surface :
(a) Schematic diagram of convection in the bottom heated liquid and unusual convection in the microwave heated liquid and (b) schematic diagram of convection in liquids heated by microwaves with the modified glass.
The modified glass is just diverting the hotpots to the bottom to make the convection less "unusual".
They aren't claiming that convection doesn't accrue, only that it's "unusual convection" resulting in less even heating like that of thermal stratification, not literal thermal stratification where the layers have separate convection currents that prevent mixing all together.
That's not really showing temperature stratification which is a more extreme separation of temperature from surface
I think the definition you are using is far too restrictive, in many contexts temperature stratification simply refers to a situation where you get temperature gradients across a fluid with the warmer fluid gathered near the top of the body. For example, in a factory you will often have “destratification” fans operating because warm air from equipment rising to the ceiling results in a temperature gradient from floor the ceiling.
It is not a phenomena exclusive to surface heating.
That's just showing that the hottest atoms gather to the top, which btw, proves Convection currents.
Yes. My point was not to establish that convection is magically absent from fluids in microwaves, but to establish that it differs significantly from stovetop heating. Convection currents in stovetop heating create a strong stirring action that produces a substantially uniform temperature. Microwaves do not create the same stirring action and this produce a significant nonuniform temperature gradient.
The modified glass is just diverting the hotpots to the bottom to make the convection less "unusual".
Clearly. They make the heating more akin to a stovetop, which is really the point here.
They aren't claiming that convection doesn't accrue, only that it's "unusual convection" resulting in less even heating like that of thermal stratification, not literal thermal stratification where the layers have separate convection currents that prevent mixing all together.
Once again, you are using a definition of thermal stratification that is far too specific. However, arguing over it is really just being pedantic because the core point at issue here is whether or not heating a cup in a microwave or a stovetop produce the same final product. They do not unless you apply some mechanical agitation to mix it up.
using a definition of thermal stratification that is far too specific
I'm using the textbook definition of which there are at-least three distinct layers that prevent mixing due to distinctly separate convection currents separated by the thermocline layer.
While the top has a considerable difference of ~18F at 95-113F, the rest is pretty evenly 77-86F.
By you're less strict definition, after applying conventional bottom-up heating, Thermal stratification would also occur in this 2 layer form just by letting it sit and settle for a bit as the hotter atoms rise to the top due to their lower density creating a distinct hotter top with the rest holding a pretty even temp.
Matter of fact, the steam is just moister in the air combining with the hottest water atoms that are yeeting themselves out from the surface as vapor.
Search the literature for thermal stratification. There are many contexts where it is used outside of lakes and other large bodies of water, many of which do not consist of three distinct layers. Hell, the paper I cited SPECIFICALLY refers to the temperature gradient in the microwaved glass as “stratification”.
If you can’t understand the use of a term outside your specific area of expertise then thats honestly a you problem and that’s all I can say on that.
If the heating methods were as similar as you say, there wouldn’t be hundreds of publications accepted to various journals across the past two decades investigating the problem where microwaves produce a strong temperature gradient between the top and bottom of a body of liquid. It’s a well known process control problem.
You gotta clean the microwave regularly like anything else. There are reasons why I would probably use my stove top over my microwave to boil water (though I do use a microwave to make tea when I just want a single serving), but your points about water splashing up everywhere and dripping down off of disgusting interior surfaces of the microwave sound a lot like operator error.
If you're microwaving water for more than 2-4 minutes you're doing something very very wrong.
1m 30s to 2mins is already enough for 1 coffee cup worth of water to reach boiling temp in the majority of microwaves.
I'm just imagining @Mr_Blott@lemmy.world microwaving a cup of water for way too long to absolutely volcanic results and then throwing up his hands in disgust before walking away from the swampy microwave without bothering to clean the mess up like a scene out of some infomercial for a device that solves microwave issues that don't exist lol
Like I ever microwaved a cup of water 😂 I'm not a fucking barbarian lmao
Yeeeeah, that's not how microwaved water works. If there IS any temperature differential, the movement of the water quickly evens it out. By the time you're dropping your tea in, it's even.
As far as microwaves being stinky, that's a you thing, bud. My microwave smells fine.
Which is why it's important to put the teabag in the water before microwaving it.
Or just like gently stir the water when it comes out of the microwave. You'd really have to overcook the fuck out of the water to create a risk of superheated water explosions. Tea should be slightly below boiling anyway.
Which is why it's important to put the teabag in the water before microwaving it.
I know you are trying to bait me and I'm not going to fall for it
I thought tap water had enough particulate in it by itself?
Usually it does, but then again there are places where people don't drink the tap water.
Just go the whole hog: put the teabag in the bottle of water and microwave that.
Bri'ish people: Conquer half of the world in the name of spices
Also Bri'ish people: Refuse to season food
Aye, we season our world-class curries with newspaper and high fructose corn syrup aye
"our" curries
Damn, the empire mindset alive and well lmao
Our curries. Conceived by British people. Whose families may have come come from other countries. You know. British people
Like American Chinese food isn't actually what would be eaten by Chinese people from China
Hence why they said "our curry" instead of "curry", to specify which kind of curry they are speaking about since by saying curry in general one might not think about British curry. Just like Australian sushi.
I don't think you get it, lots of popular curries were "concieved" in the UK
Look up where tikka masala was created.
Also, the UK has Asian people.
Don't get high on your own supply
I'd never dare make a joke like this, not because it's mean or whatever, but because I wouldn't want to show off how little I know about the world.
This isn’t true, Americans make tea by boiling a stovetop kettle pouring that into a pitcher with 5 teabags adding 1-3 cups of sugar after about 3 minutes and then filling that pitcher to the top with hot tap water. And then pouring that over ice after about 5 minutes
🤣
Ever made sun tea? Kinda granola and time consuming but it's yummy.
Nah not granola imo. I always thought it was poverty tea, use the sun don't run up the electric bill
Americans who drink tea generally use a stovetop kettle. Sometimes they use an electric one. But what does it matter how the water gets hot, if the water's hot? Microwave radiation doesn't leave a taste in water or something
Boiling it with some kind of kettle can make minerals drop out of solution, but I really doubt it would make a significant taste difference unless the kettle is attached to copper piping leading to a catch basin (aka a still).
What if it turns out that Bri'ish people just use pure lead kettles.
I have been drinking a lot of tea because I had a persistent cough. I use the microwave because it's faster than boiling my kettle.
No we don’t. We don’t drink tea at all
You kid, but I really do find this stereotype of Americans fascinating in it's persistence. Every supermarket I've been to in America during the last decade has a tea section that is double the size of the coffee section next to it. These stores wouldn't be stocking like that if Americans weren't buying a ton of tea, but yet the idea of America being a tea desert continues.
it's not that they don't drink tea, it's that they drink it wrong
I bet it drives you nuts that we folks in the southern US like to drink our tea sweet as hell and ice cold.
I do lie awake most nights thinking about it
That's kind of ok actually, at least you're not pretending it's real tea.
(also it's delicious, so you've got that going for you)
I don’t ever drink tea
The difference in coffee varieties is a lot more nuanced than tea flavors so it makes more sense for tea to have more space even if it isn't drunken as much. It depends a lot on what part of the country you're in too.
People who drink a lot of tea just have kettles though... I don't know where myth that US kettles are slow came from.
American kettles are slow because you use 120V mains.
My US kettle can boil water in the time it takes me to grind beans and rinse my v60 filter, so it's fast enough for me
But coffee makers are nearly instant boil...
"Tea is for the sea not for me"
Why of course we do. But we drink Yankee tea, which is a super concentrate of all tea leaves ever created. It's illegal in 36 countries and if you drink it you either meet god or you have a stroke. One of the two.
I either buy my tea at a convenience store in a can, or i put it in a large jug of water, leave it out in the sun for a few hours and then drink it with ice and a bit of sugar.
Electric kettles have been available at every American supermarket superstore for literal decades.
Yes they aren't ubiquitous here in the way they are in the UK and elsewhere, but they're absolutely not a rarity at all.
Sincerely, somebody who has been using an electric kettle for almost two decades.
edit: wrong word. I meant places like Walmart, not places like Safeway.
🎵 Oh oh oh, Omega Mart.
You Have No Id-e**a What's In-Store For Yoouuu🎶
You just reminded me I'm out of Gestating Mammal Liquid.
I never once saw an electric kettle until I was an adult. Then again, I'm from Idaho.
But how do you boik your potatoes?
Curious if you have any insight as to why Americans in movies always boil water on the stove top?
Australian here and we use electric Kettles. I assumed it was a 120 vs 240V thing.
Again, ubiquity. Especially since the vast majority of Americans who make coffee at home do so in drip coffee machines, there just isn't a lot the typical American is needs to heat up hot water for, so to most people an electric kettle is a non-mandatory item. Even most American tea drinkers honestly aren't daily tea drinkers (myself included), so for many the benefit of having extra counter space beats out the benefit of having convenient hot water, and a stovetop kettle can most easily be put away in the back of a cabinet somewhere.
Interesting, I like this take. Where as we boil water multiple times a day. Americans use that bench space for their dripulator.
The people that don't have kettles don't drink tea. Pretty much everyone I know who drinks plenty of tea have kettles, and everyone knows that they're an option.
Well considered it was only 5 days ago that I made this comment, you successfully clocked me as a tea drinker and you might be on to something with your theory.
Lol, no we don't. We just don't drink tea. Unless you're in the south n it's more sugar water than tea.
Southerners are actually 2/3 hummingbird
I have an electric kettle and actually go out of my way to get good tea thank you.
I have an electric kettle, AND I season my food, lol
I’m British and was shocked to learn that other countries don’t even have 3000W electric kettles.
Just put the kettle on top of your Intel laptop...
Our typical US 120V household outlets can't pull that much power. Most electric kettles here draw about 1.5 kW.
Could run a 240V circuit (or tap into the oven/range 240V circuit I suppose) and use an imported UK kettle. I've heard of people here actually doing this, but I can live with the slower boil times 😄
Just make a kettle with two plugs.
The limitation is usually the circuit tho. You couldn't use the same powerpoint block.
I use a kettle at home, but I’ve used a microwave at work. I don’t understand what’s remotely laughable about doing so. Boiling water is boiling water.
I’ll tell what is laughable is how America restaurants typically serve hot tea. They draw a small metal container of hot water from the spigot on the side of the coffee maker, and bring it to the table with an empty cup and a teabag. By the time the bag goes in the water, the water is far too cold to infuse properly.
Here, here Hear, hear! Restaurant hot water pots blow!
I think it's hear, hear
Lol thanks
Britain, do you really want to compare appliances?
I could put most of your fridges in my fridge.
I could put the whole bayuex tapestry in my washing machine.
I don't even know if y'all can fit scrooge's Christmas bird in your ovens.
I'm kidding around but the one thing y'all definitely have is better kettles that's for damn sure.
Are the things you listed supposed to be positives? It's so weird to me that Americans like everything to be gigantic.
My parents were like that when I was a kid, always going for the heavier, bigger and uglier option.
Taught me to value minimalism and compactness the painful way.
Yes, I'd like to be able to keep a longer run of groceries on hand. I'd like to be able.to wash curtains or duvets. I'd like to be able to easily cook the main course of a popular holiday.
I have a 20 minute drive to a grocery that has everything I need, so I want to do it less frequently. I use my duvet every night so it needs to be cleaned weekly.
Appliances are to do things. I want to do more things more easily.
Fridges store food. I don't want my appetite to dictate the size of my fridge, but the freshness of vegetables and such.
Washing machines wash things. I want to be able to wash all the things I regularly use without any loss of performance.
You can't tell me, that all things being equal, you'd prefer a smaller washer. Or that you want to think / guess about the available space in your fridge if you're at the store and looking at a purchase at the grocery. "Hmm I want this for a meal, but I don't think I have space for it" is not and ideal statement.
I have a 20 minute drive to a grocery that has everything I need, so I want to do it less frequently.
Americans need giant fridges because their city planners suck at their jobs.
No, america is fucking big.
You would not build a rail/bus/hovercar between me and the grocery, even with europlanners.
Ultimately this does not address my later point: I never worry about if I have space to house a food item I want. When I lived in the UK, in a detached house with a "normal" kitchen, I often thought about the available space at home, while I'm standing in the store. That's silly.
Lastly, in many densely populated areas (like Manhattan) you still get full sized fridges, so your euro-density-pubtransit argument again fails.
Many folks absolutely could walk/bike/train to a grocery, but you can be sure they have full sized fridges 99% of the time.
You shouldn't need to catch the train to get to the grocery store. There should be one walking distance from your house. American city planners don't allow grocery stores to be built in residential zones because they're bad at their jobs.
There's no grocery store by my house because there's only 10 other houses by my house. Lol you have no clue what you're talking about.
America is big and Europe is old.
The city planners put your house in the wrong place.
It's not a city you silly goose.
I sought this house, and I'm hardly "remote".
Are you really suggesting someone dictate where I live? This isn't a communist country with worker housing.
I think it's just a difference between European countries with good government and the rest of the world in the way big industrial areas were repurposed after industrial production moved to other parts of the world. In the last 30-40 years.
They may expect a good modern city to look like some old-old districts formed in the times where traveling far for groceries wasn't an option, surrounded by those big repurposed areas with regular planning and a lot of modern bright shiny stuff on the place of old factories, warehouses etc, and with good public transport.
I'm not contesting that eu planning is strong. Their urban areas and even suburban areas are very well connected.
But they are tiny.
That's the problem - I only have to walk 5 minutes for my groceries. There's really no need to stock up on anything.
But then you are dependant on an errand several times per week
Do you just sit at home all the time? I just go to the shop when I'm returning home - pop in for a few minutes and continue on my way. Errands, lol.
I always found the concept of spending a day running errands weird and see many TV shows mention this. I guess it's a 20 minute drive to everything.
Making better kettles is easier when your entire electric grid is optimised for it.
Seriously, 220 volts will just always get you a faster boil than 120. It's physics.
We have 240 in kitchens but don't use it for counter top stuff
We have 400V/16A, three phases, in kitchens for the proper stuff. That's 19kW, if I remember correctly. Your strong power is like our standard power (240V/16A).
not a kitchen appliance plug, but 38.4kW(400*32*3) standard one. I love living in Europe.
And it’s 2 phase
Here in the UK you can have 240V x 32A with three phases. That's how you get domestic 22kW chargers for EVs, lol. Regular single phase kitchen wiring is 240V x 32A giving us 7kW hobs.
Having a small fridge and going to the grocery very often vs having a large fridge and going less frequently tells you nothing about calories consumed.
It actually doesn’t make that big of difference. It is more likely Americans don’t have kettles because we drink more coffee and have drip coffee brewers instead.
I have a machine that keeps hot water on tap. You peasants heat your water up? I pour mine in the cup already boiling hot from the tap. Kettles are so 90s early 2000s.
The hot water coming out of the tap isn't supposed to be boiling.
Seems like a waste of energy to have boiling water prepped 24/7
Like having dishwashers and washing machines that run off hot water? So 1980s 😂
Why are you acting so smug about a fucking faucet?
Yeah in the US there's not a convenient way to turn your boiler down or off, nor would you want to because that's not really how they were designed. But I don't think that was the same in all countries-- I remember reading a book from a British guy who moved to the US and couldn't figure out how to turn his heater off before realizing he wasn't supposed to.
Plus now with the newer "tankless" models you don't have to keep water hot all day, just turn it on when you need it.
Tankless hot water on demand has been a thing in Europe since the 80s too
It's pretty sad how far behind the US has fallen without even realising it
Sounds like a huge waste of electricity
Most people I know use a kettle as well as I.
Hailing from Michigan!!
I use a gas stove to heat my kettle.
The microwave is only used to melt butter before I make cheesecake.
I only make tea with water from Boston Harbor.
I like my electric kettle because it has temperature settings for specific tea leaves/types and it has a large volume. But if I just want to boil one cup, the microwave is a no-brainer.
Microwave is slow
I've timed it with my kettle and it's literally the same time to boil one cup.
The British sent us Beatles and Monty Python, let them have this.
Have an electric kettle. It's slower than kettles in the UK and Ireland as it maxes out at a lower wattage.
Just plug it into an outlet that outputs higher voltage(you can't lol). The US household standard is actually higher than the UK(230V 50Hz) at 240V 60Hz, the output of the outlet is just dependent on what devices it's intended for. General outlets output 110-120V 60Hz, outlets intended for say an electric stovetop or dyer output 220-240V 60Hz. Too hard to access? Literally can't go wrong with these bad boys.
Today, virtually all American homes and businesses have access to 120 and 240 V at 60 Hz. Both voltages are available on the three wires (two "hot" legs of opposite phase and one "neutral" leg).
Before an American lights their house on fire, do not plug a 120V appliance into an 240V circuit using one of these adapters. If you live in North America, a 240V appliance will not use an ordinary plug, and the 120V ones that do will probably light on fire if you plug it into one of these. You need to import a 240V appliance from a different country, and then it will use the plug from that country and not an North American plug.
Also for the non-Americans, 240V circuits in NA need 4 wires (2 hots, 1 neutral, 1 ground) instead of 3, so usually only 1-2 circuits in the entire house will be 240 and the rest are 120. If you want to install another 240V outlet, you probably need to install a completely new circuit at the breaker and run new copper wires from there to the new outlet, which is very expensive.
Also, wires heat up according to their current. Normally the breaker at the panel can open the circuit if the current is too high, but 240V circuits are often rated for much higher currents (e.g. 50A instead of 20A), and the appliance itself will draw a lot more current than it expects if the voltage is double, which can internally overload it even if it doesn't trip the breaker. E.g. if you plug a 120V 15A kettle into a 240V 40A circuit, it will draw 30A according to Ohms Law, which will probably cause wires within to overheat and eventually light the kettle on fire without tripping the breaker.
using one of these these adapters
There actually not adapters. If you look, there NEMA 6-15P & 6-50P on both ends which is US standard 240V outlets.
...a 240V appliance will not use an ordinary plug... You need to import a 240V appliance from a different country...
There actually are 240V appliances with a US NEMA 6-15P & 6-50P plug. You're just not going to find them at wallmart, there usually used by businesses like mom & pop shops. For example, this expensive mf.
For imported appliances all you need is an adapter from NEMA 6-15P/6-50P to whatever that particular 240v rated appliance is using.
A couple of issues:
Watts = Volts * Amps. So, if the circuit that the outlet is on is not rated for enough current, it will either trip the breaker or potentially start an electrical fire.
A 240V outlet requires appropriately-rated wiring and breaker, not to mention the outlet itself. Generally these are only installed for ranges and dryers. Getting an extra installed for the counter isn't in the budget for most people.
And for the 240V extension cord...really?... Is that thing rated for consistent usage at >3kW and potential water exposure? If it's not, that's just asking for a house fire.
Watts = Volts * Amps. So, if the circuit that the outlet is on is not rated for enough current, it will either trip the breaker or potentially start an electrical fire.
The outlets are installed per-code by licensed professionals, there's nothing to worry about. You can't install them yourself without breaking the law, unless you happen to be a licensed professional.
And for the 240V extension cord…really?.. Is that thing rated for consistent usage at >3kW and potential water exposure? If it’s not, that’s just asking for a house fire.
The extension cords I linked are perfectly safe and manufactured to deal with 24/7 use & potential water exposure.
In fact there probably overkill. They're capable of 3.60kW(240 × 15 amp = 3600watts).
Just look at the company making them 😆 https://milehydro.com/
Just don't use them outside and you'll be fine.
You've got it! Good catch on that extension. 20% over is probably safe, if the manufacturer rated it with enough headroom.
The outlets are installed per-code by licensed professionals, there's nothing to worry about. You can't install them yourself without breaking the law, unless you happen to be a licensed professional.
Yup. With good reason. I DO actually want to get a 240V installed specifically for this purpose myself. Just too pricy to justify/afford at the moment between permit and electrician costs. I'd wager that the cost is well outside of the realm of affordable for a good portion of people, especially those who are not licensed electricians or able to buy a home.
Yeah getting new ones installed is costly, but most homes & apartments should have at least one and these 25ft extension cords are likely more than enough as a substitute unless you get really unlucky where the only one is in the basement which would really suck.
Ok, Brits. Educate me. What's the benefit of a tea kettle over heating water in the mug you'll drink it out of in the microwave? (Assuming you're making one cup of tea.)
The kettle is much faster.
well you see, when you heat it slowly over a flame, the bad stuff evaporates and leaves behind a purer flavor...
when you microwave, it doesn't
p.s. im an american and have no problem microwaving water... but i do swear there's a slight difference... maybe it's from the cup being nuked?
i also microwave cold coffee...
The "slight difference" is you need to clean out your fucking microwave. 🗣️
I've made tea on gas, electric, & even mf induction stovetops, over an open flame, using an electric kettle and in a microwave.
There's 0 difference. The only thing that matters is getting the water to boiling temperature, which all can.
"Why does my water taste gross? Must be the radiation's fault?"
Meanwhile, 3 years of food grease, splashes, and debris coat the lining of the entire microwave.
Could someone explain why it matters? Is microwaving water for tea akin to instant coffee or Keurig to snobby coffee drinkers? (I nuke water for tea, but when it comes to coffee I use distilled water, fresh beans, a scale and it's kinda ritualistic)
At the end of the day, everything is just atoms moving at different wiggle rates, that's the technical term. It doesn't matter what makes them wiggle faster or slower.
It's fairly inefficient and less convenient than a dedicated electric kettle, but no there's nothing wrong with the results. I did pick up a cheap electric kettle recently and it's nice, but doesn't get a ton of use since I don't drink that much tea.
No, it doesn't actually matter as to the quality of the tea. Hot water is hot water. Assuming you don't just microwave til it's boiling, and instead get it to the proper temperature, there will be 0 difference.
A lot of electric kettles have fine temperature control, so it's easier to dial in on an exact temperature. Brewing a lot of teas too hot will burn them and make them taste bitter. This is 100% a temperature thing, though, and what you use to make it hot has no impact.
I think most use a kettle on the stovetop.
wait people make tea in the microwave? gross lol
wait people don't understand how microwaves work? dumb lol
@Gork@Pika yeah. im always trying to avoid the microwave because things just taste better using any other way of heating.
Hot water is hot water.
But if you microwave fresh water in a clean cup you're missing the flavor from the scale and other build-up in an infrequently cleaned kettle.
Microwaves are good for some tasks and bad for others. They're generally fine for reheating food if you know how to use one, for example. Absolutely no difference between hot water that comes out of a microwave and any other method.
Erm, the microwave is faster and more efficient at heating water.
American outlet electricity, I recall, is such that it is actually some kind of weak. You guys need the microwave because your kettles aren't getting enough to eat, so they can't lift.
There was a technology connections video of that I think...
TL:DW Even in the US with its 120V electrical system the kettle is faster than gas or electric stove kettle (he didn't test microwave) but most people just don't drink tea often enough to warrant a separate appliance for it. He does go into the whole microwaving water in a follow up video here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=RpoXFk-ixZc
Just an FYI, the US standard is 240v 60hz.
It's just most outlets are capped at 110-120v, while 220-240v outlets are used for high voltage appliances.
If you're british and lacking a tank, you can always use a gatling gun to heat the water instead
Truly the superior hot water
Americans: invent machine to boil water
Also Americans: use that machine to boil water
Rest of the world: 😱
The cavity magnetron was invented in England by a man who was clearly a tea drinker.
The Americans successfully commercialised the device some years later, no doubt by a coffee drinker.
If you guys had more volts in the household electrics you too could use an electric kettle like we do in the UK.
You mean the electric kettles that you can find at literally any fucking Walmart ever.
The standard US household voltage is infact higher than the UK 230V 50hz at 240V 60Hz with outlets output differing depending on what devices it's intended for. Outlets intended for low volt devices are 110-120V 60Hz using NEMA 1-15P & 5-15R, Outlets intended for high volt devices are 220-240V 60Hz using a NEMA 6-15P & 6-50P connections.
Today, virtually all American homes and businesses have access to 120 and 240 V at 60 Hz. Both voltages are available on the three wires (two "hot" legs of opposite phase and one "neutral" leg).
I do not have easy access to an outlet intended for a high voltage device to plug an electric kettle into. Your point doesn't seem relevant. That is, unless you're suggesting we pull a frige or stove out from the wall every time we want to brew a cup of tea.
Just recently I learned about different temperatures for different teas and coffee. Now I know why my coffee was coming out burnt tasting, and why my green tea didn't taste right.
Often burnt coffee taste is from people leaving the coffee on the hot plate for way too long.
If I have a little extra time I'll run water through the coffee maker without any grounds if that's somehow better?
Microwave : boils water
Stovetop : boils water
Electric stovetop : boils water
Induction stovetop : boils water
Electric kettle : boils water
Open flame : boils water
Bri'ish "people" : *pretending they have any sense of taste* "mIcRoWavE wA'eR taSte difFerenT."
Brits will scoff at microwaved water then straight up eat mushy peas at dinner.
I mean we can pick at things. Americans put marshmallows in their potatoes and eat cereal that are the same shade as crayons. Asians put cheese slices in their instant noodles. Italians eat Prosciutto and Melon, The French eat Escargot and Frog. At least most of these are consider guilty pleasures or 3am grub rather than cuisine.
Americans always shit on British food then come over and remark at how great it is.
Americans try to substitute good food with size, sugar and oil.
I’m pretty sure Americans have a panic attack when what they’re eating isn’t at least 50% high fructose corn syrup.
Only slightly related, but I love this sketch: https://youtu.be/H-uEx_hEXAM
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Particularly bland 😄
Haha I was just in England/UK/Britain and the food was whack, in England especially. The reason England is famous for its fish and chips is because it's the only thing that is good.
Curry is bomb though, but idk (honestly) if that counts. Colonizing India is the best thing that ever happened to England, sadly you cannot say the same going the other direction lol
Haggis fucking rules though!
Isn't haggis from Scotland or some shit?
Yeah, but it's in the UK. Only mentioned because the rest of the food in the UK was pretty bland.
It is.
Is this some kind of beans on toast thing I'm too colonies to understand?
Yeah I will never at all understand this weird superiority complex in the way in which people boil fucking water of all things. The result is the same.
The reason why a kettle is nice is because it boils a large quantity of water quickly. If you only want a single cup, then a microwave is a great option if you don't have or want a kettle.
You’ve missed the way that British people actually boil water though, thus missing the true reason that we’re superior.
We get it, you boil water with your anus.
By the grace of God and our monarch we boil water however the fuck we please 🇬🇧💂🇬🇧💂🇬🇧
Ah, so with the Queen's anus, got it.
King's anus, at least keep the insults relevant and up to date please.
They still have a Queen. It's just not Queen Elizabeth II, it's Camilla.
You mean the King's Consort? You really are a pleb.
Difference = Virtually 0, only genetic.
They still hold 0 power either way.
King, Queen, or King/Queen's consort their still just figureheads no different than a celebrity.
Also, she's going to be a Queen Dowager very soon. 😏
In our defence (spelt correctly) all of the above are acceptable, except the microwave. Reasons being that a) the microwave doesn't boil it evenly, and you get pockets of mega heated water that bubble up and splash up in the microwave, then drip off the manky ceiling of the microwave and into your cup. B) microwaves stink. I don't know anyone that uses one for anything other than popcorn or melting butter. But if you're using it to cook as well.... 🤢
Convection currents don’t stir water in a microwave because the heat source isn’t on the bottom. That’s the difference. You get temperature stratified water where the surface is hotter than the bottom of the cup and they don’t naturally mix.
Of course, here in America, we have this incredible technology called a spoon. Pull that bad boy out, give a little stir, problem solved.
Convection currents don't need the heat source to be directly at the bottom to stir the liquid, it just needs cold water to be on-top of hot, because cold is more dense.
Microwaves don't really heat top to bottom either, it's shooting waves through the body of the water and even the cup, directly exciting a bunch of individual H2O atoms in hot spots where the microwaves peak at, (e.g. the actual microwaves not the name of the machine) heating the liquid very unevenly. The wave could very much be heating a fraction of the top, middle, and bottom at different points in 3d space. it just depends on the peak of the micro-waves.
I mean, it’s not really a matter of debate TBH. There are a number of peer reviewed journal articles documenting the temperature stratification. Here is one source, where the authors attempt to create a special cup to heat the water more evenly.
I'm well aware of temperature stratification. It doesn't happen in a microwave in the same way.
Micro waves don't heat purely the top surface, they penetrate the entire waters body creating super-heated localized hotpots that shift the water around from Convection currents because the hotter more excited water atoms are less dense than the colder less excited water atoms above them spreading temperature out from those hotspots.
Temperature stratification only comes into play if there's no nucleation point, in which you get this.
Also, your link is dead.
It empirically does. We can argue about the theory all day but the research says microwaves produce stratified temperature gradients when heating liquids. However, I’d point out that, in atmosphere, when we have localized hot spots the warm air can effectively travel in bubbles without significant mixing for quite some distance. There seems to be a similar phenomena at work when microwaving liquids.
See the screenshot below.
I pulled this from “Multiphysics analysis for unusual heat convection in microwave heating liquid” published in 2020 in AIP Advances.
Relevant excerpts:
“ Usually, the fluidity of liquids is considered to make the temperature field uniform, when it is heated, because of the heat convection, but there is something different when microwave heating. The temperature of the top is always the highest in the liquid when heated by microwaves.”
“ The experimental results show that when the modified glass cup with 7 cm metal coating is used to heat water in a microwave oven, the temperature difference between the upper and lower parts of the water is reduced from 7.8 °C to 0.5 °C.”
“According to the feedback from Midea (microwave appliance makers), when users use the microwave oven to heat liquids such as milk or water, the temperature at the top of the liquid will be significantly higher than the temperature at the bottom.”
That's not really showing temperature stratification which is a more extreme separation of temperature from surface heating :
That's just showing that the hottest atoms gather to the top, which btw, proves Convection currents.
Again, microwaves don't heat purely the surface :
The modified glass is just diverting the hotpots to the bottom to make the convection less "unusual".
They aren't claiming that convection doesn't accrue, only that it's "unusual convection" resulting in less even heating like that of thermal stratification, not literal thermal stratification where the layers have separate convection currents that prevent mixing all together.
I think the definition you are using is far too restrictive, in many contexts temperature stratification simply refers to a situation where you get temperature gradients across a fluid with the warmer fluid gathered near the top of the body. For example, in a factory you will often have “destratification” fans operating because warm air from equipment rising to the ceiling results in a temperature gradient from floor the ceiling.
It is not a phenomena exclusive to surface heating.
Yes. My point was not to establish that convection is magically absent from fluids in microwaves, but to establish that it differs significantly from stovetop heating. Convection currents in stovetop heating create a strong stirring action that produces a substantially uniform temperature. Microwaves do not create the same stirring action and this produce a significant nonuniform temperature gradient.
Clearly. They make the heating more akin to a stovetop, which is really the point here.
Once again, you are using a definition of thermal stratification that is far too specific. However, arguing over it is really just being pedantic because the core point at issue here is whether or not heating a cup in a microwave or a stovetop produce the same final product. They do not unless you apply some mechanical agitation to mix it up.
I'm using the textbook definition of which there are at-least three distinct layers that prevent mixing due to distinctly separate convection currents separated by the thermocline layer.
While the top has a considerable difference of ~18F at 95-113F, the rest is pretty evenly 77-86F.
By you're less strict definition, after applying conventional bottom-up heating, Thermal stratification would also occur in this 2 layer form just by letting it sit and settle for a bit as the hotter atoms rise to the top due to their lower density creating a distinct hotter top with the rest holding a pretty even temp.
Matter of fact, the steam is just moister in the air combining with the hottest water atoms that are yeeting themselves out from the surface as vapor.
Search the literature for thermal stratification. There are many contexts where it is used outside of lakes and other large bodies of water, many of which do not consist of three distinct layers. Hell, the paper I cited SPECIFICALLY refers to the temperature gradient in the microwaved glass as “stratification”.
If you can’t understand the use of a term outside your specific area of expertise then thats honestly a you problem and that’s all I can say on that.
If the heating methods were as similar as you say, there wouldn’t be hundreds of publications accepted to various journals across the past two decades investigating the problem where microwaves produce a strong temperature gradient between the top and bottom of a body of liquid. It’s a well known process control problem.
You gotta clean the microwave regularly like anything else. There are reasons why I would probably use my stove top over my microwave to boil water (though I do use a microwave to make tea when I just want a single serving), but your points about water splashing up everywhere and dripping down off of disgusting interior surfaces of the microwave sound a lot like operator error.
If you're microwaving water for more than 2-4 minutes you're doing something very very wrong.
1m 30s to 2mins is already enough for 1 coffee cup worth of water to reach boiling temp in the majority of microwaves.
I'm just imagining @Mr_Blott@lemmy.world microwaving a cup of water for way too long to absolutely volcanic results and then throwing up his hands in disgust before walking away from the swampy microwave without bothering to clean the mess up like a scene out of some infomercial for a device that solves microwave issues that don't exist lol
Like I ever microwaved a cup of water 😂 I'm not a fucking barbarian lmao
Yeeeeah, that's not how microwaved water works. If there IS any temperature differential, the movement of the water quickly evens it out. By the time you're dropping your tea in, it's even.
As far as microwaves being stinky, that's a you thing, bud. My microwave smells fine.
Really the only danger in using a microwave to boil water is superheating if there are no nucleation sites in the mug.
Which is why it's important to put the teabag in the water before microwaving it.
Or just like gently stir the water when it comes out of the microwave. You'd really have to overcook the fuck out of the water to create a risk of superheated water explosions. Tea should be slightly below boiling anyway.
I know you are trying to bait me and I'm not going to fall for it
I thought tap water had enough particulate in it by itself?
Usually it does, but then again there are places where people don't drink the tap water.
Just go the whole hog: put the teabag in the bottle of water and microwave that.
Bri'ish people: Conquer half of the world in the name of spices
Also Bri'ish people: Refuse to season food
Aye, we season our world-class curries with newspaper and high fructose corn syrup aye
"our" curries
Damn, the empire mindset alive and well lmao
Our curries. Conceived by British people. Whose families may have come come from other countries. You know. British people
Like American Chinese food isn't actually what would be eaten by Chinese people from China
Hence why they said "our curry" instead of "curry", to specify which kind of curry they are speaking about since by saying curry in general one might not think about British curry. Just like Australian sushi.
I don't think you get it, lots of popular curries were "concieved" in the UK
Look up where tikka masala was created. Also, the UK has Asian people.
Don't get high on your own supply
I'd never dare make a joke like this, not because it's mean or whatever, but because I wouldn't want to show off how little I know about the world.
This isn’t true, Americans make tea by boiling a stovetop kettle pouring that into a pitcher with 5 teabags adding 1-3 cups of sugar after about 3 minutes and then filling that pitcher to the top with hot tap water. And then pouring that over ice after about 5 minutes
🤣
Ever made sun tea? Kinda granola and time consuming but it's yummy.
Nah not granola imo. I always thought it was poverty tea, use the sun don't run up the electric bill
Americans who drink tea generally use a stovetop kettle. Sometimes they use an electric one. But what does it matter how the water gets hot, if the water's hot? Microwave radiation doesn't leave a taste in water or something
Boiling it with some kind of kettle can make minerals drop out of solution, but I really doubt it would make a significant taste difference unless the kettle is attached to copper piping leading to a catch basin (aka a still).
What if it turns out that Bri'ish people just use pure lead kettles.
I have been drinking a lot of tea because I had a persistent cough. I use the microwave because it's faster than boiling my kettle.
No we don’t. We don’t drink tea at all
You kid, but I really do find this stereotype of Americans fascinating in it's persistence. Every supermarket I've been to in America during the last decade has a tea section that is double the size of the coffee section next to it. These stores wouldn't be stocking like that if Americans weren't buying a ton of tea, but yet the idea of America being a tea desert continues.
it's not that they don't drink tea, it's that they drink it wrong
I bet it drives you nuts that we folks in the southern US like to drink our tea sweet as hell and ice cold.
I do lie awake most nights thinking about it
That's kind of ok actually, at least you're not pretending it's real tea.
(also it's delicious, so you've got that going for you)
I don’t ever drink tea
The difference in coffee varieties is a lot more nuanced than tea flavors so it makes more sense for tea to have more space even if it isn't drunken as much. It depends a lot on what part of the country you're in too.
People who drink a lot of tea just have kettles though... I don't know where myth that US kettles are slow came from.
American kettles are slow because you use 120V mains.
My US kettle can boil water in the time it takes me to grind beans and rinse my v60 filter, so it's fast enough for me
But coffee makers are nearly instant boil...
"Tea is for the sea not for me"
Why of course we do. But we drink Yankee tea, which is a super concentrate of all tea leaves ever created. It's illegal in 36 countries and if you drink it you either meet god or you have a stroke. One of the two.
I either buy my tea at a convenience store in a can, or i put it in a large jug of water, leave it out in the sun for a few hours and then drink it with ice and a bit of sugar.
Electric kettles have been available at every American
supermarketsuperstore for literal decades.Yes they aren't ubiquitous here in the way they are in the UK and elsewhere, but they're absolutely not a rarity at all.
Sincerely, somebody who has been using an electric kettle for almost two decades.
edit: wrong word. I meant places like Walmart, not places like Safeway.
🎵 Oh oh oh, Omega Mart.
You Have No Id-e**a What's In-Store For Yoouuu🎶
You just reminded me I'm out of Gestating Mammal Liquid.
I never once saw an electric kettle until I was an adult. Then again, I'm from Idaho.
But how do you boik your potatoes?
Curious if you have any insight as to why Americans in movies always boil water on the stove top? Australian here and we use electric Kettles. I assumed it was a 120 vs 240V thing.
Again, ubiquity. Especially since the vast majority of Americans who make coffee at home do so in drip coffee machines, there just isn't a lot the typical American is needs to heat up hot water for, so to most people an electric kettle is a non-mandatory item. Even most American tea drinkers honestly aren't daily tea drinkers (myself included), so for many the benefit of having extra counter space beats out the benefit of having convenient hot water, and a stovetop kettle can most easily be put away in the back of a cabinet somewhere.
Interesting, I like this take. Where as we boil water multiple times a day. Americans use that bench space for their dripulator.
The people that don't have kettles don't drink tea. Pretty much everyone I know who drinks plenty of tea have kettles, and everyone knows that they're an option.
Well considered it was only 5 days ago that I made this comment, you successfully clocked me as a tea drinker and you might be on to something with your theory.
Lol, no we don't. We just don't drink tea. Unless you're in the south n it's more sugar water than tea.
Southerners are actually 2/3 hummingbird
I have an electric kettle and actually go out of my way to get good tea thank you.
I have an electric kettle, AND I season my food, lol
I’m British and was shocked to learn that other countries don’t even have 3000W electric kettles.
Just put the kettle on top of your Intel laptop...
Our typical US 120V household outlets can't pull that much power. Most electric kettles here draw about 1.5 kW.
Could run a 240V circuit (or tap into the oven/range 240V circuit I suppose) and use an imported UK kettle. I've heard of people here actually doing this, but I can live with the slower boil times 😄
Just make a kettle with two plugs.
The limitation is usually the circuit tho. You couldn't use the same powerpoint block.
I use a kettle at home, but I’ve used a microwave at work. I don’t understand what’s remotely laughable about doing so. Boiling water is boiling water.
I’ll tell what is laughable is how America restaurants typically serve hot tea. They draw a small metal container of hot water from the spigot on the side of the coffee maker, and bring it to the table with an empty cup and a teabag. By the time the bag goes in the water, the water is far too cold to infuse properly.
Here, hereHear, hear! Restaurant hot water pots blow!I think it's hear, hear
Lol thanks
Britain, do you really want to compare appliances?
I could put most of your fridges in my fridge.
I could put the whole bayuex tapestry in my washing machine.
I don't even know if y'all can fit scrooge's Christmas bird in your ovens.
I'm kidding around but the one thing y'all definitely have is better kettles that's for damn sure.
Are the things you listed supposed to be positives? It's so weird to me that Americans like everything to be gigantic.
My parents were like that when I was a kid, always going for the heavier, bigger and uglier option.
Taught me to value minimalism and compactness the painful way.
Yes, I'd like to be able to keep a longer run of groceries on hand. I'd like to be able.to wash curtains or duvets. I'd like to be able to easily cook the main course of a popular holiday.
I have a 20 minute drive to a grocery that has everything I need, so I want to do it less frequently. I use my duvet every night so it needs to be cleaned weekly.
Appliances are to do things. I want to do more things more easily.
Fridges store food. I don't want my appetite to dictate the size of my fridge, but the freshness of vegetables and such.
Washing machines wash things. I want to be able to wash all the things I regularly use without any loss of performance.
You can't tell me, that all things being equal, you'd prefer a smaller washer. Or that you want to think / guess about the available space in your fridge if you're at the store and looking at a purchase at the grocery. "Hmm I want this for a meal, but I don't think I have space for it" is not and ideal statement.
Americans need giant fridges because their city planners suck at their jobs.
No, america is fucking big.
You would not build a rail/bus/hovercar between me and the grocery, even with europlanners.
Ultimately this does not address my later point: I never worry about if I have space to house a food item I want. When I lived in the UK, in a detached house with a "normal" kitchen, I often thought about the available space at home, while I'm standing in the store. That's silly.
Lastly, in many densely populated areas (like Manhattan) you still get full sized fridges, so your euro-density-pubtransit argument again fails.
Many folks absolutely could walk/bike/train to a grocery, but you can be sure they have full sized fridges 99% of the time.
You shouldn't need to catch the train to get to the grocery store. There should be one walking distance from your house. American city planners don't allow grocery stores to be built in residential zones because they're bad at their jobs.
There's no grocery store by my house because there's only 10 other houses by my house. Lol you have no clue what you're talking about.
America is big and Europe is old.
The city planners put your house in the wrong place.
It's not a city you silly goose.
I sought this house, and I'm hardly "remote".
Are you really suggesting someone dictate where I live? This isn't a communist country with worker housing.
I think it's just a difference between European countries with good government and the rest of the world in the way big industrial areas were repurposed after industrial production moved to other parts of the world. In the last 30-40 years.
They may expect a good modern city to look like some old-old districts formed in the times where traveling far for groceries wasn't an option, surrounded by those big repurposed areas with regular planning and a lot of modern bright shiny stuff on the place of old factories, warehouses etc, and with good public transport.
I'm not contesting that eu planning is strong. Their urban areas and even suburban areas are very well connected.
But they are tiny.
That's the problem - I only have to walk 5 minutes for my groceries. There's really no need to stock up on anything.
But then you are dependant on an errand several times per week
Do you just sit at home all the time? I just go to the shop when I'm returning home - pop in for a few minutes and continue on my way. Errands, lol.
I always found the concept of spending a day running errands weird and see many TV shows mention this. I guess it's a 20 minute drive to everything.
Making better kettles is easier when your entire electric grid is optimised for it.
Seriously, 220 volts will just always get you a faster boil than 120. It's physics.
We have 240 in kitchens but don't use it for counter top stuff
We have 400V/16A, three phases, in kitchens for the proper stuff. That's 19kW, if I remember correctly. Your strong power is like our standard power (240V/16A).
And it’s 2 phase
Here in the UK you can have 240V x 32A with three phases. That's how you get domestic 22kW chargers for EVs, lol. Regular single phase kitchen wiring is 240V x 32A giving us 7kW hobs.
It just tells us that you're obese.
No, it doesn't.
Having a small fridge and going to the grocery very often vs having a large fridge and going less frequently tells you nothing about calories consumed.
240V Masterrace
It actually doesn’t make that big of difference. It is more likely Americans don’t have kettles because we drink more coffee and have drip coffee brewers instead.
https://youtu.be/_yMMTVVJI4c
We use a kettle here in the states and it’s just fine. But it’s mostly used for French press coffee.
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I have a machine that keeps hot water on tap. You peasants heat your water up? I pour mine in the cup already boiling hot from the tap. Kettles are so 90s early 2000s.
The hot water coming out of the tap isn't supposed to be boiling.
See how far behind you are?
https://www.quooker.co.uk/
Seems like a waste of energy to have boiling water prepped 24/7
Like having dishwashers and washing machines that run off hot water? So 1980s 😂
Why are you acting so smug about a fucking faucet?
Yeah in the US there's not a convenient way to turn your boiler down or off, nor would you want to because that's not really how they were designed. But I don't think that was the same in all countries-- I remember reading a book from a British guy who moved to the US and couldn't figure out how to turn his heater off before realizing he wasn't supposed to.
Plus now with the newer "tankless" models you don't have to keep water hot all day, just turn it on when you need it.
Tankless hot water on demand has been a thing in Europe since the 80s too
It's pretty sad how far behind the US has fallen without even realising it
Sounds like a huge waste of electricity
Most people I know use a kettle as well as I. Hailing from Michigan!!
I use a gas stove to heat my kettle.
The microwave is only used to melt butter before I make cheesecake.
I only make tea with water from Boston Harbor.
I like my electric kettle because it has temperature settings for specific tea leaves/types and it has a large volume. But if I just want to boil one cup, the microwave is a no-brainer.
Microwave is slow
I've timed it with my kettle and it's literally the same time to boil one cup.
The British sent us Beatles and Monty Python, let them have this.
Have an electric kettle. It's slower than kettles in the UK and Ireland as it maxes out at a lower wattage.
Just plug it into an outlet that outputs higher voltage(you can't lol). The US household standard is actually higher than the UK(230V 50Hz) at 240V 60Hz, the output of the outlet is just dependent on what devices it's intended for. General outlets output 110-120V 60Hz, outlets intended for say an electric stovetop or dyer output 220-240V 60Hz. Too hard to access? Literally can't go wrong with these bad boys.
Wikipedia
Before an American lights their house on fire, do not plug a 120V appliance into an 240V circuit using one of these adapters. If you live in North America, a 240V appliance will not use an ordinary plug, and the 120V ones that do will probably light on fire if you plug it into one of these. You need to import a 240V appliance from a different country, and then it will use the plug from that country and not an North American plug.
Also for the non-Americans, 240V circuits in NA need 4 wires (2 hots, 1 neutral, 1 ground) instead of 3, so usually only 1-2 circuits in the entire house will be 240 and the rest are 120. If you want to install another 240V outlet, you probably need to install a completely new circuit at the breaker and run new copper wires from there to the new outlet, which is very expensive.
Also, wires heat up according to their current. Normally the breaker at the panel can open the circuit if the current is too high, but 240V circuits are often rated for much higher currents (e.g. 50A instead of 20A), and the appliance itself will draw a lot more current than it expects if the voltage is double, which can internally overload it even if it doesn't trip the breaker. E.g. if you plug a 120V 15A kettle into a 240V 40A circuit, it will draw 30A according to Ohms Law, which will probably cause wires within to overheat and eventually light the kettle on fire without tripping the breaker.
There actually not adapters. If you look, there NEMA 6-15P & 6-50P on both ends which is US standard 240V outlets.
There actually are 240V appliances with a US NEMA 6-15P & 6-50P plug. You're just not going to find them at wallmart, there usually used by businesses like mom & pop shops. For example, this expensive mf. For imported appliances all you need is an adapter from NEMA 6-15P/6-50P to whatever that particular 240v rated appliance is using.
A couple of issues:
Watts = Volts * Amps. So, if the circuit that the outlet is on is not rated for enough current, it will either trip the breaker or potentially start an electrical fire.
A 240V outlet requires appropriately-rated wiring and breaker, not to mention the outlet itself. Generally these are only installed for ranges and dryers. Getting an extra installed for the counter isn't in the budget for most people.
And for the 240V extension cord...really?... Is that thing rated for consistent usage at >3kW and potential water exposure? If it's not, that's just asking for a house fire.
The outlets are installed per-code by licensed professionals, there's nothing to worry about. You can't install them yourself without breaking the law, unless you happen to be a licensed professional.
The extension cords I linked are perfectly safe and manufactured to deal with 24/7 use & potential water exposure.
In fact there probably overkill. They're capable of 3.60kW(240 × 15 amp = 3600watts).
Just look at the company making them 😆 https://milehydro.com/
Just don't use them outside and you'll be fine.
You've got it! Good catch on that extension. 20% over is probably safe, if the manufacturer rated it with enough headroom.
Yup. With good reason. I DO actually want to get a 240V installed specifically for this purpose myself. Just too pricy to justify/afford at the moment between permit and electrician costs. I'd wager that the cost is well outside of the realm of affordable for a good portion of people, especially those who are not licensed electricians or able to buy a home.
Yeah getting new ones installed is costly, but most homes & apartments should have at least one and these 25ft extension cords are likely more than enough as a substitute unless you get really unlucky where the only one is in the basement which would really suck.
Ok, Brits. Educate me. What's the benefit of a tea kettle over heating water in the mug you'll drink it out of in the microwave? (Assuming you're making one cup of tea.)
The kettle is much faster.
well you see, when you heat it slowly over a flame, the bad stuff evaporates and leaves behind a purer flavor...
when you microwave, it doesn't
p.s. im an american and have no problem microwaving water... but i do swear there's a slight difference... maybe it's from the cup being nuked?
i also microwave cold coffee...
The "slight difference" is you need to clean out your fucking microwave. 🗣️
I've made tea on gas, electric, & even mf induction stovetops, over an open flame, using an electric kettle and in a microwave.
There's 0 difference. The only thing that matters is getting the water to boiling temperature, which all can.
"Why does my water taste gross? Must be the radiation's fault?"
Meanwhile, 3 years of food grease, splashes, and debris coat the lining of the entire microwave.
Could someone explain why it matters? Is microwaving water for tea akin to instant coffee or Keurig to snobby coffee drinkers? (I nuke water for tea, but when it comes to coffee I use distilled water, fresh beans, a scale and it's kinda ritualistic)
At the end of the day, everything is just atoms moving at different wiggle rates, that's the technical term. It doesn't matter what makes them wiggle faster or slower.
It's fairly inefficient and less convenient than a dedicated electric kettle, but no there's nothing wrong with the results. I did pick up a cheap electric kettle recently and it's nice, but doesn't get a ton of use since I don't drink that much tea.
No, it doesn't actually matter as to the quality of the tea. Hot water is hot water. Assuming you don't just microwave til it's boiling, and instead get it to the proper temperature, there will be 0 difference.
A lot of electric kettles have fine temperature control, so it's easier to dial in on an exact temperature. Brewing a lot of teas too hot will burn them and make them taste bitter. This is 100% a temperature thing, though, and what you use to make it hot has no impact.
I think most use a kettle on the stovetop.
wait people make tea in the microwave? gross lol
wait people don't understand how microwaves work? dumb lol
@Gork @Pika yeah. im always trying to avoid the microwave because things just taste better using any other way of heating.
Hot water is hot water.
But if you microwave fresh water in a clean cup you're missing the flavor from the scale and other build-up in an infrequently cleaned kettle.
Microwaves are good for some tasks and bad for others. They're generally fine for reheating food if you know how to use one, for example. Absolutely no difference between hot water that comes out of a microwave and any other method.
@johannesvanderwhales yeah for reheating food its fine.
Erm, the microwave is faster and more efficient at heating water.
American outlet electricity, I recall, is such that it is actually some kind of weak. You guys need the microwave because your kettles aren't getting enough to eat, so they can't lift.
There was a technology connections video of that I think...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=_yMMTVVJI4c
Here's that video btw.
TL:DW Even in the US with its 120V electrical system the kettle is faster than gas or electric stove kettle (he didn't test microwave) but most people just don't drink tea often enough to warrant a separate appliance for it. He does go into the whole microwaving water in a follow up video here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=RpoXFk-ixZc
Just an FYI, the US standard is 240v 60hz.
It's just most outlets are capped at 110-120v, while 220-240v outlets are used for high voltage appliances.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/watch?v=_yMMTVVJI4c
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
If you're british and lacking a tank, you can always use a gatling gun to heat the water instead
Truly the superior hot water
Americans: invent machine to boil water
Also Americans: use that machine to boil water
Rest of the world: 😱
The cavity magnetron was invented in England by a man who was clearly a tea drinker. The Americans successfully commercialised the device some years later, no doubt by a coffee drinker.
If you guys had more volts in the household electrics you too could use an electric kettle like we do in the UK.
You mean the electric kettles that you can find at literally any fucking Walmart ever.
The standard US household voltage is infact higher than the UK 230V 50hz at 240V 60Hz with outlets output differing depending on what devices it's intended for. Outlets intended for low volt devices are 110-120V 60Hz using NEMA 1-15P & 5-15R, Outlets intended for high volt devices are 220-240V 60Hz using a NEMA 6-15P & 6-50P connections.
Wikipedia
I do not have easy access to an outlet intended for a high voltage device to plug an electric kettle into. Your point doesn't seem relevant. That is, unless you're suggesting we pull a frige or stove out from the wall every time we want to brew a cup of tea.
4 words... 240.. volt.. extension... cord.
Just recently I learned about different temperatures for different teas and coffee. Now I know why my coffee was coming out burnt tasting, and why my green tea didn't taste right.
Often burnt coffee taste is from people leaving the coffee on the hot plate for way too long.
If I have a little extra time I'll run water through the coffee maker without any grounds if that's somehow better?