Hot water jugs v. kettles

Feb 29, 2016 24 Replies

A hot water jug is far more efficient than a kettle. You can heat the exact amount of water you need, down to half a cupful (which takes seconds to boil). There is a water guage on the side.



Also most are insulated.



And they can be lifted off the stand leaving the flex behind & so are more convenient.


They are called "cordless kettles".

:-)

I've got one - a Philips - seems to work fine as Harry describes. Not sure of the added efficiency though, and it does take a long time to switch off (well, 5-10s) once boiling. So I generally see to that manually.

I like it for the 3kW and one-cup fill. The water's boiled by the time I've gathered tea bag and mug.

We had a Phillips one, but it developed a leak. We now have a Russell Hobbs, but it's made in China like everything else.

Gee whiz. Welcome to the twentieth century grandad. Should I throw away my toasting fork too?

Tim

It's like being lectured by my grandfather (who would be about 115 now.)

In message , charles writes

Indeed. We are on our second cordless jug kettle since moving here 14 years ago. They are 'no name' and less than a tenner at the local ironmonger. At that price, I'm not going to worry!

En el artículo , RJH escribió:

Me too, a cordless Kenwood. More than 30 yrs old. Has a "f*ck the EU"

3kW element, and like you say, boils a mugful in the blink of an eye.

The indicator neon died a few years ago, replaced it, done :)

Our Russell Hobbs failed just after the warranty expired, maybe partly because of the hard water. I had to pay £18 to them for a replacement, it has lasted for some years.

Usually I have to much water in it because I can't easily see a low level.

I bought a new cheaper Russell Hobbs jug for a different property. It is easy to fill it with enough for a cup, but the bottom has bloomed after only maybe a months usage!

No reason why you can't measure the amount of water you put into any kettle.

That must be a modern trend. Mine is just made from plastic.

Only if you buy the type with a separate stand. My jug shaped kettle has an attached lead.

Ah, more harry partial truths and misinformation...

What you describe is the difference between a kettle with a concealed element and one with an exposed one. This has nothing to do with jug Vs other.

You can get both types in both designs.

No s*it sherlock...

Nice insulating metal...

You are confusing corded with cordless. Again nothing to do with traditional kettle style or jug.

Try the 10 second kettle :

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I have to admire harry's ability to convince himself that the world is black and white and there is no hint of a shade of grey...

The jug kettle with exposed element, the traditional one that's cordless and concealed, the metal non insulated ones, the ones of all shapes and sizes with water level indicators... apparently all don't exist.

Crap. Very few kettles have significant insulation.

To reduce energy usage, you really want a very effective insulating layer on the inside the kettle. That would reduce the heat going into the fabric of the kettle. Another benefit could be lower surface temperature on the outside of the kettle reducing the chance of skin burns by contact.

En el artículo , John Rumm escribió:

Impressive, though might get expensive in kettles after a while :)

It was interesting the way the element burst at the same spot from the ends.

I see you have an obsolete one.

Ours stays perfectly cool on the outside when it's boiled. But the big efficiency issue is just being able to see/put in the exact amount of water in it by the transparent slot on the side. There is no traditional element, just a smooth flat base inside, easily cleaned. And you can lift it off its base.

The only snag is, not easily repairable.

Shows how little you know.

What is 'really effective'?

Just an air gap of a few mm is about 100 times less conductive than metal.

In countries where the mains supply is feeble in both voltage and/or current there are very heavily insulated hot water "elephant" kettles which were basically a thermos flask with a heating element inside. These days I think they use mainly blown polymer insulation:

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(in English - not a recommendation just an example)

They are common in Japan. Although I doubt that they are all that efficient since the heat leak through the filling cap is noticeable and the thing is hot all the time. Displacement mechanism to output hot water much like the coffee/teas dispensers at UK conferences.

Flash boilers that deliver a cup full of instant hot water on demand have become more common too with the advent of exotic coffee machines. They tend to die horribly in hard water areas though.

Thermodynamically it is hard to beat warming up exactly the amount of water you want to exactly the right temperature in one step.

Blown PU foam is about as good as it gets in a tight space. Polystyrene would do at a pinch. Anything that prevents convection developing.

At ~100C a mirror finish also helps a bit.

If you limit it to running at 8kW it might live a while longer ;-)

and that it was the element that died and not any of the connectors, cables or switches along the way.

En el artículo , John Rumm escribió:

I noticed the mains lead seemed to have been wrapped in spiral "cable tidy". Wonder if that was in case it burst.

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