Electrical Kettle Revolution
For 860 days, we had been living without an electrical kettle. Which is fine for me, I’m not a huge tea drinker and we have a gaggia for my daily coffee fix. We did have a kettle (not an electric one), but it somehow ended up sitting on top of the turned on hob overnight and turned into a burned mess. Its new life is that of watering can. It serves its function quite well. Yesterday, we went to buy a new tumble dryer to replace the one that broke down a couple of months ago. Whilst purchasing our dryer, I suggested a kettle to SK, who has been boiling his water in an environmentally unfriendly way - i.e. in the smallest saucepan we have without putting the lid on. We looked at all the kettles on offer and selected a small kenwood kettle, made from brushed stainless steel and not too heavy. I am not a huge fan of plastic kettles (except for the completely transparent ones) and many of the metal ones are way too heavy. The kenwood we selected was neither too tall, nor too heavy and it had a plastic window at the side to let you see how much water is in it. I like to see the water. I like to not get a sore wrist from lifting a heavy kettle. The kettle was brought home and plugged in and is now living between the coffee machine and the toaster. SK tells me he doesn’t like its location because there is a glass shelf over it, but I dont’ really see the problem. It is the most socket accessible place for the kettle, unless it is going to live on the draining board. You can pull it out from under the glass shelf and the steam escapes. But that is a tandem.
I love the instructions that come with this kettle. I’ve already been very very naughty and I opened the lid and poured water directly into the kettle. Worse than that, I boiled water that I did not need. I filled the kettle and boiled water to clean it out and then threw all that water away. The instructions said I should not boil more water than I need. The instructions also say it is a STEALTH kettle. Like a secret agent.
This morning, I asked SK was he enjoying his new kettle. It is a flat element at the bottom one, so it’s very very fast. He told me that the kettle was great. He can put his bread in the toaster and turn on the kettle at the same time. Previously, SK would fill the saucepan, put it on the hob, go downstairs, let it boil for a few minutes, come back upstairs to the furiously boiling saucepan, put on his toast, make his tea, butter his toast etc. Now, thanks to the new kettle he can make his toast and his tea without having to leave the room to wait for the water to boil. The kettle revolution. Who knew they were so fast at boiling water?
