I came to the world of electric kettles fairly late. I was raised with a stove top kettle and thought it the best way to manage my hot water needs (plus, I’ve always liked the way they looked sitting out on a burner). But then in the fall of 2011, I went to visit my sister. She had a relatively inexpensive electric kettle that boiled water at miraculous speed. There was no ten+ minute wait for a pokey stove to heat and transfer its warmth. I was sold.
Soon after I got home, I ordered my first electric kettle. I got this
Soon enough, I was using it multiple times a day. It served up hot water for morning cups of coffee and tea. In the afternoon, I’d use the cooled water in the kettle to help feed my sourdough starter (boiling helps evaporate out any chlorine in the water supply that can harm or kill the sour bacteria. Just make sure the water is under 100F when you add it to your starter). During dinner prep, I’d heat water to hydrate spoonfuls of Better Than Bouillon or to speed up soup making.
I also found myself turning to the electric kettle during canning. As you know, I make a lot of small batches of preserves, and often I make three or four things in succession (I like to take advantage of a hot canning pot). These small batches range in size from two half pints to four or five. If I don’t plan well, I can wind up trying to process jars without having enough hot water to cover. Instead of adding hot tap water and hoping that the pot returns to a boil quickly, I can keep the kettle hot and top off the canning pot immediately. It has sped things up immeasurably.
This summer was also the first time I had the electric kettle during tomato canning season. I do the bulk of my tomatoes whole, peeled and packed in water (makes for a shorter processing time) and with an electric kettle, having that hot water takes no time at all.
Thanks to the kind folks at Hamilton Beach, I recently upgraded my electric kettle to their programmable model (my previous kettle was also made by HB, but I bought it with my own dollars, long before I started teaming up with them for giveaways). This guy allows you to select the temperature to which your water heats. That makes it particularly great if you have fussy coffee habits (I say this lovingly and as someone who regularly weighs her beans to ensure a close-to-perfect brew), drink green tea, or live at high elevations where water boils at lower temperatures.
It also has a outside fill indicator (the trade-off is that there’s a small amount of plastic inside the kettle to allow for this) and pours far more smoothly than my previous kettle. I also like the fact that it has a timer, so you can schedule the moment you want it to switch on to boil. With a fast boiling kettle, it’s not really entirely necessary, but I have been enjoying the luxury of walking into the kitchen each morning to a just-boiled kettle of water. It’s the little things.
Finally, the giveaway. Hamilton Beach has generously given me eight of these Programmable 1.7 Liter Electric Kettles to give away to my readers. Here’s how to enter.
- Leave a comment on this post and share your water boiling habits. Stove top kettle? Electric tap in the sink? Microwaved mug? If you don’t do hot drinks, what gets you moving in the morning?
- Comments will close at 11:59 pm on Friday, February 15, 2013. Winners will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog over the weekend.
- Giveaway open US residents only.
- One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post.
Disclosure: Hamilton Beach gave me one Programmable Electric Kettle for review and photography purposes and they’re providing eight additional units for this giveaway. They did not pay for inclusion on the blog and my opinions remain entirely my own.
 |
![[Your name]'s gallery on Punk Domestics](http://www.punkdomestics.com/sites/default/files/badges/GalleryBadge200.gif)
My current boiling water need are met by a sauce pan and an electric stove. Yup, I don’t even have a tea kettle.
But I have been looking at electric kettles, just not wanting to invest the money in one yet. I would use it for my Earl Grey, or the occasional french press coffee on a good weekend.
I’m old school. Would love one of these for canning also. Love your blog!
currently I make my hot water in the microwave. I would love to make it in a kettle though. Then my lazy butt would not stop at one cup.
I have a Le Creuset teakettle that sits on my stovetop. It was a gift, and I adore it. But I agree, this would be super handy to use when I’m canning or making soup and have little room on my stove for boiling extra water.
old school for me also. top of stove with kettle. would love this!!
I always use my roommate’s gooseneck kettle. It’s great for making drip coffee but I always have trouble paying attention to when it’s boiling, because it doesn’t whistle! I was spoiled by the electric kettle at my old office and have been missing it since coming back to grad school.
I first encountered an electric kettle about twenty years ago on a visit to my cousin who was living in London at the time. As soon as I got home I ordered the same model, made by Bodum, and although it’s still going strong, it’s showing signs of age, not surprising given that it is all plastic. I use it to boil water for tea, for dripping coffee, for topping off my BWB canner, but my favorite use is to boil water that I then pour into a little pan on the stove for making soft-boiled eggs for breakfast.
I use the stovetop, although since we moved and my stove is one of those useless glass-topped things I could be dead before anything boils. The kettle sounds like magic!
I also got hooked on the electric kettle when I lived in the UK. Since then, I’ve converted my mom and (now) husband over as well! I’ve been through about 3 kettles since then, including plastic ones and the one my husband inadvertantly placed on the gas stovetop (OOPS!) and melted!
Love, love, LOVE the electric kettles! They are used here frequently, but especially are handy when entertaining. And, of course, when canning. And, I am finding, that 2 are not enough, especially since one is quite old and the newer one is plastic.
In answer to the question – I heat water in the microwave, too! (When making a single cup of cocoa, for instance.) And still keep a copper teakettle on the stove top most of the time just because it is pretty.
I used to have a kettle that sat on the stove but it disappeared when we moved a few years ago. Now it’s the microwave or a pot on the stove. I have thought about an electric kettle but don’t know anyone that has one to get some feedback on them. Sounds like it could be a huge time saver.
I heat water in every possible in my kitchen. I have a stovetop kettle, sometimes I use the microwave, I travel with a small electric kettle, and I use my Keurig for quick hot water(but not boiling). It just depends on what I need it for and the amount.
i had my first exposure to an electric kettle when my college roomie brought one with her. for coffee and oatmeal it was fabulous! when i started working, the microwave was the only way to heat water but the tea always tatsted flat. and never stayed hot very long. then my mom gave me an electric kettle. bingo! suddenly there was a group of us in the office having an afternoon cuppa!
I have a stovetop kettle, and with a glass cooktop, I think it takes longer to boil water than it did with our old electric stove with the “coiled” burners.
I use a stovetop kettle at home and an electric kettle at work. The electric kettle is far from my office and I would love to have one to share with the people in my immediate work area.
stovetop kettle over here, but it’s an ugly old metal one that I hate to use. Bottom of the line… I would love a nice electric kettle!
I currently have a plastic electric kettle that is on its last legs, and I’d really like not to be boiling my water in something plastic.
I use the microwave. Would love to have this kettle
Electric kettles are amazing. I love using my (cheap, old, in need of replacement) kettle to boil water for tea and to make hard boiled eggs, and to always have boiling water to top up my canner. Such a time saver. I would LOVE to have a programmable one–I honestly didn’t know they existed.
I am currently using a cheap plastic electric kettle (that works great, but I do worry about the plastic boiling a bit) that came with my apartment. When I visit my in-laws though.. I boil water in a mug in the microwave for my green tea. I’m not sure if I’d keep it or give it to them if I won..
When I drink green tea, I boil the water in a mug in the microwave. I also like the look of the kettle on the stove, but it does take some time. I would love to have an electric kettle, so handy!
I used a tea kettle years ago, when we lived in Scotland, but have never owned one in the U.S. I use it for, what else, tea!
I usually boil it in a pot or (for smaller quantities like for tea) I put it in a Pyrex measuring cup in the microwave.
I use my Great-Grandmother’s copper tea kettle, an heirloom I treasure, for quickly boiling water and steeping tea. Any other needs for boiling are met by my copper-bottomed pots.
Stove top in a kettle that no longer whistles (and yes, I do forget!)
I use a cheap electric kettle that is now slowly taking longer and longer. Time for an upgrade, programmable would be a nice feature.
The microwave! Love my hot tea in the morning
My Braun electric kettle recently died after many years of unfailing service which has left me somewhat dis-oriented. I do not own a microwave and have been using a saucepan on the stove-top which gets the job done but is really cumbersome and slow! So I started browsing online for a new electric kettle and there are so many to choose from that I have put this acquisition on the back burner for the time being. However, my morning tea ritual is just not the same. I did not know there are programmable electric kettles and that just might be the way to go in 2013! Thanks…
usually the microwave. an electric kettle would be much better!
I have an awesome, cute little Bodum electric kettle that I mostly use for tea and french press coffee, but I always try and boil a little more water than necessary to sanitize our sink (I have a crappy college apartment sink that doesn’t drain properly).
Way old school-just a small saucepan with water in it on the stove.
I use an electric sink tap. I suspect it’s expensive to operate, but it’s very convenient, even for cleaning up. One problem: moving pots around, I smacked it. It’s now bent into an ugly shape. I need a kettle.
Besides having it to make tea. I use the kettle to heat water for my washing machine so when I felt my wool the water is really hot. A few kettles of water makes it felt so much better.
I use a teapot that has a harmonic whistle. When I boil water, and the teapot hums, the kids try to see who can come closest to matching the tone! Always fun!
i use an electric kettle i found in a free box a few years ago.
We use a cute little stove-top kettle that we picked up from the local thrift store. I’m with you- ours is all metal and I think it’s important. We make coffee (I weigh out my beans too!) and tea every morning and multiple times per day, so the kettle is kept busy.
In Europe, people use them all the time instead of boiling water on the stove.
I have an electric kettle that I love, but it is getting on in years and I’d love a new one!
I’d never even thought of using an electric kettle for canning-related activities! I own a blue Le Creuset kettle that is cute but given the amount of tea I could drink, it would be convenient and easy to get an electric one that goes so much faster.
my water boiling habits…heh. I do pretty much all of the above. Here (the US) the gas stove is terrifically strong (right next to the pipeline) and so if I’m filling a teapot of tea I fire up the stove. For a single cup though, the microwave it is and I also use the microwave to bring the water for yeast up to temperature b/c there’s so much more control than any other method. In the UK though, on the electric hob, it can take up to 15 minutes to boil, 15! No wonder it’s a nation addicted to electric kettles. Since I’m always looking for ways to avoid using the microwave (it’s old), a programmable kettle seems just about right.
I use a whistling tea kettle on my gas stove, so my husband won’t start and forget it and boil it dry. We both use it for hot tea, and I also use it for topping off the water bath canner. But, I would love the electric kettle, especially at canning time.
I have a tea kettle, but sometimes I heat water in a quart sauce pan.
My electric kettle just died. I am back to stovetop heating. While I like my red stovetop kettle, it is slow. I miss the fast heating from an electric kettle. I use boiling water for individual cups of drip coffee, tea, and to top off boiling canning water:-)
This would be so handy for canning. It takes forever to bring tap water up to a boil for water bath canning. I also use a kettle on my stovetop for tea & etc. Much better than the micowave. It is cool and rainy as I type & hot tea so so comforting.
Old metal kettle on the gas stove top. No whistle to alert me to the boiling so I have to remember that I have turned on the burner!
I’m destined to win this one because it’s a wonderful thing that I’ve been coveting for two years now.
I drink tea every morning. I’ve got an electric kettle, but it’s not programmable – and the idea of being able to set a temperature for green or white tea sounds quite nifty!
It entirely depends on what for and what I feel like. If its for canning its on the stovetop. If its in the morning, Keurig all the way, or if I need a lot of cocoa my hot cocoa maker.
I use the microwave method
I’ve been using my trusty Braun electric tea kettle for years without ever peering inside. My mother-in-law is currently staying with us and noted that the interior is plastic. I know, gasp! Each time I’ve used it recently, I cringe a little bit thinking about my convenient, but questionable hot water.
I tend to do the microwaved mug of water most of the time unless I need more than a single cup – then I use a stove top teapot. I can think of a dozen different uses for an electric kettle though – imagine not having to wait forever for water to come to aboil before making a pot of spaghetti!