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.
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I am a multiple-cups-of-tea-a-day drinker, and I feel like I am stuck in a cycle of filling the kettle, waiting for water to boil, making the tea, then going back in an hour only to have to re-heat the quickly cooled water. When I’m canning, I often don’t have a spare burner to keep water boiling to re-fill the canning pot, so having a programmable electric kettle would solve multiple problems in my house! (Although, I must admit that I like the way the kettle looks on the stove, too.)
For tea its the microwave. For other things (pasta, canning, etc) just an open pot on the stove.
Stove Top kettle boiler. And it gets used a lot, although I always wanted an electric kettle, but have only seen them in plastic form (I did not do research on them at all) reading your post, makes me want one again! Reading your post, and seeing a contest to win one, makes me want it even more! I really like the top off the canning pot and have it come to boil quicker idea. I do not can too much, but when I do the recipes are planned to go into the pot in succession, I do small batches as well. (very therapeutic, and boy do my friends and family love when I give myself canning therapy, they reap the benefits of my mental stability!) Thanks for the opportunity to win one of these kettles.
I have a red metal tea kettle that sits on the stove. I use it to boil water for coffee in the morning and sometimes tea in the afternoon. It sounds like a train whistle when it boils. It really needs replacing — some of the enamel has chipped off the bottom, the inside is starting to rust in places and the plastic whistler around the spout is partly melted (not sure how that happened . . . ). I know how wonderful electric teakettles are and I would LOVE to have a not-plastic one for my very own!
I use a stove-top kettle too, but an electric one where you can better control the temperature would be nice.
I use a pot on the stove. That used to be how I did my coffee. THen I found a coffee pot. Thanks for the chance!
Stove top kettle for tea.
at home i boil a kettle on the stove, at work the hot water comes out of the water dispenser. reading the comments, i’m thinking an extra kettle for canning would be wonderful!
I’m a stove top kettle kind of girl at home, but I work I use the water cooler for my hot water needs. Supplemented with the microwave for black teas.
We are also an electric kettle family. Ours gets used frequently for tea and boiling water for cleaning jobs where I want the water really hot. Ours doesn’t have nearly as many features as this one though!
I use an electric kettle for my morning tea and love it, but this one is really slick. Microwaved water tastes funny–I know it’s just boiled water, but it never tastes as good as kettle-boiled.
I usually use my stove top kettle to boil water. My fiance uses it much more often than I do, as he’s a tea drinker and drinks several cups a day.
We generally boil a mug or measuring cup full in the Microwave. My Kettle generally sits on the back burner collecting dust and kitchen spatters, lol. Would love an electric one!
I use our old plastic (from Goodwill) electric kettle for canning, but my partner uses it daily for hot water for the french press. This one looks lovely!
Wife drinks tea. I drink coffee. Stove top kettle seems to take too long whether it’s the wrong size burner or kettle. Why not give the electric kettle a try? Pick me, pick me.
I fell in love with the idea of using an electric tea kettle many years ago when we were in New York City and saw the off Broadway play The Beauty Queen of Leenane. The main character was forever offering folks tea with water boiled in her electric pot…so, that is my story.
I use a mug and the microwave! I usually boil water in a pan for cooking and love the idea of an electric kettle instead.
I do it the old fashioned way…in a pot on the stove, not even a teapot. Boy, would one of these be nice!
totally have a stove top kettle that sounds like a harmonica when it whistles!
Well, I’m an old fashion keetle on the stove kind of girl, but after listening to you I want one. I also do small batch canning and am very interested in trying it. It also has to be better than my late night nuking water for tea or cocoa. Thanks for a chance to win it
I am currently using my smallest saucepan to boil water. I don’t make as many hot drinks as I would like because it is not very convenient.
No worries – I am a pot on the stove person, too.
It’s not so unusual for me to use all four burners on my stove that I was willing to have one of them covered all the time. Especially when I lived in my apartment, because there wasn’t room to just set the tea kettle to the side. I also didn’t have room for teapots. All the tea brewing just in the smallest pot (unless having company over called for a larger pot).
Now in my house I have several teapots, but I just haven’t gotten over that problem of where do you keep the kettle when you aren’t using it.
I’m loving the idea of knowing the temperature of the water, though. That’s exciting. Last time I looked into that option in an electric kettle, I came up with recommendations for a huge monstrosity that would not only boil to a temperature, but also keep your water at that temperature for an extended length of time.
I usually boil my water on the stove, in a Farberware tea kettle that we inherited from our elderly neighbor. I have heard how quickly these electric kettles boil water, though, and how nice!
Love this! My old electric kettle died. Dislike using microwave.
I have a cheap teakettle that sits on my gas stove. It heats up pretty quick on the “powerburner,” but the part that whistles was plastic and melted off! Sad.
Love this! Dislike using my microwave!
Electric Kettle all the way, I bought my first one in USA, at a shop in Idaho. The clerk had to ask what it was used for LOL
I live by my (I now realize barebones) HB kettle. It’s what I start the morning with (French Press coffee for me and the wife, hot cocoa or hot tea for our daughter), use off an on all day (hot tea, mostly), and every evening (iced tea for dinner). I know there was a time before I had the “electric jug”, but for the life of me I don’t know what I did to get by. Drink soft drinks, I guess.
I’m a stovetop girl myself, but I can see where this would be handy in the heat of the summer canning season!
Microwaved mugs for tea, one at a time. I’d love a electric kettle!
My British friends constantly sing the praises of electric kettles. I’ve always wanted to get one. I’ve actually started using the K-cup machine when it’s on to run plain hot water through tea bags and things, or the microwave. I still use the stovetop kettle for when I need more than a cup or am making a pot.
At work I run our Keurig with the little packet holder empty to get the hot water. Faster than the microwave, but I have to watch out b/c occasionally my tea tastes a little like the coffee that was brewed right beforehand!
Stovetop kettle full enough to make tea for my wife and fill the french press for me.
I have a wonderful turquoise enamel kettle that was a wedding present- it always makes my stove look so happy! but my mother has an electric kettle that I love (and love that it would take way less energy to heat up than my stove) so I have been thinking of making the switch.
I use either my copper kettle on top of the stove, for when I need water boiling, or a Keurig that was given to me as a gift – just plain water without a pod, which is hot enough for green tea… less satisfactory for black tea. I’ve been thinking about an electric kettle for a long time and this looks like a good one!
I keep meaning to get an electric kettle, but so far use stovetop or microwave depending on the amount of water. For green teas, the programmable feature seems amazing!
I usually just use my teakettle on the stove top for everyday stuff, but I have such a tendency to run out of burners when I’m canning (since I also use the shortcut you mentioned) that this would be a big help.
I use a kettle on the stove for hot chocolate, or tea for my friends when they’re over. I also alternate between the stove kettle and the microwave for water for ramen noodles.
I’m still attached to my Le Creuset tea kettle, but an electric one is great for the office!
While I don’t require a hot beverage to get going in the morning, I love a good warm drink on chilly afternoons and nights. I’ve been using a kettle on the stove, but this would be super helpful both for my warm drink need, and for canning in the summer…I do have a bit of an outlet shortage in the kitchen though…
My wife loves hers (it’s a Cuisinart) for steeping tea partly because it has all the presets for various kinds of tea. Never thought of using it for processing tomatoes.
I tried to convince you to get an electric kettle in 2009! Naturally you ended up with a better one than I have.
I boil in the microwave. It seems to be the fastest method.
I was raised with just using a small pot to boil water. Later, I used a kettle and loved it. Recently, I came upon a hardly used electric kettle at a yard sale in a free pile. I thought it kinda ridiculous, but it was free. I use it every single day for tea, coffee, soups, you name it. I would buy a new one in a heartbeat if mine broke.
What a brilliant idea to use an electric kettle during canning! I constantly wait for the water to reheat (after adding).
Well I’m a coffee drinker
But when I have tea later in the day I just use a pot on the stove to boil the water 
I currently boil my water on the stove. I need my hot chocolate with a scoop of instant coffee in it each and every morning!!
I have a stove top kettle, but most often, I just microwave a mug. I have the most wonderful Longaberger Pottery and the handle does not get hot.
I use to have a water cooler that would heat water as well as have cool water. It meant a lot to my mom who lived with me. She loved having hot and cold water in an instant. My mom has passed away now and the water cooler no longer works and I have a pot on the stove when I need hot water for coffee/tea. It is such a hassle that I seldom have any hot beverages any more. Would love this kettle
I’m a microwave mug kind of girl – but I always, every time think “i wish I had a kettle!” Thanks for the giveaway!
My stovetop kettle had a train whistle, but has broken. I use the micro when in a hurry. I’ve been wondering about those fancy electric ones…..
I use the microwave for tea – I drink it constantly on the weekends and sometimes on weekday evenings – somehow I manage to get awake & to the office without any tea during the week.