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Which is faster: electric kettle or range

13 years ago

Was wondering if anyone had compared times to heat water to boil in an electric kettle versus a high powered gas range.

Have an old Russell Hobbs, still works, but would love to clear the counters of as much "stuff" as possible. Anyone with an opinion (or facts) about time to boil several cups on a Blue Star RNB versus the electric kettle?

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Comments (7)

kaismom
13 years ago
absolutely the electric kettle. I have a high powered range but the water boiled in the kettle is much faster. The heating coil is IN the water... All the heat goes into the water, not wasted.

Even though the water boils faster with the electric kettle, i use the stove top kettle to boil. I am not about to invest in yet another counter cluttering appliance! I just accept the added 2 or 3 minutes as the cost of having tea. I drink alot of tea.

What I do like about the electric kettle is that it shuts off when done. I have a whistling tea kettle, so I have to run and shut it off the burner when I hear that whistle....

I am really odd about my tea water. The water must be boiling, not just super hot out of the instant hot water dispenser (I use it at work but I don't like it!). It cannot be heated in the MW either. It makes the tea taste somehow off.
enmnm (6b)
13 years ago
Ditto the kettle.

However, to avoid an additional countertop appliance, I was contemplating an induction hob (before deciding to go induction all the way.)
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The discussions about energy used and speed is interesting. Here are my findings heating 5-cups of water. We are water savers and use one gallon of saved water (that's water that normally runs down the drain waiting for the shower to get hot) for after meal clean-up and washing dishes that don't get put in the dishwasher. We use 5-cups of hot water heated in an electric kettle, plus approx. 5 more cups of cold, and the remainder of the gallon is used for rinsing. We use a small plastic tub for washing dishes. Normal use for doing dishes is somewhere between 5-7 gallons of water (charts and "experts" on the subject vary dramatically). I tested several methods for heating 5-cups of water calculating the amount of energy used and the cost using a Kill-A-Watt meter, as well as the amount of time it took to heat it to a boil. A stove top kettle is the least energy efficient because the heat source first heats the kettle, which in turn heats the water, and some of the heat source can be wasted heating air around the kettle if your kettle is smaller than the source. The heating element in an electric kettle comes in direct contact with the water. All tests were done with 5-cups of water. Sharp Microwave/Convection Oven: 13-minutes - .29 kWh Induction Cook Top: 8-minutes - .15 kWh And the winner is..... Electric Kettle: 5-minutes - .11 kWh or about 1-cent From what I've read on the subject, the only thing faster than an electric kettle is an instant hot water tap, but I don't know how much energy it would use. -Grainlady
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>>>" was hoping there was some great model that was a budget pick . . . If someone stumbles on a great moderately priced induction range please do share."<<< What are your requirements for "great" and what would you consider a "budget pick" or a "moderately priced induction range? " If a "moderately priced'" would be what Barb Alli called a "decent price," then you might look at the Frigidaire Gallery FGIF induction models. They seem to priced around $1000. OTOH, if "budget pick" means the same price bracket as basic coil and radiant burner ranges --- the ones in the $400 to $600 bracket at Lowes, HD, and such ---- then you're correct that there are no induction models offered in that price bracket. The currently least expensive induction range I know of is the Frigidaire FFIF model which right now seems to be offered at around $900 but which I've seen discounted down in holiday sales. The Frigidaire Gallery FGIF models start about $100 or so higher and have convection. There were a couple of passing comments above about these though not from any owners and I do not recall seeing any threads here from actual users, either. I think Reviewed-dot-com and Consumer Reports have tested the Frigidaires. I forget how CR rated them and I no longer subscribe. If you don't have access to CR, maybe wdccruise can help out? IIRC, Reviewed recommended them but the reviews were cursory. Adjusting heat down on radiant burners. Well, back in the last century, we used to move a pan partially off or fully off an electric burner for minute or even to a different burner when we needed to rapidly decrease the heat. So, there are work-arounds of a sort. Also, as Barb Alli says, some folks are finding that some of the current ranges radiant smoothtop burners seem more responsive than their older models' burners did. Trouble is, there is a degree of subjective satisfaction in this which makes it hard to provide a frame of reference for others to match with their own subjective preferences. A demo would be the best way to find out but I have to say that I've never seen any retailers having budget or moderately priced radiant ranges hooked up for demo. Do you know anybody who may have recently purchased a new radiant range? If it is a model they think is better than older ones, maybe you could mooch a little time to test it out?
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jgs7691
13 years ago
Definitely the kettle -- one appliance I would not put away (or, at least, would not put out of easy reach.)
sara_the_brit_z6_ct
13 years ago
kaismom - that's not odd: it's British! We HAVE to have the water boiling, and an electric kettle is the first essential small appliance in every British kitchen. More important than a toaster or a microwave.

The idea of making tea in a microwave makes Brits shudder.
weedmeister
13 years ago
Kettle. End of discussion.
sayde
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the responses. I think I knew the answer (electric kettle is faster) but wanted to hear. I was hoping for some pragmatic justification to buy the stove top tea kettle I wanted and didn't find it here, but bought it anyway. It's a Simplex, it's no longer being made (British company folded after over a century), it's going to look good in my kitchen, so I will tidy up the counters while I wait for the water to boil. I drink a lot of tea too!
herring_maven
13 years ago
sayde, the answers above that state that the kettle is faster are generally correct, and we almost always use our electric kettle when we want hot water fast. Allow me to drop a footnote, however. The 120 volt/20 amp wall current available at the countertop of most North American kitchens limits the heating power of our electric kettles relative to what the English can get from their (typically 3000-watt) electric kettles.

If need be, we can get faster water heating on the higher wattage burners of our induction cooktop than we can get using the electric kettle, because of the higher wattage of the induction unit's energy source, and also because of the greater surface area of the bottom inside of the pot that touches the water relative to the surface area of the heating element at the bottom of the electric kettle.

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