Always empty completely and leave the top open to dry out. I always measure in exactly the amount I'm going to use too, so there's no waste.

I use distilled water and have zero scale.

I don't like the idea of leaving water in the kettle, whether it's stovetop or electric - bacteria can grow in there 😕

Beneficial minerals can be found in other things.

floral, same here. I don’t think my kettle has ever sat empty.

“Found in other things” doesn’t do the tea any good if it tastes flat. Once again I’m going by what ”they” say, not personal experience or preference.

Good for you, FOAS. Wise decision. When in doubt, punt.

My daily tea tastes wonderful (to me). No complaints.

LOL, your fancy new kettle is half the battle in making things taste great.

Presentation, presentation. 🤠

Yeah I’ve got no dog in this fight, in my half century plus I’ve yet to come across a hot black tea I’d describe as wonderful. So I’m sure using endlessly reboiled distilled water would be all the same to me! 🙂

Same here, FOAS.

When I lived in the city,I used tap water (treated municipal).

I don’t get (tap water (treated municipal) here. If I did, I would use it.

In 25 years, my daily tea, made with bottled water has been lovely.

I have a glass kettle with a tea basket insert. I don't drink coffee. I use it only for tea. It replaced an electric iced tea maker on which the plastic parts were deteriorating after many years of use. Get the water boiling, let it cool a moment, steep the tea. Make a gallon of cold/iced from it, so not done every day. I'm on well water, filtered (not softened) to whatever extent the refrigerator provides. There's mineral residue on bottom of the carafe at every use, which I clean with a dash-of-vinegar soak after every use.

I was thinking about ”endlessly reboiled water”.

The water in my kettle is used for other things besides boiling.

I use it to water houseplants, (well, three stalks of lucky bamboo and one small plant on the kitchen window ledge), I top up the dog bowl, I use it in cooking. ( I measure cold water directly from the kettle. )I think sometimes, I can go through a full kettle, and none of it has been boiled.

It’s easier to me, to carry the kettle around the house, rather than lug the items to the sink.

We have one kettle and it only boils water. Tea is never made in it. If it were it would affect the taste of the myriad other things we boil water for. And the kettle is required so frequently it can't be tied being used as a teapot. We often want to make tea and coffee at the same time.

I don’t use the kettle as a teapot. I’ve never heard of that.

I pour water from my kettle into the teapot.

Same here. I was responding to Dadoes' "I have a glass kettle with a tea basket insert."

My kettle included a cylindrical infuser basket, stated as for brewing tea, which mounts to an included support bracket that sits at the top beneath the lid. It's obviously intended to be used for that purpose.

Our kettle holds .8 liters and both my wife and I tend to fill it to about the level needed for one cup (mama bear and papa bear style, her cup and Hario filter cone are smaller than the ones I use) . What's left after use might be 1/2 inch of water, not worth doing anything with. It's used only in the morning, we don't drink tea and rarely use it to make coffee later in the day.

We use spring water. It's funny because though we always use the same brand (one whose flavor we like), what winds up getting into the products sold in my area seems to vary and have different sources from one time to another. Sometimes, the batch leaves the stainless steel kettle shiny clean for weeks at a time. Other times, there's enough of a hard water build-up that a vinegar treatment is needed every few weeks.

I have nothing against tap water, I just like better the coffee flavor the spring water produces. I drink tap water AND spring water during the day when home or when away, it depends what's most convenient.

I have THIS Alessi tea kettle. It's high grade stainless steel....it doesn't scale. We have well water @ this house, but the last house was tap water. My husband drinks a pot of tea every day, usually Earl Grey. He prefers a pyrex measuring cup to boil his water in the microwave. He carries his big Yeti mug around with him ALL day....drinking tea. In case you didn't know, Yeti mugs are metal lined. They can't be put directly in the microwave.

Our water causes scale regardless of the material the kettle is made of. We live on limestone and chalk geology and our water is very hard. It's an issue for plumbing, central heating and water boilers as well as kettles. Stove top kettles are rare here. Electric kettles are the norm and they fur up more than stove top.

" Electric kettles are the norm and they fur up more than stove top. "

After saying that the kettle material makes no difference (which I agree with), you say this.

Why would this be the case?

floral, I think electric kettles are the norm in Canada, as well.

Almost everyone that I know has one.

I use tap (well) water, and empty it before putting it away. I also use an electric kettle, but I don't use it often enough to have a hard water problem (I make tea by the gallon in a large pot, then chill it).

Like floral, we use an electric kettle and tap water. I generally only fill it with as much water as I will need and leave whatever I haven’t used in the kettle. There’s no point in using electricity to boil water I won’t be using.

If we’re travelling and using the kettle in our accommodation, I will empty it out and rinse it before filling with fresh water. Just in case 😝

Judging just from my own observations, I think it's a minority of US homes that have electric kettles. Electric kettles are growing in popularity but slowly. Most homes historically have had stovetop tea kettles.

I think there's another factor at work that contributes to the difference aside from the obvious reason of tea being more entrenched in British culture. (and in Canada, by extension) than in the US.

Electrical power at wall sockets in most of the world except for the US is 240 volts, not the weaker 120 volt setting that prevails in North America. A water kettle at the higher voltage can bring water to a boil much more quickly than one using a 120volt outlet. Additionally, boiling water on a stove top of the traditional gas or electric resistance kinds is also much slower.

So, if you want a few cups of water brought up to a boiling temperature with haste, and likely in the most energy efficient manner, a 240v kettle is what you need.

240v circuits are known in North America, they're made by putting two 120 circuits together. They're most commonly seen as the wiring for electric water heaters, electric clothes dryers and electric resistance cooktops/ovens. A European 240v kettle is allowed and can used by having an electrician set up a 240v wall socket. North American approved sockets and changing the plugs on the appliance to approved types must be done. Few moving here from abroad or those living here who are impatient to boil water bother to do so. Though I once knew one inbound emigrating Brit who did have it done.

Elmer, the difference in electrical socket power doesn't explain the prevalence of electric kettles in Canada vs the US, which share the same power sockets. (And most of the world uses 220 V, not 240 V.)

We have an electric kettle which is sort of like a kettle with its own hot plate but never use it. We also have a metal kettle that my husband uses for his tea and coffee. Since our well water is filtered and softened we dont have scale or iron problems. That would be our biggie here as we have dissolved iron without the water system. My husband will leave water in his kettle. We are wired for a wall water boiler(220)downstairs but never installed it. It is sittling in a box under the stairs.

I dont like to use distilled for coffee. Distilled water tastes flat to me.

patriciae

And there is a difference between purified and distilled water. And tap water depending on your municipality.

I suppose preference can come through trial and error.

FWIW, I understand that any amount of dissolved minerals in water generally are in quantities that are too low to make that much difference in nutrition. Our city adds stuff to the water - both minerals for 'flavor' and sanitary agents that I prefer to avoid, and newer studies have shown microplastics to be present in both bottled and tap water. I've been using distilled water for decades now.

I think a better way to get more minerals and nutrients in one's diet is to eat lots of vegetables and fruits.

I prefer electric kettle and have used it for long time. It boils water much faster than the stove stop one, and is more energy efficient. I also have a Stanley thermos so hot water is usually available on demand. I don’t leave water unused in the kettle. The kettle has mineral deposits on the bottom(tap water), and once in a while I boil some vinegar in it. I only use distilled water in the electric herbal fragrant dispenser so it’s been maintenance free.

We eat mountains of fruit and vegetables but we also aren't going to eschew a cheap source of useful nutrients by not drinking tap water, especially since ours contains a lot of calcium. Its not either/or. It's both.

" a cheap source of useful nutrients "

Sure, useful nutrients are important for those whose eating habits or health lead to having deficiencies.

Do you have deficiencies or would you but for drinking water of a particular source?

There's a difference between saying something is useful as a truism, without it also being implied that supplementation is necessary or required for all in all circumstances.

Ours is a glass kettle with a thin flat bottom that sits on a base that holds the heating element.

We use well water from a tap that has some minerals and leaves some residue but it hasn't caused buildup on our kettle.

Son uses quite an amount of water to make soups and stews and I usually a smaller amount for pour-through coffee or oatmeal porridge with milk added for the porridge. I pour unneeded water into a bottle, but we don't empty residue after every use.

No trouble so far.

We have a metal kettle that we could use on our electric stove: I think it's in the basement.

ole joyful

My electric kettle lasted about 6 months. Died. Didn't love it enough to replace it. Had to be descaled weekly. Went back to nuking water for my coffee.

I inherited an electric kettle........my first experience with one. IMO, it may be the best thing since sliced bread!! I've used it daily for the past two years and often multiple times a day, depending on my needs. It is very fast, turns itself off when it reaches a boil and has yet to develop any significant scale, even with our naturally hard water.

It is also one of the least expensive models available. If it decided to stop working, I'd replace with the same in a heartbeat,

Drinking distilled water exclusively can strip your body of the electrolytes it needs to function well.

I got rid of my microwave years ago. I use my stove to boil water for coffee and tea. I really like the idea of having a separate means of having hot water fast. I do have an aluminum kettle but I don't like it. Plus it sits on a burner more for decoration and my friend managed to burn the bottom of it just a bit and that bugs me. Time to start looking at an electric kettle.

Thanks for all the input.

Mine acts a little wonky at times. Main complaint is when uto shutoff indicates it’s off but then I go to ise it a couple days later and it's quite warm to the touch. Also don't like that by design it requires at least 16 oz to heat. It recently did't work at all for several days and I was getting set to replace it, but then it came back to life.

Sounds as if some of the electric kettles people have tried haven't been good examples. They should be able to boil any quantity of water providing the base is covered, they should switch off immediately once boiling, they shouldn't feel warm unless they've just boiled and they should last for years.

Another advantage is that they don't take up space on the hob when you're cooking. Boiling or very hot water is often needed when all the rings are in use.

Electric kettles certainly vary in quality. Maybe I got lucky. Mine is the Aroma brand stainless steel that has worked like new for over 10 years now while the stove top kettle has been in a kitchen drawer for all those years. It can boil any amount of water and shuts off automatically after boiling. Electric kettle forever.

Glass electric tea kettle and tap water. I make a cup of sleepy tea every night for my husband and usually make sure there is an extra cup of water left in the kettle for me to use the next morning. I recently discovered that it's easy to clean by heating water, throwing in a few Efferdent tablets and letting it sit for an hour.

I use a stovetop whistling kettle for tea. Tap water always--our water is really good. My 10 year-old bathroom faucets still look like they are fresh out of the box! I like it too, because I use an electric perk coffee pot (cretin, I know), but I can light my gas range with a match in case of a power outage to make a Melitta pour over . I wipe the spout of the kettle when I empty it, leave the spout cap open, and put it on the stove to cool. My kettles last for years. When the whistle breaks, I get another. I just make sure that it is all metal. I would think that the kettles with plastic on the spouts would experience meltdown.

Usually, the plastic just breaks before anything can melt, faftris.

Electric kettles switch themselves off when boiling. So no need for a whistle and no forgetting it and boiling it dry. If there's a power cut, which is vanishingly rare, there's always the gas stove and a saucepan.

And I really appreciate that feature - it also cuts off as soon as I lift it off the base.

Just out of interest, while making a pot of tea, I boiled a litre of water in my electric kettle. It took 2.5 minutes. A litre in my 1000 Watt microwave took 10 minutes. I didn't try a pan on the stove. Too many variables. But I know it would be more than 2.5 minutes.

Certainly on the stove if you watch it it’ll never boil.

We use a stainless, polished exterior, gooseneck kettle but empty it and put it away after use. We have delicious deep well water that comes from our tap, but DH has been using bottled spring (not distilled water) bc our well water is a bit high in arsenic and old lace.

As I understand it, good tasting water wants to have some (?usually naturally occurring) minerals disolved in it. Distilled water lacks flavor. Our deep well water is naturally just right regarding taste. It doesn’t leave any deposits and is abundant and we’re on a wooded hill mountainside with mostly protected land nearby.

Growing up was a different story water-wise. There was a LOT of iron in the well water. We could not wash white clothing in it because it would discolor the white sheets or shirts. There were iron deposits everywhere — toilets, tubs, sinks. The taste of the water was awful, so we went to Rotary Club sponsored natural spring to fill the many gallon glass jugs (1950s, ’60s) for drinking and cooking. That was a PITA.

" I boiled a litre of water in my electric kettle. It took 2.5 minutes. ".

I filled my Hario kettle, capacity .8 liters, and it took 4.5 minutes.

Stated another way, at 240v, a kettle requires 15 seconds per 100 cl.

At 120V, it's 33 seconds per 100 cl.

So half as much electrical power requires roughly twice as much time. The power output of electrical resistance is linear so this is about right.

This ignores what may be slight power consumption differences (with wattage adjusted for voltage) of the different appliances used.

"empty it and put it away after use." I'm afraid ours is never put away. It's on the work surface permanently as it's in use throughout the day.

" This ignores what may be slight power consumption differences (with wattage adjusted for voltage) of the different appliances used. "

It ignores the efficiency differences, which can be more than slight.

You can look up Joule's law.

There is generally little or no element or variation of "efficiency" in electrical resistance heat of home appliances. All are similar in this regard, they're made to maximize heat output while staying within the requirements of home circuits (ie, amperage).

And I was wrong, it's not a linear relationship, it's squared.

Edit to add:

Again, Toronto, to repeat an earlier exchange---I've lived overseas, had a 240v kettle, and experienced the more rapid boiling myself. Do you have any personal experience with it as I have?

Floral, do you make tea throughout the day? For what do you keep the kettle handy?

Coffee in the mornings, tea throughout the day, stock for cooking, boiling water prior to putting it on the stove for pasta, vegetables, etc. (speeds up the process), adding to casseroles, stews, soups, sauces, etc., in fact any time we need boiling or hot water for any purpose whatsoever. The kettle isn't so much 'handy', it's an integral piece of equipment, like the stove or the sink. Every student will have an electric kettle in their room, every staff room in a business will have one, every office will have one. A sine qua non for life here.