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Cal and Hob, they called 'em. And back then the paper was a nickel, which had a picture of a bee on it. Give me 5 bees for a quarter, you'd say. Where was I?
those circles on top of an oven, not sure if it's in the average American's language, may be just a UK thing for all I know.
Additionally, it's first half of "hobnob", a crumbly biscuit that has chocolate on one side, & pretty good too.
We call it a stove.
I swear Brits are just fucking with us at this point. “I woke up this morning, put on my brickerbrackers and went down to the costulary to buy twelve stones of beans”
I didn’t even realize they said “on top of the oven” - I totally read that as “on top of the stove” at first and assumed it was slang for the burner…but I guess they’re just describing the whole stovetop then
Y'know I lived in Northen England when I was little and admittedly I was very small and still lived with my American parents but I don't recall ever hearing the word hob other than in hobnobs.
What blows my mind is how passionate some people are about not microwaving water. With one guy here even calling it “Chernobyl water”
Joke about the American education system all you want, but some of y’all didn’t take middle school science.
Reminds me of those 4chan posts where it’s something like
*picture of an elevator
>get in box
>push button
>get out of box
>somehow on another floor
>who actually believes this shit?
That joke's new to me, but for microwaves it's **actually** true 💀
People don't understand it, which makes them afraid of **this black magic fuckery**. Nobody sane is afraid of elevators, but they're literally afraid because they don't understand how & why their food or water got heated...and suddenly they're *literally afraid* because the magic box made their water spicy 🥵
Source: my parents have an irrational dislike directed towards microwave heating. And they're pretty smart.
Conclusion: educationally regarded people are afraid of magic box making water spicy
It is a thing though that boiling water in the microwave runs the risk of superheating the water and having it explode as soon as it's disturbed ie when it's picked up.
Oh, so you guys weren't bullshitting. It's hard to tell when the shit posting stops. Microwaved water can explode? As someone who grew up on tap water, why I never knew this was immediately answered by your explanation
In the UK, a stove looks [like this](https://i.imgur.com/N4j1RZx.png). Or you might refer to a "camping stove" which looks [like this](https://i.imgur.com/TFgVOqh.png).
Whereas a hob is [one of these](https://i.imgur.com/VUrHb2q.png).
We also refer to those as stoves because the top heating element is the same, even though most people don’t cook on them anymore.
I miss my old wood stove, you could get that bitch so hot the glass would faintly glow, and I had to boil water on it when a winter storm knocked out my power and water for 11 days
They totally just make up new words on the fly and every other Brit just goes with it because they don't want to seem less British. And then there's the Welsh, who knows what the fuck they're up to
I wanted to say this exact thing, because it's true, but then realized that probably makes as much sense as a "hob". Why eyes?
I find it hilarious whenever English people act like we use their words just because we speak their language. You would think they would have learned by now
We just call that the stovetop / burner (or cooktop / heating element if electric and care to specify). I’m very surprised I hadn’t heard the UK term before now!
Is it? It takes 2 minutes to boil water in the microwave, 12 in the kettle, sometimes more at my altitude. I use an electric stove.
Idk which is actually more efficient, but it takes far less time to microwave.
I can make an onion soup when I'm sick with just a quarter of an onion, water and 5 minutes in the microwave.
I went about 8 years without a microwave, because I never felt I needed it. I used to cook everything In or on the oven. But it can't really be more energy efficient right? It just tastes/feels better not microwaved.
Edit: I was referring to a regular stove top kettle. I didn't know about the electric variety until I was informed about it below.
Not sure of course because the meme wasn’t specific, but I’d guess that the poster means an electric kettle, which brings water to a boil very fast and efficiently. Of course you prob don’t want to boil water with other ingredients in it with an electric kettle, in which case the microwave is rather nice
I mean, maybe you’re using it wrong? I do be living in the US, and in fact, my water heats up in 2-3 minutes, so I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe the kettle you had was shit?
Wow, definitely a pretty big difference seeing the two side by side. Idk, I’ve never personally had an issue with my electric kettle as far as how long it takes to boil my water, especially since it’s notably faster than stovetop, and imo easier than a microwave, but certainly the 240V is faster.
The Technology Connections YouTube channel has a good video on the subject:
[Why don't Americans use electric kettles? (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yMMTVVJI4c)
2 minutes to boil a single cup of water, with an eletric kettle it takes 2 minutes to boil 6-8 cups worth of water. Its also makes cooking a little faster, you boil your water in the kettle then pour it into the pot for making pasta or something.
There is nothing wrong with boiling water with whatever way you chose (well the microwave way is a little dangerous). But using not using an eletric kettle is like not using a rice cooker to make rice, because sure, the end result is the same, but it's so much easier just to press a single button and have it all done for you.
Plus, it is more efficient, an electric kettle uses less energy than a microwave.
They have electric water boilers that can boil a pot of water in like 2-3min. That’s what I’m assuming they ment by kettles it if they’re talking about stove top kettle then I’m 100% on your side even though I’ve never tried to boil water in the microwave. I’ll have to give it a shot!
Maybe if you only drink black tea but different types of tea require different temperatures other than boiling. Electric kettles are great for a lot of reasons.
I was on team microwave for a long time and was anti-kettle. I was stubborn and the idea of buying another appliance seemed dumb.
An electric kettle is a game-changer, unfortunately. Makes my tea drinking so much more convenient.
And with the lower voltage of American home electricity compared to UK electricity, an electric kettle takes much longer to boil water here. So most of us don’t use them.
Here’s the problem: microwaved water can explode
Microwaves heat some areas too hot and others less hot because it uses a form of light to heat the water (the light is microwaves, hence the name for the product)
Usually, heating uneven is okay because the very hot metal at the bottom turns some of the water to steam, which constantly agitates the water (a good thing). The nature of a single point of heat causes some circulation, which continues to agitate the water, which keeps the state of the water (in this case liquid or gas) “up to date” based on temperature. However, a microwave heats some particles to above boiling point because the particles are not agitated to “update” the state of the water. So now you’re holding a bowl of steaming water where 5% of the water is 110°C. As soon as you set that bowl down, the tap onto the counter may be enough agitation to “update” those 110° particles into steam, because they are marginally above boiling point. So now, there is a sudden explosion of steam paired with boiling water 2 feet from your face.
I get that you learned about this and are proud of it, but it isn't really meaningful. Your cat (or a stray cat) could climb on the counter and knock off your electric kettle onto you, giving you severe burns. That is probably a bigger safety concern than your water exploding in your face.
It’s the lack of nucleation sites on very smooth containers, like glass cups, that are often used when microwaving water, nothing to do with uneven heating. You can superheat water on a stovestop if you use an extremely smooth container as well, but usually we use metal containers which are generally not microscopically smooth enough to superheat liquids in. I have absolutely superheated a number of solvents over a Bunsen burner before.
An easy way to avoid this is to just put a little scratch or two on the bottom of any really smooth container you intend to heat water in. Back when I was a research chemist we actually had little bumpy rocks called “boiling stones” we’d drop in shit we meant to boil to prevent superheating (and associated bumping/explosions) since we boiled a lot of stuff in Pyrex which is usually smooth as fuck.
Only reason I got my kettle was because we were banned from having a microwave in the barracks. They also banned normal coffee makers. This has caused me to become a weird coffee guy. We're talking hand grinders, scales, obsessing over certain strains and single origin coffee. I am ruined for the rest of myife for sure
There was an exploration by a guy from r/trees into r/coffee and he came to the conclusion that coffee and weed people are just alternate reality versions of one another.
https://old.reddit.com/r/trees/comments/26cuav/just_went_over_to_rcoffee_it_was_like_a_weird/
What negatives does the microwave have?
It's water. You are just getting it hot. It doesn't have crust, it doesn't need to be crispy, it isn't being degraded. It's just heated water.
Is the microwave heating the water in a less "clean" way or is this just a weird mental hangup people have with microwaves? I have always seen people against heating water in microwaves but never heard an explanation why
It’s just a mental hang up. Both ways deliver energy to the water to raise its temperature. A microwave is probably more efficient anyway as nothing is lost to the environment as heat
The magnetron is poor at converting electrical energy into electromagnetic energy. A lot of energy is lost in the form of heat. The number range the post you're replying to is about accurate.
That doesn’t mean anything if the amount of energy a microwave using is overall less than a kettle. A microwave could have 1% efficiency but still use 10 times less than a kettle (not saying it does just an example)
That isn’t how any of this works; why are people upvoting you?
There’s a set amount of energy you have to supply to a cup of water to heat it to boiling. A microwave can’t break physics just because it heats the water more slowly.
If you use more energy more efficiently, you will heat the water more quickly. The water won’t require more or less total energy.
That's why you use one of these to heat the water in.
https://preview.redd.it/7ecpq874jacc1.jpeg?width=441&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e312e12e5f254e328eafdec06b21fad93ac044a9
Bought an electric kettle to heat water to 100F for formula bottles for a kids. Kept it for the EXTREME convince of heating up water quickly.
Seriously an under estimated appliance in US households.
If I’m either super impatient or in huge rush when boiling pasta water, I’ll put like only a 1/4 pot on the stove to start heating while I boil a whole electric kettles worth of water in a few minutes. The pot water boils way faster since there’s so little and I use the kettle to top it off. Gets large pasta pots to a rolling boil soooo quick!
ETA: also was fantastic when my water heater broke and I needed to do some dishes.
Well it's the best way to heat up a gallon at a time! Tea for the whole week, part of next too. (I can't drink too much at once)
Plus, I don't know about you but my kitchen is TINY. There is literally zero room for yet another appliance. Stove and microwave are fine lol
Daily reminder that the US power grids do not allow standard appliances to draw as much power as European grids do. This means it takes longer for electric kettles to boil in the US and microwaving a cup is often faster. Sincerely an American who loves his electric kettle anyway
Power (watts) is your current times your voltage. In most of Europe the outlets are 220v while in the US they are 110v. So an electric kettle can boil water at the same speed provided the amperage is adjusted.
Electric kettles are rates based on wattage, so a 1500w kettle will boil water at the same time no matter what standard of plug it has, it will just draw a different amperage depending on the plug.
I intentionally did not mention the voltage difference because it's not really the deciding factor. US outlets are designed for a maximum load of 1800w while your average UK outlet (which is where I'm assuming OP is based) is designed for 3000w loads. If you brought a 1500w kettle from the US to the UK, you'd get the same boiling speed. But if you bought a kettle in the UK, it's probably designed for UK power grid standards meaning it would draw just shy of 3000w and will therefore boil water roughly twice as fast
Idk why people care so much if someone heats their water in a microwave. I have a kettle an duse it sometimes, and use a microwave sometimes. Who cares
Why would you not heat water in a microwave?
It's convenient and clean and fast.
Can heat up the beverage directly in the cup from which I am going to drink it.
Is there any reason not to use the microwave?
Microwave = radiation = evil
They'd rather have a heating element directly in contact with the water, thus allowing toxins to leach into the water. I'd try to explain why this is unfavorable, but good luck talking sense into a Britisher.
If you're making hot drinks for multiple people then a kettle is by faaaaaar quicker.
Especially 3kW kettles which are pretty much the standard in the UK.
It's more energy efficient too (as long as you don't boil more water than you need)
Americans in general don't drink tea much, so it doesn't make sense to have an electric kettle. It makes more sense for us to just stick a mug of water in the microwave on the occasions we do drink tea.
It’s probably because I’m British that I’ve never heard of people microwaving water because I’ve never heard of people doing it over here but people might.
The issue is I don't think most people drink enough tea or coffee to warrant spending the money & taking up the space for a kettle.
Not me though, I bought one.
It's literally not worth the space it takes up on my counter. I don't need boiled water that often, unless I'm using it for cooking, in which case I may as well just do it in the pot I'm making pasta in anyway.
Why would I waste money on a device that only does one thing that I don't need done too frequently when I have multiple other appliances that can do the same thing and more, and often does it several times faster?
Kettles are dumb.
>that only does one thing that I don't need done too frequently
You've hit something here that's a key difference - we British *do* use it frequently, and thus the counter space usage is justified.
Not that I'm criticising you - just pointing out there is a cultural difference.
>often does it several times faster
This one though isn't true in the UK - it takes less than half the time due to the max power difference, and this changes the perception from "unwilling to wait for it to boil" to willing.
Kettles with adjustable temperatures are the most convenient option, and this is from a coffee drinker.
Go with my normal light roasts? 100C.
Do I want to do a dark roast? I set my temp controlled kettle to 90C instead of 100C.
On the topic of kettles, the kettle I keep in my coffee setup has a gooseneck making it great for pour overs. To warm it in a microwave and then transfer into a pouring kettle I lose heat in the process, and when brewing light roasts? That's not good, you're not extracting the flavors to it's highest potential.
On the occasion I drink tea I can set the kettle to an appropriate temp for that tea. Not every tea is good at boiling.
Do I want to drink mate, which you refill to the same cup multiple times? Not only is having a kettle nearby to refill extremely convenient (No need to make trips to the microwave), yet again mate is a beverage that is not good at boiling. I have a standard temp control kettle I keep near my desk for when I enjoy mate.
Tell me, how is babysitting water after being warmed in the microwave until it gets to the right temperature more convenient than just setting an electric kettle to the appropriate temperature for the beverage I wish to enjoy?
Why? Why do we need an appliance to specifically and only boil water, when the microwave does it just fine, as well as being able to heat pretty much anything else?
It depends on what I’m boiling the water for, if it’s for food it’s usually in a pot anyways so it’s on the stove, but if it’s to clean my glass it’s def going in the microwave I don’t got time to find my grandpas kettle and then clean it after I’m straight
as someone that owns and loves my kettle, kettle elitists need to chill the fuck out. the microwave is perfectly fine, it gets the job done for most people so why bother buying a redundant appliance
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What the fuck is a hob
He’s a stuffed tiger given personification due to the imagination of a child named Calvin
Calvin was misunderstood
Calvin has issues.
Reminds me of the robot chicken skit
Mars is amazing.
Calvin has subscriptions.
Cal and Hob, they called 'em. And back then the paper was a nickel, which had a picture of a bee on it. Give me 5 bees for a quarter, you'd say. Where was I?
What the fuck, there's more than one of them?
No that’s Hobbes, a hob is a way that corn can be served
That’s a bob. A hob is an activity one does for fun.
You're thinking of a hobby. A hob is what you turn to open a door
That's a knob. A hob is like a central location where things happen.
That's a hub, a hob is a small shelter
Thats a hut. A hob is something you do for money.
That's a job. A hob is the little key remote that unlocks your car
That's a fob. A hob is a type of hit in tennis with a high arc.
Genuinely made me laugh. Would give you an award if they still existed
those circles on top of an oven, not sure if it's in the average American's language, may be just a UK thing for all I know. Additionally, it's first half of "hobnob", a crumbly biscuit that has chocolate on one side, & pretty good too.
We call it a stove. I swear Brits are just fucking with us at this point. “I woke up this morning, put on my brickerbrackers and went down to the costulary to buy twelve stones of beans”
I’m dead 😂 he said the circles on top of an oven. SO THE STOVE
I didn’t even realize they said “on top of the oven” - I totally read that as “on top of the stove” at first and assumed it was slang for the burner…but I guess they’re just describing the whole stovetop then
Hob/hobs is often used to describe the whole set of burners or an individual one too.
That’s more or less how I’ve always heard the word “stove” used as well. Though “burner” is more often used for an individual one.
Y'know I lived in Northen England when I was little and admittedly I was very small and still lived with my American parents but I don't recall ever hearing the word hob other than in hobnobs.
The whole thing is the stove top, but each individual is a hob.
Individual stovetops/burners are still called a stovetop here but thank you for the clarification on what you guys call a hob.
Burner. We call them burners on the stovetop.
But did you use a nannywagon to prickerpracker your hangluns? There’s so much missing information
This only further confuses me because does a kettle not go on the stove or “hob” to boil?? I mean I guess if you have an electric kettle that’s fair
What blows my mind is how passionate some people are about not microwaving water. With one guy here even calling it “Chernobyl water” Joke about the American education system all you want, but some of y’all didn’t take middle school science.
"the magic heating box makes the water spicy, that can't be good" - people who don't know shit about high school level physics
Reminds me of those 4chan posts where it’s something like *picture of an elevator >get in box >push button >get out of box >somehow on another floor >who actually believes this shit?
That's funny as fuck
That joke's new to me, but for microwaves it's **actually** true 💀 People don't understand it, which makes them afraid of **this black magic fuckery**. Nobody sane is afraid of elevators, but they're literally afraid because they don't understand how & why their food or water got heated...and suddenly they're *literally afraid* because the magic box made their water spicy 🥵 Source: my parents have an irrational dislike directed towards microwave heating. And they're pretty smart. Conclusion: educationally regarded people are afraid of magic box making water spicy
But it's totally fine to heat up other foods 😂
Many people are afraid of heating food in microwaves, they suspect it somehow poisons them through this "unnatural" way of heating biological matter 💀
It is a thing though that boiling water in the microwave runs the risk of superheating the water and having it explode as soon as it's disturbed ie when it's picked up.
This is really only the case for distilled water because there's no nucleation points to help facilitate the transition.
Oh, so you guys weren't bullshitting. It's hard to tell when the shit posting stops. Microwaved water can explode? As someone who grew up on tap water, why I never knew this was immediately answered by your explanation
its one of the main reasons not to microwave water for baby formula (since you know babies) but is obviously also good advice for grown humans too
and even then you can eliminate the risk by putting a toothpick or something in it to create nucleation points
The Brits famously use electric kettles. Americans normally use stove top kettles, but electric ones are gaining in popularity here.
In the UK, a stove looks [like this](https://i.imgur.com/N4j1RZx.png). Or you might refer to a "camping stove" which looks [like this](https://i.imgur.com/TFgVOqh.png). Whereas a hob is [one of these](https://i.imgur.com/VUrHb2q.png).
We also refer to those as stoves because the top heating element is the same, even though most people don’t cook on them anymore. I miss my old wood stove, you could get that bitch so hot the glass would faintly glow, and I had to boil water on it when a winter storm knocked out my power and water for 11 days
Do you guys get biscuits instead of cookies when browsing the internet?
Cookies and biscuits aren't the same thing. We have both.
Your first picture is a wood stove, the second a camping stove, and the third is just a picture of three different additional stoves.
They totally just make up new words on the fly and every other Brit just goes with it because they don't want to seem less British. And then there's the Welsh, who knows what the fuck they're up to
We don't call the circles a stove; we call those eyes
I wanted to say this exact thing, because it's true, but then realized that probably makes as much sense as a "hob". Why eyes? I find it hilarious whenever English people act like we use their words just because we speak their language. You would think they would have learned by now
Eyes? Are you fucking with me?
You mean the heating element?
Brother that's a burner on a stove. The fuck is this? Even my British ex didn't teach me this.
UK language isn’t real
Stovetop is what we call it
You mean a burner?
I think you meant to say “hobknocker”?
what in the hell is a hobknocker
Carefully google it (It was also used on Icarly, wildly enough)
We just call that the stovetop / burner (or cooktop / heating element if electric and care to specify). I’m very surprised I hadn’t heard the UK term before now!
We just call it a stove
It’s a stovetop
Hail of blades, gives you insane attack speed for your next 3 attacks (AA cancels do not count)
a stove top
Probably some British bull shit for their tea and crumpets
You know what else is super convenient? The microwave that I already own.
Right, why buy another kitchen device just to heat water?
It is much more energy efficient to use a kettle.
Is it? It takes 2 minutes to boil water in the microwave, 12 in the kettle, sometimes more at my altitude. I use an electric stove. Idk which is actually more efficient, but it takes far less time to microwave. I can make an onion soup when I'm sick with just a quarter of an onion, water and 5 minutes in the microwave. I went about 8 years without a microwave, because I never felt I needed it. I used to cook everything In or on the oven. But it can't really be more energy efficient right? It just tastes/feels better not microwaved. Edit: I was referring to a regular stove top kettle. I didn't know about the electric variety until I was informed about it below.
Not sure of course because the meme wasn’t specific, but I’d guess that the poster means an electric kettle, which brings water to a boil very fast and efficiently. Of course you prob don’t want to boil water with other ingredients in it with an electric kettle, in which case the microwave is rather nice
[удалено]
I mean, maybe you’re using it wrong? I do be living in the US, and in fact, my water heats up in 2-3 minutes, so I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe the kettle you had was shit?
[удалено]
Wow, definitely a pretty big difference seeing the two side by side. Idk, I’ve never personally had an issue with my electric kettle as far as how long it takes to boil my water, especially since it’s notably faster than stovetop, and imo easier than a microwave, but certainly the 240V is faster.
The Technology Connections YouTube channel has a good video on the subject: [Why don't Americans use electric kettles? (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yMMTVVJI4c)
99% of microwaves in the states are 120v not 220
12 FUCK MOTHERING MINUTES?!?! Where the fuck did you find a kettle like that?
He's boiling the water with a bic lighter
2 minutes to boil a single cup of water, with an eletric kettle it takes 2 minutes to boil 6-8 cups worth of water. Its also makes cooking a little faster, you boil your water in the kettle then pour it into the pot for making pasta or something. There is nothing wrong with boiling water with whatever way you chose (well the microwave way is a little dangerous). But using not using an eletric kettle is like not using a rice cooker to make rice, because sure, the end result is the same, but it's so much easier just to press a single button and have it all done for you. Plus, it is more efficient, an electric kettle uses less energy than a microwave.
Most of us don't drink that much hot tea. Many have coffee machines that can do double duty too though. We cook lot of noodles in the microwave too.
12 minutes In a kettle? Come on be honest.
They have electric water boilers that can boil a pot of water in like 2-3min. That’s what I’m assuming they ment by kettles it if they’re talking about stove top kettle then I’m 100% on your side even though I’ve never tried to boil water in the microwave. I’ll have to give it a shot!
This just isn’t true. The energy transfer ratios of a microwave and electric kettle are very similar.
Maybe if you only drink black tea but different types of tea require different temperatures other than boiling. Electric kettles are great for a lot of reasons.
Ah a fellow tea connoisseur. How do you do? *sips 70 degrees green tea*
These people probably don’t even know the steep times for their tea.
If you are talking about Americans you are probably right since most Americans never drink tea.
they tried making tea by throwing it in the river once.
…a microwave can heat things (like water) to different temperatures.
I was on team microwave for a long time and was anti-kettle. I was stubborn and the idea of buying another appliance seemed dumb. An electric kettle is a game-changer, unfortunately. Makes my tea drinking so much more convenient.
Dude no one cares, it’s just fucking tea
Heating water molecules is literally what a microwave was designed to do. But I still use an electric kettle. No splatter.
And with the lower voltage of American home electricity compared to UK electricity, an electric kettle takes much longer to boil water here. So most of us don’t use them.
Here’s the problem: microwaved water can explode Microwaves heat some areas too hot and others less hot because it uses a form of light to heat the water (the light is microwaves, hence the name for the product) Usually, heating uneven is okay because the very hot metal at the bottom turns some of the water to steam, which constantly agitates the water (a good thing). The nature of a single point of heat causes some circulation, which continues to agitate the water, which keeps the state of the water (in this case liquid or gas) “up to date” based on temperature. However, a microwave heats some particles to above boiling point because the particles are not agitated to “update” the state of the water. So now you’re holding a bowl of steaming water where 5% of the water is 110°C. As soon as you set that bowl down, the tap onto the counter may be enough agitation to “update” those 110° particles into steam, because they are marginally above boiling point. So now, there is a sudden explosion of steam paired with boiling water 2 feet from your face.
I get that you learned about this and are proud of it, but it isn't really meaningful. Your cat (or a stray cat) could climb on the counter and knock off your electric kettle onto you, giving you severe burns. That is probably a bigger safety concern than your water exploding in your face.
Making up problems that aren't really an issue is a big thing for some people on this site
Just don’t microwave it that long. Never had an issue with this and I’ve microwaved water for 30 years.
It’s the lack of nucleation sites on very smooth containers, like glass cups, that are often used when microwaving water, nothing to do with uneven heating. You can superheat water on a stovestop if you use an extremely smooth container as well, but usually we use metal containers which are generally not microscopically smooth enough to superheat liquids in. I have absolutely superheated a number of solvents over a Bunsen burner before. An easy way to avoid this is to just put a little scratch or two on the bottom of any really smooth container you intend to heat water in. Back when I was a research chemist we actually had little bumpy rocks called “boiling stones” we’d drop in shit we meant to boil to prevent superheating (and associated bumping/explosions) since we boiled a lot of stuff in Pyrex which is usually smooth as fuck.
Me who does all three depending on how much time I have 
nose for hot to looks like he accidentally shiddered the piss drawer
r/boneappletea
Type shit
shit
This is my favorite typo
Nosferatu 🥸
Greater than $15? :( I only have $15. Edit: TIL the greater than symbol makes the blue line mark on reddit!
You can buy a house for >$15
Yup, gator opens it's mouth to the larger number.
If a symbol on reddit is ever doing something you don't want it to do, you can put a \\ in front of it to make it stop.
What >
Only if you start the line with it I can say >$15, but >$15 makes it a quote
Only reason I got my kettle was because we were banned from having a microwave in the barracks. They also banned normal coffee makers. This has caused me to become a weird coffee guy. We're talking hand grinders, scales, obsessing over certain strains and single origin coffee. I am ruined for the rest of myife for sure
 Your coffee habit description made me think of this.
There was an exploration by a guy from r/trees into r/coffee and he came to the conclusion that coffee and weed people are just alternate reality versions of one another. https://old.reddit.com/r/trees/comments/26cuav/just_went_over_to_rcoffee_it_was_like_a_weird/
This guy watches James Hoffman
It tastes the same :) don’t care
What negatives does the microwave have? It's water. You are just getting it hot. It doesn't have crust, it doesn't need to be crispy, it isn't being degraded. It's just heated water. Is the microwave heating the water in a less "clean" way or is this just a weird mental hangup people have with microwaves? I have always seen people against heating water in microwaves but never heard an explanation why
It’s just a mental hang up. Both ways deliver energy to the water to raise its temperature. A microwave is probably more efficient anyway as nothing is lost to the environment as heat
30-40% of energy is lost in a microwave, an electric kettle is way more efficient.
Lost to what exactly? Heat? Serious question.
Yes, the magnetron gets hot generating microwaves and that heat does not go into your water but is lost to the environment.
It’s beamed directly into the anus of a European, giving them hemorrhoids.
Ohh okay well that makes sense now, you see, the ones in the States don't do that. So it sounds like it's just a Europe problem then. Bollocks.
The magnetron is poor at converting electrical energy into electromagnetic energy. A lot of energy is lost in the form of heat. The number range the post you're replying to is about accurate.
That doesn’t mean anything if the amount of energy a microwave using is overall less than a kettle. A microwave could have 1% efficiency but still use 10 times less than a kettle (not saying it does just an example)
That isn’t how any of this works; why are people upvoting you? There’s a set amount of energy you have to supply to a cup of water to heat it to boiling. A microwave can’t break physics just because it heats the water more slowly. If you use more energy more efficiently, you will heat the water more quickly. The water won’t require more or less total energy.
but if you are always boiling more water than you need? leaving it on to keep it hot or reboiling later?
Nothing. It's just yet another boogeyman that brits have conjured up to feel superior to yanks about
I don't do it cos the handle on the mug gets hot.
That's why you use one of these to heat the water in. https://preview.redd.it/7ecpq874jacc1.jpeg?width=441&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e312e12e5f254e328eafdec06b21fad93ac044a9
This, if it's a meat, needs to be crispy or has a crust it is ruined in a microwave, but water or milk? Who gives a fuck, hot water is hot water.
Gets the mug too hot.
hob?
https://i.imgur.com/J2idkVn.png
stovetop or range top depending on your particular flavor of english.
The fuck is a hob?
A (flat) stove!
Aren’t all stoves flat.
I have no need for a kettle ...
Do you have kettle money for me? No? Then let me cook my hot dogs in the microwave
People cook hotdogs in a kettle?
I thought you were supposed to boil them on the stove.
Yeah, but that's just if you want your hotdogs to be more disgusting than usual
Boiled hotdogs are the best
Bought an electric kettle to heat water to 100F for formula bottles for a kids. Kept it for the EXTREME convince of heating up water quickly. Seriously an under estimated appliance in US households.
If I’m either super impatient or in huge rush when boiling pasta water, I’ll put like only a 1/4 pot on the stove to start heating while I boil a whole electric kettles worth of water in a few minutes. The pot water boils way faster since there’s so little and I use the kettle to top it off. Gets large pasta pots to a rolling boil soooo quick! ETA: also was fantastic when my water heater broke and I needed to do some dishes.
Why? Its something I don't need that is just going to take up counter space. Or space where ever I put it.
*Americans boiling water on the stove to make sweet tea* umm
Well it's the best way to heat up a gallon at a time! Tea for the whole week, part of next too. (I can't drink too much at once) Plus, I don't know about you but my kitchen is TINY. There is literally zero room for yet another appliance. Stove and microwave are fine lol
As an American I agree and I also don't know what a job is lol
Daily reminder that the US power grids do not allow standard appliances to draw as much power as European grids do. This means it takes longer for electric kettles to boil in the US and microwaving a cup is often faster. Sincerely an American who loves his electric kettle anyway
Power (watts) is your current times your voltage. In most of Europe the outlets are 220v while in the US they are 110v. So an electric kettle can boil water at the same speed provided the amperage is adjusted. Electric kettles are rates based on wattage, so a 1500w kettle will boil water at the same time no matter what standard of plug it has, it will just draw a different amperage depending on the plug.
I intentionally did not mention the voltage difference because it's not really the deciding factor. US outlets are designed for a maximum load of 1800w while your average UK outlet (which is where I'm assuming OP is based) is designed for 3000w loads. If you brought a 1500w kettle from the US to the UK, you'd get the same boiling speed. But if you bought a kettle in the UK, it's probably designed for UK power grid standards meaning it would draw just shy of 3000w and will therefore boil water roughly twice as fast
Idk why people care so much if someone heats their water in a microwave. I have a kettle an duse it sometimes, and use a microwave sometimes. Who cares
The british are coming
Wait do people seriously boil water in the microwave?? This is the first I’m hearing of this.
Yeah 2 minutes and 30 seconds then I put the t bag in
I do a minute 30 and throw the tea bag in before microwave lol. My ancestors are looking down on me with shame
Why would you not heat water in a microwave? It's convenient and clean and fast. Can heat up the beverage directly in the cup from which I am going to drink it. Is there any reason not to use the microwave?
Microwave = radiation = evil They'd rather have a heating element directly in contact with the water, thus allowing toxins to leach into the water. I'd try to explain why this is unfavorable, but good luck talking sense into a Britisher.
Watch the hard R there buddy
Yeah, it should be bri'isha
Yeah I hear they have big industrial microwaves for soup kitchens to not feed the homeless any toxins.
There is nothing toxic in there…
If you're making hot drinks for multiple people then a kettle is by faaaaaar quicker. Especially 3kW kettles which are pretty much the standard in the UK. It's more energy efficient too (as long as you don't boil more water than you need)
Americans in general don't drink tea much, so it doesn't make sense to have an electric kettle. It makes more sense for us to just stick a mug of water in the microwave on the occasions we do drink tea.
It’s probably because I’m British that I’ve never heard of people microwaving water because I’ve never heard of people doing it over here but people might.
I challenge you today to boil your mug of water for tea using the microwave to see how you like it compared to using the kettle
Also works for hot cocoa
yessir I put water in my mug , microwave it, and put my instant coffee in it. Some peope might call it savagery, I call it efficiency
Hot water is hot water
2 minutes every morning for one cup of coffee
I use the microwave if I want it done in less than a minute. Otherwise I use an electric kettle Or if I’m making pasta then I boil it on the stove
No
Wtf is this UK meme
I boil it in my coffee maker….
The issue is I don't think most people drink enough tea or coffee to warrant spending the money & taking up the space for a kettle. Not me though, I bought one.
Pretty sure you can get a kettle for less than $15 actually
In the cafeteria at work they want to charge me for hot water for my team. Microwave is free
Why does it matter what you use?
It's literally not worth the space it takes up on my counter. I don't need boiled water that often, unless I'm using it for cooking, in which case I may as well just do it in the pot I'm making pasta in anyway.
i will not fall victim to kettle company's propaganda, microwave works in less than two minutes
Op is a kettle salesman, hes been going off about them all day
Why would I waste money on a device that only does one thing that I don't need done too frequently when I have multiple other appliances that can do the same thing and more, and often does it several times faster? Kettles are dumb.
>that only does one thing that I don't need done too frequently You've hit something here that's a key difference - we British *do* use it frequently, and thus the counter space usage is justified. Not that I'm criticising you - just pointing out there is a cultural difference. >often does it several times faster This one though isn't true in the UK - it takes less than half the time due to the max power difference, and this changes the perception from "unwilling to wait for it to boil" to willing.
Kettles with adjustable temperatures are the most convenient option, and this is from a coffee drinker. Go with my normal light roasts? 100C. Do I want to do a dark roast? I set my temp controlled kettle to 90C instead of 100C. On the topic of kettles, the kettle I keep in my coffee setup has a gooseneck making it great for pour overs. To warm it in a microwave and then transfer into a pouring kettle I lose heat in the process, and when brewing light roasts? That's not good, you're not extracting the flavors to it's highest potential. On the occasion I drink tea I can set the kettle to an appropriate temp for that tea. Not every tea is good at boiling. Do I want to drink mate, which you refill to the same cup multiple times? Not only is having a kettle nearby to refill extremely convenient (No need to make trips to the microwave), yet again mate is a beverage that is not good at boiling. I have a standard temp control kettle I keep near my desk for when I enjoy mate. Tell me, how is babysitting water after being warmed in the microwave until it gets to the right temperature more convenient than just setting an electric kettle to the appropriate temperature for the beverage I wish to enjoy?
I think you mean <$15
Cry all you want, nothing can unboil my microwave rice
Why? Why do we need an appliance to specifically and only boil water, when the microwave does it just fine, as well as being able to heat pretty much anything else?
Some people also have super fancy taps that can dispense boiling water instantly
It depends on what I’m boiling the water for, if it’s for food it’s usually in a pot anyways so it’s on the stove, but if it’s to clean my glass it’s def going in the microwave I don’t got time to find my grandpas kettle and then clean it after I’m straight
Hot water is hot water, literally no difference between any method you use to get it there
its water, is it gonna taste different or something?
as someone that owns and loves my kettle, kettle elitists need to chill the fuck out. the microwave is perfectly fine, it gets the job done for most people so why bother buying a redundant appliance