Growing up in a household that always had an electric kettle, I was stunned to find out that most American households traditionally don’t own one. I actually thought that I’d read something that was simply wrong so I decided to do some research.
Turns out that while most Americans don’t own an electric kettle, things are changing.
Historically Americans own kettles that are boiled on a stove. Since Americans are more coffee than tea drinkers, kettles aren’t as important as in other parts of the world. Plus the lower 110W voltage used in North America means electric kettles heat slower compared to the 220W voltage found in most parts of Europe, Africa, South Pacific and South America.
Having said that, American consumers are finding out that electric kettles do heat water very quickly and in fact, are more energy efficient than using your stove!
Let’s take a closer look at why electric kettles are a useful and relatively cheap addition to your home appliance collection.
How common are electric kettles in America?
While electric kettles have never really been popular in America, there has been a growth in their popularity particularly since the mid 2010s.
According to Statista, the yearly sales figures for electric kettles in the US having been growing recently.
You’ll see that while 2010-13 saw very marginal growth, there was a bump in sales in 2014 but a real uptick in electric kettle sales began in 2017 that continues to this day:
| Year | Electric kettle sales in millions |
| 2010 | 2.2 |
| 2011 | 2.3 |
| 2012 | 2.4 |
| 2013 | 2.5 |
| 2014 | 3.1 |
| 2015 | 3.2 |
| 2016 | 3.5 |
| 2017 | 4.8 |
| 2018 | 5.2 |
| 2019 | 6.3 |
Why have electric kettles become more popular in America?
The table above shows that electric kettle sales began to significantly increase in the US in 2017, with a strong up tick in 2018 and even stronger growth in 2019.
Why is this?
There are several reasons why electric kettles are growing in popularity in the US:
Wider availability – Many major appliance manufacturers make electric kettles. Popular brands include Conair, Breville, Hamilton Beach, Philips, Proctor Silex, BLACK + DECKER as well as numerous generic brands. You can purchase a basic kettle for under $20. You can purchase a higher end one for $200 from a brand name manufacturer. Or you can buy an electric kettle for any price point in between. Your choice.
Convenience – A kettle is purpose-built for heating water. You use a toaster for making toast. You use an oven to cook food. You use a kettle to heat water and once you’re done, there is no pot to wash or dry. It’s quick and convenient. Plus, a kettle shuts off automatically when it hits the boil, unlike a pot of water on the stove. Kettles are also portable.
Increased use – While a tea kettle as it’s often known can be used to boil water for that purpose, you now have many other uses as we’ll discuss below. Many food items can be heated with boiling water as can many beverages. Plus there are also uses around the house that you can use boiling water for.
Conservation – Would you rather use a gas stove (if you have one) to heat water or use a plug in kettle? An electric kettle is seen as being an energy-saving appliance that is cost effective to buy and power each time you use it. Plus it avoids using gas or oil which many older homes use to power their stove which would otherwise be used to heat water in a pot or (non-electric) kettle. Even if you have an electric stove, it uses more energy to heat a pot of water than a kettle does.
Options – New and interesting features and options are being added to kettles. While a standard kettle automatically shuts off when it boils, you can also choose models of various sizes depending on how much water you typically boil, different colors, transparent glass models to see the water boiling and plastic or stainless steel models. Some kettles have a keep-warm feature to maintain hot water over time and cordless models that sit in a charging pad are easily found.
What can you use an electric kettle for?
While the obvious answer is “for heating water” the real question is what specific food and drink applications could I use a kettle for?
In other words, do I even need a kettle?
Here are the best uses to quickly heat water in an electric kettle (and not all of them are for food and beverages):
For beverages
You can quickly boil water to make tea, instant coffee, hot chocolate or when you want to drink hot water (perhaps with a lemon added for taste). Hot drinks that involving dissolving crystals such as some cold and flu medications require boiled water, too. Jello requires boiled water although it’s more of a food. Speaking of which…
For food
You can quickly boil water to prepare dishes such as instant noodles, instant soups and many rice and pasta side dishes. Preparing other “instant” foods like oatmeal and food in bags (like vegetables or frozen meals) is another use for boiled water. Freeze-dried dishes like beans, lentils and chick peas require boiling water as well. You can also thaw frozen food in a bowl of boiled water.
To heat a thermos
Many people don’t realize that before putting hot food in a thermos, you have to first add boiling water to the thermos to heat it up, tip out the hot water after a few minutes and then quickly add your heated food to the warmed thermos. Boiling water in an electric kettle is a fast way to accomplish this.
Other reasons
You can use boiled water for a variety of other tasks such as slowly pouring on your outdoor patio bricks to kill weeds growing between them. Boiled water can be used to pour down slow-moving drains in your sinks to unclog them. An old medical use for boiling water is to carefully inhale the steam to deal with a stuffy nose or blocked sinuses. Boiling water can also be used to temporarily and quickly raise humidity in your home when the air is dry.
How fast will a kettle boil water?
You can boil a useful amount of water in as little as 45 minutes with an electric kettle. A greater amount of water can take 2 – 4 minutes to boil. It depends on how much water is in the kettle, how cold the water is to start and the wattage of your kettle.
If you simply want to boil enough water to cover the coils at the bottom of your kettles to make one cup, you’ll find it’ll boil in around a minute. It’s very fast.
The more water you boil at one time, the longer it will take to heat up. That’s probably obvious but overall the amount of time is pretty quick. Electric kettles are very efficient and transfer about 80% – 90% of the energy to the water. While some energy is lost, it’s not nearly as much as you’d lose when boiling water on a stove.
Not only are electric kettles more energy efficient to use than your stove when boiling water, they will typically heat it up faster too.
Plus with the auto shut off feature of kettles, you can set it and forget it. You can turn your kettle on and walk away and when you return, the water has boiled the kettle has shut itself off.
Can’t do that with boiling water on the stove.
Summary
It’s easy to see why electric kettles are becoming increasingly popular in America to boil water. An electric kettle has many uses for food, beverages and other uses. Plus an entry level model that will serve its purpose is easily found for $20 give or take.
Modern kettles come with many interesting and useful features and you can spend more to get a kettle that works well, looks good and gives you the benefits you need.