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> Britain being filled with Brits, what would happen is that once the show was over, half the nation got up from the couch to turn on the kettle for a cup of tea. Those electric kettles are quite demanding, especially if millions of them turn on at the same time.

Particularly British kettles, which pull 13 amps at 240v = over 3000 watts. A lot more than (standard) American outlets can deliver.

For a while there was a theory going around that this is why Americans typically do not have electric kettles, because they would boil much slower in the USA, but the real answer is that Americans just don't drink much tea.

It amazes me how most of the world is on 240V I'm in Canada and we are like the USA 120V 20A circuits.

Today I made tea and I used a standalone electric kettle which is odd to most of us here in Canada and the US. Most times I would have used the microwave to boil the water. But I used the kettle 120V x 12.5A or 1500W and popped the breaker since the dishwasher was operating and on the same circuit.

In Canada we drink a lot of tea; Red Rose, King Cole and especially south-eastern Canada The Maritimes and Atlantic Canada.

Most US homes actually do receive 240v, it's just done in an unusual biphase configuration with two "hot" phases 180 degrees apart. If you connect a device across the phases it will receive the full 240 volts, which is often done for cookers, clothes dryers, and EV chargers.

In theory you could sell a 240 volt electric kettle but your kitchen would have to have a 240 volt outlet, probably a NEMA 6-15. They're not common.

> Most US homes actually do receive 240v, it's just done in an unusual biphase configuration with two "hot" phases 180 degrees apart. If you connect a device across the phases it will receive the full 240 volts, which is often done for cookers, clothes dryers, and EV chargers.

It's technically a single phase with two hot legs and a center tap for neutral, also called "split phase". From the neutral to either leg is 120V, from leg to leg is 240V.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-phase_electric_power

It would technically be possible to have a reverse-Y extension cord that plugged into two outlets and gave you a 240V circuit. The two outlets would have to be on different legs, of course. This is basically what a 240V breaker is doing. I've contemplating wiring up one of these for home and buying a British tea kettle, but the aesthetics got my plan vetoed.

Something like: https://www.nooutage.com/images/adaptor-wye.jpg

From watching a bit of YouTube, I think Canada’s kitchens have more 220 outlets than American kitchen. They even seemed to have dual outlets with each outlet on a different phase, so all the ingredients are right next to each other to get an outlet un between phases.

I have never seen a 240V wall outlet, in a house, anywhere in Canada ever. They literally do not exists as a standard.

Not sure why you'd think so, but no.

(ovens and dryers are not wall plugs)

I installed a 240V NEMA 6-15 socket in my kitchen in California. It's similar to a regular US/Canada plug but the blades are sideways [0]. It's allowed by the code, but not very common. Then I took a European electric kettle and put a matching plug on it, and I can boil a teapot worth of water in 60 seconds!

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEMA_connector#NEMA_6

I'm in Canada in The Maritimes in PEI my electric stove uses a big honking plug for 240V/220V that plugs into the wall. Not wired directly but an actual plug.

> For a while there was a theory going around that this is why Americans typically do not have electric kettles, because they would boil much slower in the USA, but the real answer is that Americans just don't drink much tea.

I would drink tea and use an electric kettle if it would boil faster...

If fast hot water is all that's holding you back, and hot water on standby is an acceptable alternative to freshly boiled, I can highly recommend Zojirushi's line of products. Mine [1] keeps water at my desired temperature in a vacuum insulated canister that uses barely any continuous power. Any time I want coffee/tea/etc., hot water is instantly available. Recovery time after a refill is under 10 minutes on a USA-standard 15A wall socket.

Zojirushi has been in business since 1918 and (in my understanding) is a household name in Japan. Their more expensive (to be blunt) lines are made entirely Japan and replacement parts (like rubber seals, which can wear out over time) are available for purchase through their site. I fully expect mine to last 15-20 years of continuous duty.

Not affiliated, just a thrilled customer.

[1] https://www.zojirushi.com/app/product/cvjac

Edit for additional info: the Zojirushi replaced my Sunbeam Hot Shot single cup boiler that had an unfortunate dry-run and became unusable. They were unavailable in late '21, but appear to be back on the market now. They boil a cup of water in under a minute. If the Zojirushi didn't exist (or I hadn't been willing to bite the bullet on the price) I would buy another in a heartbeat.

Value is what is left when price has been forgotten. Both of these utensils have been high-value for me, but the Sunbeam has a lower initial cost of ownership.

I can verify the parts are easy to get. We got the boiler, sans power cord, for 5 usd at a yard sale. we ordered a replacement cord and there wre no snags anD as I recall the price was good. That was 5 years ago and it still works well.

Many American homes receive 240V, with the right wiring and plugs you can use a 240V electric kettle in the USA just fine. You may need to import a European kettle and rewire it to a standard American 240V socket (or use one of those travel adaptors but that may be dangerous). These sockets are already used for high power devices like car chargers, AC, and other heavy electrical equipment. Your kitchen may even have one intended for induction cooking that you can use.

Don't be foolish like some and have 240V wired to a standard plug, though! NEMA 6-15 and 6-20 exist just so you don't mistake your beefed up socket for a normal American socket and fry your devices/zap yourself or others.

I use an electric kettle to boil water. I got it a while back from Costco. I find it to be faster than our earlier method - using the microwave to boil water.

> problems like the grid frequency increasing and making digital clocks run ahead

Ahem: the ones driven by the grid frequency are analogue clocks.

This function was so important that if load changes caused the frequency to fluctuate the power companies will compensate as soon as they can to make sure the clocks can catch up. I said "was" because I have no idea (and does anyone?) how many such clocks are still in service. But it's a legacy function and, like POTS, such features are still maintained. Because you never know who'll need it.

Digital clocks too. Plenty of clocks are still being manufactured that rely on the grid frequency, although as quartz crystals have become cheaper, some companies have started using those instead of mains-referenced clocks. Yet the old 70s PMOS mains-referenced clock ICs --- one of the first mass-produced LSI ICs for consumer electronics --- are apparently still in production and widespread use.

https://hackaday.com/2018/03/29/ask-hackaday-is-your-clock-t...

It's been my experience that, in the long term, mains-referenced clocks are extremely accurate, while local quartz ones seem to drift significantly. Clock also tend to last long enough that these are relatively common around here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telechron

yes. the US grid operators also seem do go through a lot of effort to make sure there are exactly 5,184,000 cycles per 24-hour period, specifically because it helps those clocks keep time.

I don't have any clocks that do this, so I bought one of these, which keeps accurate time without intervention from me or the power company: https://mitxela.com/projects/precision_clock_mk_iii

Not just analogue clocks! In Europe we had our digital clocks run late for quite a while after a power crisis resulting from some political energy dispute in Serbia/Kosovo dropped the frequency for a while. This caused all manner of clocks to run late by five minutes or more. They even intentionally cranked up the frequency for a while to bring those clocks back in sync.

Alarm clocks, microwave clocks, all manner of time indicators without sync mechanism built in were affected because relying on Europe's near perfect 50 Hz grid frequency is pretty damn cheap.

Can confirm to some extent - I started out in data analytics for call centres, and important episodes of Eastenders et al would completely bork the demand predictions by causing exactly the pattern of depressed traffic followed by a massive surge described in the blog post. Some of this was less about tea and more about just having four television channels.