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I have used an AeroPress for years. I also own a $1400 domestic espresso machine and a $700 grinder. These days I'm using one of those Hario pour over cones as my espresso alternative.

The AeroPress is good. But it's not close to espresso at all. If you over dose and are prepared to push very slowly for a long time, you can get some espresso like flavours out of it, but this can take a while.

That said the AeroPress is really worth it. The filters are truly reusable. I still have not gone through my original pack of filters that I got with mine several years ago.

I have a cheap domestic espresso machine, and agree: aeropressed coffee is nowhere near espresso. I find it pretty close to what "Italian" coffee kettles do (this: http://ravistationery.com/images/office%20automation/morphy%...) albeit milder, not as acid or sour as this one. I have not used it much, but I like having my Aeropress, even though it requires quite more coffee than other types of machines.

In the UK, too, almost everyone has an electric kettle. The last one I had there drew 3kW (although strangely I couldn't find such a kettle for sale here in China, which also runs on 220-240V).

Kettles have frequently been cited as the source of surges in power usage during the commercial breaks of popular TV shows. For example: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5059904.stm

I don't have one, and don't know anyone who has one. In fact, I've never seen one in an actual home. We don't drink tea the way Britain and other former British possessions do.

(in my case I don't drink a lot of hot tea, but I do drink a lot of iced tea, and a worthwhile amount of that is larger than what most kettles can do -- I typically brew a gallon or more at a time)

My flabber is well and truly ghasted :-)

And with that, I'm of for a brew and to recuperate...

To be fair I own several & most of my friends do as well.

The first time I realized that every home didn't own an automatic drip coffee pot, I was also aghast.

First time I ever even saw* one was when I was in my 30's and it was at a job I had. I saw a similar thread here on HN where some brits though it was old fashion and barbaric to use a kettle on the stovetop. Well, I grew up with those, though I don't own one myself. I just heat a cup of water in the microwave.

* - or conciously aware of seeing it. I might have seen it and it was just background noise.

You probably hadn't seen one. When my parents retired and began wintering in Arizona, they couldn't help noticing that their neighbours were fascinated by this strange something like a hot pot, but just for water thing they brought with them. It was just like a kettle, but you plugged it in! That was only twenty years ago. So at the very least, there were regions of the US in which the electric kettle was virtually unknown, while here in Canada one was at least as likely to have an electric kettle as, say, a pair of shoes.

Most asian households have one, super convenient for tea, cup noodles, etc. I use one that is more of a boiler/pot so it keeps water always at the right temperature.

They're basically miniature water heaters.

I'm in Canada and most people I know have an electric kettle (anecdotal, but still).

>Wait, what? Electric kettles aren't in every house there? That's insane! Here in Australia, it's like the one thing EVERYONE has. Hell, even hotel rooms usually contain a microwave and a kettle even if they have absolutely nothing else.

I remember once I watched a friend's cats while he was on extended vacation back home in China.

You try very hard to be accommodating when someone capable of covering your pager shift asks for a favor, because you know the currency in which that favor is to be repaid. Besides, he was senior to me (in terms of skill) and got me the job in the first place, so I kinda owed him at the outset. But it's almost always worth it to put in a lot of effort to have more than one person who can cover your pager feel like they owe you. But still, I'll totally clean out your cat's liter box if I think I can get you to cover my pager.

Anyhow, the weird thing was that he had like six electric kettles scattered throughout his house; and most of them were in 'sleep mode' - they were still on and plugged in and ready to dispense water fairly quickly. I guess the idea was that they were heavily insulated, so it didn't take a lot to keep the water warm?

Being me, I unplugged them all.

I've considered a kettle for myself, but the kettles I've used, mostly in ersatz office situations, all took a pretty long time to warm up from 'cold' - and all of them were nasty, because some asshole decided to put tea (or something) directly in the kettle.

What I find funny is that I bought one of those fancy super-automatic espresso machines of craigslist; You know, one of those brushed-aluminum deals where you pour whole beans in the top and just press a button? It doesn't take that long to warm up, and it's on a 5-15r (15 amps of 120v) - I know the reservoir on this thing is room-temperature, and it's pretty quick to warm up. Much faster than any kettle I've tried.

It makes pretty good espresso, too. Not as good as, say, chromatic coffee, or even B2 in san jose, but it beats the heck out of starbucks, and I don't have to put on pants. It does require periodic work, which I don't mind. I like working on mechanical things. Just don't make me do it in the morning, you know? As for effort expended to get my coffee? it's gotta be even easier than the aeropress. Expensive, though. I think I paid $300 for mine, and it's about 4x that new.

You fill normal kettles at the time you use them, and you only fill them with the water you need.

You can buy fast boil kettles which tend to be noisy.

I am surprised that kettles don't have a think skin of insulation. I sometimes wonder how much energy could be saved by micro-enhancements like that.

>You fill normal kettles at the time you use them, and you only fill them with the water you need.

But my espresso machine, it's got a pretty big (room temperature) reservoir, and only heats up the water as-needed. I mean, I probably have to fill it every second day, and that's with two people using it, and using the steamer.

Especially when my performance is impaired due to withdrawal, it seems a reasonable optimization to save the 'fill the damn thing up, but not too much' step.

>I am surprised that kettles don't have a think skin of insulation. I sometimes wonder how much energy could be saved by micro-enhancements like that.

All the electric kettles I've seen did have very thick insulation; it looked like they were intended to be left on or in standby all the time.

I'm pretty sure it is because of the 120V. Most circuits are actually rated for 15A, but it's possible that kettles sold here draw lower currents. Anyway, that's going to heat water a lot slower than on 240V.

I've never seen an electric kettle in anyone's home, but almost everyone I know does have a stovetop kettle.

Most new circuits are rated 15A and up. Older residential installations still have tons of 10As. I just had a new service put in, before that everything was 10A except for the a couple in my basement workshop.

The US is 120V/15A-20A.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampere#North_American_domestic_...

Well yeah but Europe is 240V 16A (or more, but 16A is typical).

Actually most European countries are 230V not 240V (though that was the standard in some countries previously (like the UK who dropped it for easier compatibility with continental systems (back in 93))).

Prior to harmonisation Europe was mostly 220V so 230v was the average of the two common systems (in reality because of tolerances there are big overlaps).

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/etc/guide-voltageoptimisation.ph...

Interestingly while the standard is 230v the average supply in the UK is 242V (but within the tolerance of the standard).

Electric kettles are definitely popular, but I don't think it makes such a difference compared to a decent standard kettle [0].

Boiling one or two cups of water won't take too long (30 sec ? 1min) on a gas or IH stove, it's easier to clean, no electric components, no maintenance, you can roughly adjust the temperature you want (i.e some teas are best at ~80°C), and it works with a gas burner during black outs.

[0] for home use of course. I don't see any way an hotel could provide a classic kettle without a full kitchen corner.

> Wait, what? Electric kettles aren't in every house there? That's insane!

Anywhere people don't drink that much tea, use a Moka pot for coffee, and boil the milk.

Germany is definitely not a tea country, yet everyone I know has an electric kettle.

Same in Sweden. It's also faster than heating water on an electric stove, so it's useful when you're making something like rice or pasta as well.

Exactly, it's also more accurate, as you know the water will be consistently just below 100C as you pour it on the pasta. I set my timer to 7.5 minutes to get a perfect al dente, just slightly undercooked so it can still absorb some of the sauce you mix it with.

And always remember, no oil in the pasta water!!

Electric kettles are not very common, which is probably easy to believe considering the higher popularity of coffee than tea here.

Yep, the stats in the US heavily favor coffee since around the time of the revolution. In certain places, it was unpatriotic to drink hot tea. About 85% of tea is iced in the US[1].

1) http://www.teausa.com/14655/tea-fact-sheet

ps: the fact sheet in 1 seems to be the basis of a whole lot of magazine articles. It seems like "tea facts" is quite the fill-in article.

Heating water in a microwave also works well.

As long as you watch out for this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_OXM4mr_i0

and don't inadvertently superheat the water.

Not for tea. There is a substantial difference in flavour if the water isnt boiling. It's one of the shocking things a british person experiences in america, handed tea made with a microwave. It really is quite disgusting in comparison.

Do you mean to imply that a microwave cannot boil water, or brings it to a different kind of boiling?

I think it's more that no one ever actually boils it. They microwave it to drinking temperature. I'm not sure it would be safe to boil it in a microwave, the water would go everywhere.

Microwaves don't always superheat water. I find that when I'm making an individual cup of tea, it gets superheated far less than half the time, and even when it does it doesn't react violently enough to the introduction of the tea bag to be a concern.

Put a teaspoon in the water - it will boil not superheat. Thought everyone know this :)

Just not a metal one.

Does microwave boiling remove the gasses trapped in the water? It's what makes water taste flat.

Yeah, 240 sounds really convenient. But are you scared of it? How dangerous is it to get hit with that kind if voltage? Is everything over there GFIed?

> are you scared of it? How dangerous is it to get hit with that kind if voltage?

it really depends on what body part touches it, and where the electricity wants to go (ground). the longer the path, the more dangerous it is.

I got hit once, from a broken electric kettle, in fact :) I had accidentally dropped the thing, some plastic bit had broken off and exposed some metal strip that was bent out of shape (in the base part, that the kettle part gets power from). Let's attribute it to not having had my morning coffee yet, when I figured hey let's bend that bit back to where it should be, not realizing the thing was still plugged in.

It hurt. It felt literally as quite a shock. But it was just my arm. A jolt, like when you're holding a stick and someone hits that stick with another stick really hard. Except a bit harder than that. I remember feeling quite shaken afterwards, could be adrenaline, could be my nerves being all agitated, I dunno.

After a few minutes I was fine again.

Guess I was lucky, maybe?

The very same day I got a new electric kettle (the cheapest ones are just €10), because really for me it's in indispensable kitchen tool, like the microwave or a chef's knife.

It helps that European plugs are all better designed - it's impossible to touch live prongs by mistake while plugging a device in (which has happened to me in the US).

Better designed? You can plug an grounded plug into an ungrounded socket and there are many ungrounded plugs that won't go into grounded sockets.

In the UK (exclusively, I think), the sockets have gates - in [1] you'll see that there's a lever in the top hole - that pushes down the plastic covers in the bottom hole allowing the pins to be inserted. The earth plug is longer than the live and neutral plugs, meaning that you cannot electrocute yourself with a plug unless you really try. At the same time, plugs [2] typically have plastic guards around most of the pins, such that no electricity can be flowing through the pins while it's exposed.

Of course, it was all for nothing when as a kid I put a braddle or something in the top hole and then mucked around with the bottom hole. Also, I imagine that the foot injuries you get in the UK are also greater because the plugs typically face up (although I've only seen someone actually impale their foot on a holiday in America). But yes, we have the safest sockets in the world according to my old schoolteacher.

[1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Uk_13a_d... [2] http://img.diytrade.com/cdimg/533618/3871293/0/1182923133/Br...

The UK is an anomaly when it comes to plugs and sockets - the very fact that almost(?) every plug has to have its own fuse is a tell.

It's not scary in normal use but you don't want to stick you finger on a live wire - the shocks a bit nasty.

As I said, maybe obvious to others.

ever since we have an induction stove, we're technically "e-kettle free". so I could state the contrary: "what? you still own and use an e-kettle?" ...

I think most/all people in North America have electric kettles. With HN, you're probably dealing with a particular demographic (recent college graduates) that would have a lower adoption.

I think your average age for HN is off by 5-6 years. Atleast that is my impression from the comment quality and the recent poll:

  Age     Votes
  -------------
  0-10       65
  11-15      42
  16-20     552
  21-25    2030
  26-30    2400
  31-35    1532
  36-40     735
  41-45     359
  46-50     148
  51-55      84
  56-60      44
  61+        52

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6058598

California for 16 years - I've been in a lot of houses, old and new, but I've never seen an electric kettle. Lots of stove top kettles though, some with whistles, some without. Also, In Canada (British Columbia) I've seen a few in hotel rooms, but never seen them in houses. Stove Top kettles are very popular there though, particularly with older homes.

Grew up in North Carolina, and I've never seen an electric kettle in anyone's home, ever. The only place I've seen one (besides Target, Wal-mart, etc.) is in the break-room of the building where our local hackerspace is. And sadly, it broke recently, so now we need a new one!

Having been exposed to them now, and even more so after reading this article, I do plan to buy myself an electric kettle though.

FWIW, everyone I know has always heated water in a saucepan or kettle on the stovetop.

Have you been to North America? This is not even remotely true in any sense.

Most homes I know of in Florida don't have electric kettles. I have one, use it with my ap. many homes have stove top kettles here.

I grew up there, maybe that explains my kettle ignorance.

could it be since its a warmer climate, hot drinks aren't consumed at home as much? or coffee is prepared differently down here (espresso?)

I'm originally from Missouri (wife as well), Mom's from Wisconson, Dad's from Boston, currently living in the Seattle area. Nope, never even saw one until I was in my low to mid 30s. We used stove top kettles.

However, dorm rooms often do allow them (heats up water for ramen), but it isn't universal, and I'm imagining most kids are like "WTF is this," looks it up and learns about it for the firs time.

Not sure why you got so heavily downvoted for that :| Upvoted for balance.