4 ms·

Impulse Labs has built an induction range that has super high power; their trick is that they have a battery that they recharge from the mains. Might be expensi

Impulse Labs has built an induction range that has super high power; their trick is that they have a battery that they recharge from the mains. Might be expensive but the same technique could work for a toaster (or for a water kettle) to basically keep a whole bunch of energy in reserve and deliver it when needed.

marssaxman 2y ago
That's a great idea - I wonder if electric kettles would be more popular in the US if they worked as quickly as they do on 240V? How large a volume of battery would one need to accomplish this, I wonder?
- duskwuff 2y ago
  I'm not sure it'd be commercially viable. A stove is a major home appliance, and the Impulse Labs unit is a high-end one with a price tag of $6000. An electric kettle, on the other hand, is considered a near-disposable piece of home electronics with a price closer to $50; it'd be hard to build a substantial battery into one at an affordable price.
  - xyzzyz 2y ago
    It would cost less than $50 to equip a kettle with appropriately sized battery. You only need something like 0.2 kWh of capacity.
- bobthepanda 2y ago
  Electric kettles mostly aren’t popular because of a perceived lack of need. Most Americans don’t drink tea and most coffeemakers heat water themselves. For most other applications using a pot on a stove is not a deal breaker.
- Borealid 2y ago
  I wouldn't want a kettle that wears out after only 3-10 years of use.
  - marssaxman 2y ago
    That is a reasonable criticism, but getting three entire years of use from a hypothetical battery-electric kettle sounds like a genuine improvement to me. With a conventional 120V kettle, I get maybe 2-3 uses out of it before its overwhelming gutlessness frustrates me so much I can't stand to have it around anymore.
- nicoburns 2y ago
  Unfortunately quite a large one. Electric kettles are typically one of the highest power draw items in a typical household. A 3kw kettle would need a ~250wh battery for a 5 minute boil (+ electronics capable of sustaining 3kw for that time period and recharging the battery at a reasonable rate afterwards). This would likely be larger than the entirety of the rest of the kettle with current technology.
  - marssaxman 2y ago
    That's not so bad; why not cut the battery draw in half by pulling from the wall circuit in parallel? 120WH in power tool batteries would cost ~$170-$180, so we can imagine a $200 kettle. Expensive, not a mass market item - but give it a few more years of continued battery improvement, and maybe this could happen. The base would certainly be much bulkier than that of a normal electric kettle, but it would still be smaller than the base of an average blender, so not unreasonable for a North American kitchen.
- avidiax 2y ago
  > electric kettles would be more popular in the US if they worked as quickly as they do on 240V Euro standards are 8-10A 240V circuits. I have an EU kettle, and it draws max 2200W. US standards are 15A 120V circuits. It could draw 1800W, though some kettles might limit to 12A and draw 1440W. So a Euro kettle might have 22%-52% more power than a US, which increases a 4 minute boil to 4m53s or 6m7s worst case. So it seems like it's not a significant factor, though it would be useful if US kettles really maximize power.
  - rsynnott 2y ago
    > Euro standards are 8-10A 240V circuits. Hrm, which country is that? Something between 13 and 16 amps is normal everywhere in Western Europe that I can think of, at 230V. In Ireland, any random kettle that you buy is likely to be 3kW (pedantically, 2.99kW); you do sometimes see 2.2kW ones, generally _very_ cheap ones.
    - avidiax 2y ago
      This was a kettle bought in Germany, then used in Switzerland. The Swiss outlets in my recent construction apartment were 8A. The standard allows a different outlet with higher amperage but I only ever saw that in commercial settings, similar to US 20A outlets.
      - rsynnott 2y ago
        Random German 3kW kettle: https://www.mediamarkt.de/de/product/_grundig-wk-6330-1766478.html https://www.mediamarkt.de/de/product/_grundig-wk-6330-176647... That said, 2.2kW kettles definitely do seem to be more common there than here in Ireland (where 13 amp outlets are standard).
  - gmac 2y ago
    In the UK, where almost everyone has an electric kettle, almost all are 3kW. Our electric circuits aren't rated for 13A continuous draw (e.g. plug-in EV chargers should be set to 8A or 10A), but they are fine at 13A for the few minutes it takes to boil a kettle. 2.2kW kettles would be a major drain on productivity: millions of extra minutes spent every day waiting for a cup of tea!
jamesy0ung 2y ago
As an Aussie, it’s weird to think that induction and other cooking appliances are so slow or expansive. We have a $200 AUD induction stovetop from Aldi that draws up to 7.2kw across 4 pans

marssaxman 2y ago

That's a great idea - I wonder if electric kettles would be more popular in the US if they worked as quickly as they do on 240V? How large a volume of battery would one need to accomplish this, I wonder?

duskwuff 2y ago
I'm not sure it'd be commercially viable. A stove is a major home appliance, and the Impulse Labs unit is a high-end one with a price tag of $6000. An electric kettle, on the other hand, is considered a near-disposable piece of home electronics with a price closer to $50; it'd be hard to build a substantial battery into one at an affordable price.
- xyzzyz 2y ago
  It would cost less than $50 to equip a kettle with appropriately sized battery. You only need something like 0.2 kWh of capacity.
bobthepanda 2y ago
Electric kettles mostly aren’t popular because of a perceived lack of need. Most Americans don’t drink tea and most coffeemakers heat water themselves. For most other applications using a pot on a stove is not a deal breaker.
Borealid 2y ago
I wouldn't want a kettle that wears out after only 3-10 years of use.
- marssaxman 2y ago
  That is a reasonable criticism, but getting three entire years of use from a hypothetical battery-electric kettle sounds like a genuine improvement to me. With a conventional 120V kettle, I get maybe 2-3 uses out of it before its overwhelming gutlessness frustrates me so much I can't stand to have it around anymore.
nicoburns 2y ago
Unfortunately quite a large one. Electric kettles are typically one of the highest power draw items in a typical household. A 3kw kettle would need a ~250wh battery for a 5 minute boil (+ electronics capable of sustaining 3kw for that time period and recharging the battery at a reasonable rate afterwards). This would likely be larger than the entirety of the rest of the kettle with current technology.
- marssaxman 2y ago
  That's not so bad; why not cut the battery draw in half by pulling from the wall circuit in parallel? 120WH in power tool batteries would cost ~$170-$180, so we can imagine a $200 kettle. Expensive, not a mass market item - but give it a few more years of continued battery improvement, and maybe this could happen. The base would certainly be much bulkier than that of a normal electric kettle, but it would still be smaller than the base of an average blender, so not unreasonable for a North American kitchen.
avidiax 2y ago
> electric kettles would be more popular in the US if they worked as quickly as they do on 240V Euro standards are 8-10A 240V circuits. I have an EU kettle, and it draws max 2200W. US standards are 15A 120V circuits. It could draw 1800W, though some kettles might limit to 12A and draw 1440W. So a Euro kettle might have 22%-52% more power than a US, which increases a 4 minute boil to 4m53s or 6m7s worst case. So it seems like it's not a significant factor, though it would be useful if US kettles really maximize power.
- rsynnott 2y ago
  > Euro standards are 8-10A 240V circuits. Hrm, which country is that? Something between 13 and 16 amps is normal everywhere in Western Europe that I can think of, at 230V. In Ireland, any random kettle that you buy is likely to be 3kW (pedantically, 2.99kW); you do sometimes see 2.2kW ones, generally _very_ cheap ones.
  - avidiax 2y ago
    This was a kettle bought in Germany, then used in Switzerland. The Swiss outlets in my recent construction apartment were 8A. The standard allows a different outlet with higher amperage but I only ever saw that in commercial settings, similar to US 20A outlets.
    - rsynnott 2y ago
      Random German 3kW kettle: https://www.mediamarkt.de/de/product/_grundig-wk-6330-1766478.html https://www.mediamarkt.de/de/product/_grundig-wk-6330-176647... That said, 2.2kW kettles definitely do seem to be more common there than here in Ireland (where 13 amp outlets are standard).
- gmac 2y ago
  In the UK, where almost everyone has an electric kettle, almost all are 3kW. Our electric circuits aren't rated for 13A continuous draw (e.g. plug-in EV chargers should be set to 8A or 10A), but they are fine at 13A for the few minutes it takes to boil a kettle. 2.2kW kettles would be a major drain on productivity: millions of extra minutes spent every day waiting for a cup of tea!

jamesy0ung 2y ago

As an Aussie, it’s weird to think that induction and other cooking appliances are so slow or expansive. We have a $200 AUD induction stovetop from Aldi that draws up to 7.2kw across 4 pans