Why don't Americans use electric kettles?

Technology Connections did an excellent video on this: [VIDEO] tl;dw -- kettles in the U.S. only take about 4+ minutes to boil a liter of water. So when you say "now" you really mean it.

Relatedly I found this video on electric kettles vs gas stove efficiency for heating water pretty illuminating too: [VIDEO] The summary is that a cheap electric kettle can boil water way faster and with far less wasted energy than a stove top kettle.

A better way to save energy is to use an electric kettle to get the water up to boiling. This is about three times as energy-efficient as a gas hob. Combined with passive cooking it could save real money… Technology Connections on YouTube has a good video about how electric kettles are the superior way to boil water: [VIDEO]

Technology connections has a good video on boiling water. If you have a good way to dump energy into the water, it will boil fast. [VIDEO]

I don’t know is toaster are close to max power draw, but kettles certainly are. Most places with 240V regularly have 16A sockets, allowing a maximum draw of 3840W of power. That’s the limit. Cheap fast kettles will often draw 3000W and boil 250ml of water at room tempature in 30s. Kettles in the US are often limited to 15A and thus max 1800W (usually 1500W) and take twice as long (60s) Technology Connections has a great video on this: [VIDEO]

right now, there are thermal properties around materials like copper which will not work with induction that mean there are things that simply can't be done with them, and resistive electric is horribly non-responsive. As it happens, the latest installment of Technology Connections [1] does direct comparisons of the time required to boil a volume of water on various cooktop technologies. The winner was a cheap electric kettle, followed closely by an electric cooktop. A gas stove fared far worse. This surprised me, but there's the evidence. In retrospect, the efficiency of the gas stove is significantly impaired because it's not able to transfer as much of its energy into the pot - much of it escapes around the sides. To be fair, that's not quite the same thing as what you're saying: in car terms I'm comparing 0-60 acceleration times while you're comparing handling. But if I can stretch an analogy, a significant power advantage can cover a lot of sins in handling, see the famed Shelby Cobra for example. [1] [VIDEO]

Natural gas heating is very inefficient (e.g. versus electric kettle). There was recent Technology Connections video about that: [VIDEO]

Technology Connections recently had a video about the subject: "Why don't Americans use electric kettles?" ( [VIDEO] ). His main conclusion: Americans have less use for kettles since they don't drink tea (as much). He also observes that electric kettles turn out to be faster and more efficient than other means of heating water for other purposes that are not obvious at first sight, as you also mention. Not all European electric kettles are faster than American ones BTW. Mine is 1200 W (I think) which is in the range of what American ones can deliver. There are more powerful models available too of course.