• NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
    26·
    22 days ago

    Kettle is much more convenient. Microwave is overkill, while a kettle is both a simpler machine and turns itself off when the water boils with no guesswork. It’s ergonomically designed for pouring into a cup.

    The speed argument is irrelevant, they’re both quick enough.

    • thatgirlwasfire@lemmy.world
      8·
      22 days ago

      Most Americans own a microwave, but don’t own a kettle. So going to the store and buying a kettle is a little less convenient.

      • prime_number_314159@lemmy.world
        7·
        22 days ago

        American kettles are significantly worse than British kettles. They run at lower voltage and lower amperage, so they take much longer to boil water.

        Given the choice between using a multipurpose microwave to do one more thing, and buying a separate appliance that is no faster, choosing to use the device you already own is entirely appropriate.

        • Serinus@lemmy.world
          3·
          21 days ago

          If you drink tea or coffee, even irregularly, a kettle is worth having.

          And a pour over is better than Keurig crap. I’d recommend using paper filters as well. Most of the time I just rinse the pour over when finished.

          Generally I grind 2-3 servings of beans at a time and store the rest in a glass container in the fridge.

          In the end, the effort is pretty comparable to a Keurig machine, but better quality, more flexibility, and you don’t have to deal with/buy pods or a machine.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          21 days ago

          They are still the best option for heating water. At best, a microwave could match its performance if it is nearly perfectly efficient and dumping all it’s energy only into the water, which is what a kettle does. They have the same potential power draw, so they can put the same energy in as each other. A kettle’s design is perfect for heating water though.

          Unless you have an inductive stove top, an electric kettle is going to be the best option, even in the US. It’s the most efficient at putting energy into the water and, since all these options have the same power draw, it is consequently the fastest (again, assuming no inductive stove top which can draw more power).

        • Fosheze@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          21 days ago

          WHAT?! That’s way better than a microwave then! I was getting so tired of buying new microwaves every time I wanted a cup of tea. Thank you.

      • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
        2·
        21 days ago

        No judgement from me towards anyone who uses a microwave like this. But that’s not a good argument. If you want to get pedantic, the one-time inconvenience of going to the store will be made up for by the hundreds of small conveniences of using it later.

        In general I don’t think it’s fair to think about the inconvenience of buying a thing. Even online reviews, which often complain about shipping times which has nothing to do with the product, don’t really complain about the inconvenience of having to buy or order something. It’s not relevant.

      • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
        1·
        21 days ago

        There’s also the whole “kettles in America take longer to heat up, because America only has 120v electrical outlets while the UK has 240v, and therefore gets twice as much power for the same amperage” thing. That being said, I’m in America and I love my kettle. You just expect it to take 5-7 minutes to heat up, instead of 2-3. If I only want a single cup of something, then yeah I’ll use the microwave. But if I’m going to be making more than one cup, the kettle is my go-to.

    • oatscoop@midwest.social
      English
      3·
      22 days ago

      The microwave is more efficient because you can do all the steps at once. Put teabag in mug, cover with water, microwave, leave and let steep. And if you forget about your tea it’s already in the microwave – just push the “add 30 seconds” button.

      I keep my Splenda and non-dairy creamer next to the microwave for added convenience.

  • ArdMacha@lemmy.world
    24·
    21 days ago

    It’s only faster because your half ass electrical system is only 120V Also the microwave makes the mug to hot to touch

    • nexussapphire@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      21 days ago

      So does an oxy acetylene tourch, what’s your point. Leave me with my glowing red hot coffee mug.

    • ADTJ@feddit.uk
      2·
      21 days ago

      Wait how does the microwave go faster when it’s also on half the supply voltage?

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
        4·
        21 days ago

        Because resistive heating is inefficient. You need to pump a lot of power through to get a lot of heat. A microwave does not use resistive heating and works on a completely different principle and therefore the amount of power available is much less importance.

        • blx@lemmy.zip
          6·
          21 days ago

          Resistive heating inefficient? What is the energy wasted as, if not heat?

          • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
            3·
            21 days ago

            Yes all the energy goes into being heat but you have to put a lot of energy into the wire before it heats up. Microwaves barely use any energy in fact it takes more power to run the little clock than the microwave itself.

            • Constant Pain@lemmy.world
              13·
              21 days ago

              That’s insanely untrue. Microwaves are power hogs up to a 1000 watts or more in some cases. The difference is the heat transmission method. The conduction of heat in a kettle is pretty slow because it forces the heat to propagate through water via convection, which is slower, while the radiation of a microwave antenna distributes the energy more evenly and faster. Consumption is mostly on par but energy transfer differs.

        • orangeboats@lemmy.world
          1·
          21 days ago

          I think you are complicating things a tad too much. American kitchens have sockets that provide 240V electricity.

          • bluewing@lemm.ee
            1·
            21 days ago

            Yeah, but not for countertop appliances. Those are all 110/120VAC. Even things as large as a consumer level refrigerator or freezer are almost always 110/120VAC too.

            While I have a kettle for water, there are two issues with them for tea.

            1. The water gets stale and the reheating drives off the all the excess air that fresh water has. This loss of dissolved oxygen kills the flavor of your tea and makes it taste bad. You should always use fresh water to make your or even coffee.
            2. A cheap kettle is, well cheap. You can’t make a good cup of green or oolong tea if you pour boiling water on it. Those need to be brewed at a lower temperature. And guessing doesn’t work. And a temperature adjustable kettle will set you back anywhere from $50US to $100US.
      • AbsentBird@lemm.ee
        1·
        21 days ago

        They use different methods of putting heat into water.

        A microwave turns the electricity into RF radiation that is absorbed by the water. To produce that radiation, the input electricity is converted to thousands of volts by a DC power supply. So regardless of whether it’s 120 or 230 input voltage, it all gets converted to the same high voltage DC to run the magnetron.

        A classic electric kettle works by running the current from the outlet through a resistive heating element. Double voltage means double heat.

        Induction heaters use a power supply to reduce the input voltage while increasing amps and frequency to heat metal through inductance. So, similar to a microwave, the voltage of the outlet is largely irrelevant.

        Tl;Dr: microwaves and induction heaters change the supplied voltage to function, so they work the same in UK and US; resistive heaters work faster on 230v like the UK uses.

      • Aux@lemmy.world
        17·
        22 days ago

        No, but there are no 3kW domestic microwaves on the market. Yet every kettle is 3kW.

      • LifeBandit666@feddit.ukEnglish
        1·
        22 days ago

        No my point is, as a British person that uses the kettle A LOT we went out and bought one that heats up a single cup at a time, which is quicker than boiling a whole kettle.

        I fill it up like a kettle and it has a little chamber underneath that it fills and heats, then the boiling water comes out of a spout into the cup.

        After owning this type of kettle for over a decade I don’t think I can go back to a conventional kettle.

  • BluesF@lemmy.world
    21·
    21 days ago

    There are very good reasons not to microwave tea, first of all:

    • I usually find microwaving anything in a mug adds some unpleasant flavour from the mug. Using glass eliminates this, but worth noting.

    • Microwaving the tea itself will break down some compounds and release more tannins, your tea will be worse.

    But even if you’re just microwaving the water, the kettle wins (depending on what tea you are brewing). Black tea should be brewed as close as possible to 100°C - when you have a kettle you should pour it just as it comes off the boil, around 90-95°C. By that point the water has actually been boiling for quite a while (at least the water around the element), allowing the rest of it to heat up. It’s very difficult to achieve this in a microwave, and dangerous too since you can just end up spraying boiling water around your microwave.

    • volvoxvsmarla @lemm.ee
      1·
      20 days ago

      I wonder about the efficiency too. Wouldn’t the microwave lose more “waves” that don’t hit the mug?

      • NegativeInf@lemmy.world
        8·
        23 days ago

        Right! Let’s microwave all our food and drink in plastic! No harm when all the BPA and garbage leaches into it.

        “Plastic in every testicle they tested…” once again comes to mind!

    • state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de
      5·
      22 days ago

      I had a coworker who watched some idiotic video where someone showed “proof” that microwaved water kills plants. I never saw that video so I imagined they poured the boiling water onto the plants. He was adamant that it was true. “I know what I saw”, blabla.

    • MonkderDritte@feddit.de
      2·
      22 days ago

      Well, microwaves can affect your food. Though only a handful (of hundreds) of antioxidans in berries, same as if you leave them a few days in the fridge. But no issues with water.

  • ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
    10·
    22 days ago

    MFW the colonials butcher your language with the use of “Britishers” when “The British” or “Brits” are perfectly acceptable.

      • ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
        2·
        22 days ago

        Well now you butcher the language and your fellow countrymen. I’d say you learnt everything we had to teach you, aside from how to spell properly.

    • GiveOver@feddit.uk
      2·
      21 days ago

      Britisher used to be fairly popular back in the day. Yanks are usually behind everything so it makes sense they’d still be using it

    • Ibuthyr@discuss.tchncs.de
      1·
      21 days ago

      Sorry mate, American English is more logical. Let them have that at least. I still prefer spoken British English though.

    • Shellbeach@lemmy.world
      4·
      23 days ago

      I just got an induction and everything is so fast BUT for boiling water. It’s weird, it’s seems to take way too long. I’m not in America though, if it’s a question of power not speaking American…

    • Aux@lemmy.world
      1·
      22 days ago

      Btw, what is the peak power you can get for a single induction zone in the US?

  • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
    7·
    22 days ago

    It’s not. The kettle attracts and holds heavy metals minerals and lime that would remain in the water of your glazed or glass mug after microwaving.

  • li10@feddit.ukEnglish
    6·
    23 days ago

    Yeah, but it would taste nasty because my microwave’s minging.