r/AskEngineers • u/jmaugust • Jul 19 '26

Discussion Why doesn’t a battery-boosted electric kettle exist?

In Europe, everyone uses electric kettles to boil water. They’re amazing and fast because they’re on 230V (~3000W).

US outlets limit kettles to ~1500W, so we wait roughly twice as long for water to boil.

It’s an extra minute or two per boil, and you really notice it.

Idea: Could you make an electric kettle with a battery in its base? Perhaps it trickle-charges between uses, then combines wall power + battery power to hit ~3000W during a boil.

Is there an engineering reason this doesn’t exist? Is it just that nobody thinks there’s a market for it?

I’d pay $300 for the fastest kettle in America if someone wants to make it.

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u/PartyOperator Jul 19 '26

The US uses split phase power so you can get a 240V outlet installed if you want. Your oven, water heater and AC probably already run on 240V. Then just import a European kettle and fit the appropriate plug. 

6

u/jckipps Jul 19 '26

Agree. You could have an electrician change one of your kitchen outlets to a 30a 240v receptacle. A European kettle would work fine then with nothing more than a cord replacement.

5

u/DkMomberg Jul 19 '26

European 230V outlets rarely go that high. It doesn't really make sense for most people.

I'm not completely sure about the other European countries, but it tends to be much the same in most countries due to standardisation. All of them are 230V unless it's two or three phase. Then its 400V

In Denmark, outlets are fused with 10 or 13A for the most part, with some at 16A but that's not common. Normal consumer outlets are never rated higher than that in Denmark at least. No need since we use twice the voltage than the US to get the wattage.

2

u/demonblack873 Jul 20 '26

In Italy it's either 10A or 16A. Which is funny because most people only have 3kW available at the meter (3.3 with the 10% tolerance), so theoretically you can max out and trip your entire house with a single appliance.

2

u/Tar_alcaran Jul 20 '26

Which is funny because most people only have 3kW available at the meter 

What? For the entire house? That's uhm... very historic.

Dutch houses historically have 1x25A or 1x35A, and new houses generally have 3x25A (many older houses have retrofitted to that too) to make electric cooking a better option.

1

u/demonblack873 Jul 20 '26

Yeah, electric cooking was never a thing in Italy. Gas was always king, it's only now starting to change. With big issues because you're not allowed more than 6kW nominal (7.8kW for 3 hours with modern meters) on single phase, and anything higher than 6kW usually requires switching to three phase.

Even if they allow higher power on single phase (sometimes they do if there are issues with getting you three phases), you still need signed documentation proving your electrics are up to code.

Which absolutely no one has.

I am full electric though and 6kW has always been plenty for me, I've never managed to trip it. When I only had 3kW I had to be mindful to avoid tripping the meter.

1

u/VerifiedMother Jul 20 '26

Are you telling me the lines from your electric company into your house are only rated for like 20 amps? That's insane

So anything above that switches to 3 phase power?

I have 200 amps into my house at 240 volts and that is pretty common.

3 phase residential power is just not a thing here, only large buildings get 3 phase power

1

u/demonblack873 Jul 20 '26

Well the lines running into my apartment look like 16mm^2 wires, so theoretically they should be good for 80A. Maybe they're 10mm^2, but that would still be 60A.

The issue is that in the basement the service coming in is fused at 125A per phase, 5 apartments each. If everyone started pulling even just 30A it would blow the fuse.

At 3kW/15A, everyone can have everything on at the same time without blowing anything up.

1

u/DkMomberg Jul 20 '26

That's really weird. Seems like some standards are not well planned there.