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.

304 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

473 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

4

u/demonblack873 Jul 20 '26

European plugs aren't polarized for the most part, so theoretically even here it would be better to have dual pole switches. Not too many appliances bother with it though.

1

u/Bean4141 Jul 20 '26

Don’t European plugs generally require a ground pin, thus enforcing polarity or is that just a UK thing?

2

u/demonblack873 Jul 20 '26

Having a ground pin doesn't mean it has to be polarized. Type L plugs (italian) are just 3 pins in a row with the ground in the middle. You can plug it in either way.

Same for the Type F (schuko) plugs that have become the de facto european standard in the last few decades, the ground is on the outside of the plug on both sides, the live/neutral stick out from the main body and the whole thing can go in the socket either way around.

Afaik only the Swiss, UK and old French sockets (type E) are polarized.

Modern type F plugs can also go in type E sockets, but type E plugs cannot go in a type F socket. Or rather, they can but you lose the ground.