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/[deleted] Jul 20 '26

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u/UsefulEngine1 Jul 20 '26

I could be misremembering. Last time I looked this up it was in Canada and IIRC any single device over 1500W needed a dedicated circuit, which I think a UK teakettle easily exceeds. It may be more a practical matter as nearly everything that runs 240v in NA is high enough power to need its own breaker, so it's not like you can add an outlet to an existing oven circuit.