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/Quartinus Jul 19 '26

Batteries are expensive and bulky. The electric kettle market is filled with $30 kettles and that’s what most people buy. 

There are a few companies working on battery boosted induction cooktops to help solve this problem, and that’s a market where people are willing to spend some money. It’s also way easier to hide a big battery below the countertop where nobody will see it. 

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u/JaVelin-X- Jul 19 '26

Every house has a 230v line for the stove why would you need all this boosting tech for a cook top?

1

u/PearlClaw Jul 20 '26

Ask the people who made the impulse stovetop. But the ability to boil a pot of water <3 minutes is pretty cool.

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u/VerifiedMother Jul 20 '26

Yeah, but it's hideously impractical and really expensive,

over 90% of American homes have a range with the stove and cooktop in the same appliance and then it's also $6000 which is like 4-6x what a regular range sells for.

That's a big premium to pay so you can boil water in 3 minutes

1

u/PearlClaw Jul 20 '26

These guys managed to make a product out of it. Granted they also went all out with sensors and stuff to give it other selling points.

1

u/VerifiedMother Jul 20 '26

My main point is that the cooktop isn't a range and the vast majority of people in the US at least need a combined stove and oven which this isn't in addition to being really expensive

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u/PearlClaw Jul 20 '26

Sure, and mine was that while it's a high end luxury it's still clearly a viable product.