Low wattage Kettle

[Thingy]

OK, now this is serious.
Every low wattage kettle we have had has been generally rubbish and has had to be replaced every second trip or so.
I am looking for another one that is decently made, reliable and wont leak after two weeks, any suggestions. We have mainly had the Kampa ones before and similar makes that but enough is enough. Needs to be a decent size too. Not bothered about cost. Basically if madam the teatotaller gets her brew, Im having a happy day.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Gas hob kettle B)

 

[Thingy]

That would indeed be low wattage but difficult to use...........................in the awning.

 

[Grey13]

Is 8 amps low enough wattage? Normal kettle off the shelf. I have never tripped a supply yet! I have one of these in my van only cost £9.99 and is still working. Oh I remember you wanted low wattage, not low priced! Mind you I do turn heating off when boiling water but if you are outside in awning you may not have any heating on? https://www.aldi.co.uk/ambiano-white-home-starter-kettle/p/084554243095702?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIi7STp7j53QIVDLTtCh2zggSeEAQYBCABEgJnCfD_BwE&gclsrc="aw.ds&dclid=COuukqy4-d0CFdjg1QodSBEMWA"

 

[otherclive]

We have a 650w Swiss Luxx 1 litre. Been used for some three years without a problem sometimes at home too. It’s cordless and cost around £15

 

[thedoog1]

We use a Russell Hobbs model no 20190 had it for at least 2 years. Would definitely recommend, would have one in the house as well but a little small.

 

[Woodentop]

We have a 650w Swiss Luxx 1 litre. Been used for some three years without a problem sometimes at home too. It’s cordless and cost around £15

+1
Available (realistically) only from caravan dealer shops or maybe on line?

 

[Thingy]

The Russel Hobbs is a bit small for us. madam drinks tea like I drink beer.

 

[Craigyoung]

The Russel Hobbs is a bit small for us. madam drinks tea like I drink beer.

Milky ?!?

 

[Thingy]

Milky

Only if the barmaid is new at the job.

 

[Icaru5]

We have a 650w Swiss Luxx 1 litre. Been used for some three years without a problem sometimes at home too. It’s cordless and cost around £15

Same here !

We also have the toaster from the same range, which despite having a significantly lower power rating actually toasts quicker than our toaster at home, as the heating elements are much closer to the bread. The manufacturers seem to have lost their way a little with modern domestic toasters as in their quest to make them bagel and bun friendly, the modern trend seems to be to position the elements so far apart that it takes several minutes to toast a regular slice of bread. I’m not quite sure how they get away with this in terms of efficiency rating ! hmy:

 

[Anseo]

A couple of years ago I bought Tesco 'Value Range' kettle and toaster for £11.00 in total.

I am very happy with both items, the kettle is 1kw (possibly 1.5kw, I did not go out to caravan to check).

Tesco still do a 'Basics Range' kettle at a paltry £7.00, but the online description does not show the wattage, I suspect it may be 2.5 kw.

Anyway a great and cheap bargain was the 'Value Range', I hope they bring it back one day with the lower wattage versions.

Here is the Basic Range kettle:
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/281016235

 

[CustardAvenger]

A couple of years ago I bought Tesco 'Value Range' kettle and toaster for £11.00 in total.

Ha! We bought the Asda basics toaster and kettle for the caravan when we started, for about the same price! Not sure on the wattage and we rarely use the toaster, but the kettle has been used on every trip since 2013 and is still going strong. The same can't be said for our home KitchenAid kettle... it has been replaced twice under warranty.

We have even used our DolceGusto machine in the caravan with no electrical issue.

 

[Raywood]

We have had an unbranded low wattage kettle bought from I think Duncans in the early 1990's which is still going strong although we now also have an Asda basic kettle now. This was bought for us by a friend who borrowed the caravan and thought the old kettle was faulty as it was so slow. We keep the old one use a site from time to time with a 10 amp hook up and in France we have been down to 6 amps. The Asda kettle is 2,500 watts so is not too heavy on the supply but still needs to be used with care.
A lot depends on the power of the hook ups you use. On a modern 16 amp supply providing you do not go mad you should manage with most normal kettles. On sites with lower power supplies then this may not always be the case.

 

[ericmark]

Years ago I had a coffee and tea maker, bought it in Holland, coffee one side tea the other, it was similar to standard filter coffee maker but with a special tea bit. The problem is coffee is made with cooler water than tea.

Today I use a Lidi induction hob for tea making, I find the kettle/tea pot too heavy when self powered, I had to get the pot from Turkey all I could find in UK did not have a magnetic base so would not work on the induction hob.

What I would like to do is find out if the induction hob will or will not trip a small MCB? It auto switches on at 1000 watts, it can be turned up and down from that point 200W to 2000W in 10 steps, below 1000W it clearly uses a mark/space ratio however quite fast not like halogen hobs so I would think at 600W it would not trip a 3A MCB, but may cause a problem running from a 600W inverter.

The advantage is at 200W your tea pot can just sit there and you can pour from twin pots as required, I have not really mastered the twin pouring, my son in law has it down to a tea.

I find with the twin pot tea on top of water standard Turkish style the brew does not stew too much, but I tend to simply add water to top pot British style just can't get the twin pouring right.

I have had he Mick taken out of me for putting induction hob next to BBQ and frying sausages but it is portable enough to do that and means you are not doubling up on kettles etc.

Never tried the old whistling kettle on it, however you can tilt a pan and it still heats up, i.e. does not rely on surface to surface contact an old kettle is steel so likely it will work.

 

[Hutch]

Normal house kettle used in the caravan unless on lower than 10 amp. Just make sure the boss isn't drying her hair and making toast at the same time, not hard is it, after all we are relaxing

 

[MissLong]

We went Go outdoors and so far their own brand kettle has been good as gold for the few months we used it,although due to the lower wattage it is slower to boil, but I am not usually in a rush when at the van I was looking as the swiss toaster but it looked like it would only toast the smallest slice of bread known to exist...

 

[Thingy]

On a similar subject to low wattage, one thing we do take is the slow cooker. Very often have a curry on the go in the awning. As it looks cold next week, I can see us returning to the van to a piping hot stew, slow cooked all day.

 

[Craigyoung]

On a similar subject to low wattage, one thing we do take is the slow cooker. Very often have a curry on the go in the awning. As it looks cold next week, I can see us returning to the van to a piping hot stew, slow cooked all day.

These are a great piece of kit as many times we have put something like a Bolognese or chilli in when going out then when you come back tea sorted ! excellent . Got big one in house and a smaller one in the caravan but still big enough to feed four of us !!

 

[Thingy]

And the best thing about them, if you make a thick enough stew, you can use bread to eat it, no need for knife and fork, and that way using bread with one hand........................you dont have to put your beer down B)

We used to do something similar years ago when my Batt was brigaded with a Gurkha Batt, they would often make a heavy nepalese curry in a huge iron pot and everyone just sat around the pot crosslegged scooping it out with their bread.. Mind you, you had to open the windows afterwards hmy:

 

[bertieboy1]

Hi Thingy,
Don't know what you do with your low wattage kettles,our present low wattage kettle is cordless,years old and doesn't leak.
The same goes for all the kettles we've used over the years - we only changed them for different capacities.
By the way they were/are only cheapo kettles made by unknown foreign manufacturers.

 

[Thingy]

Hi Thingy,
Don't know what you do with your low wattage kettles,our present low wattage kettle is cordless,years old and doesn't leak.

My wife has a theory that a lot of the sites we use are in hard water areas. Could that compromise the seals?

 

[ProfJohnL]

We live in a relatively hard water area and our first kettle did fur up. It did not damage seals, but it did radically affect its heating efficiency ultimately to the point the scale prevented the heat from the element escaping to the ater and it would trip off on its over heat stat.

We have sine always used one of these
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005839OWY/ref=asc_df_B005839OWY56618201/?tag=googshopuk-21&creative=22110&creativeASIN=B005839OWY&linkCode=df0&hvadid=226559429649&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6431132288152919041&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007192&hvtargid=pla-378031906727&th=1&psc=1

and since then the kettles we have had have do not build up any significant scale. Just every couple of months or so take out the ball, squeeze and and wash under the tap.

Scale should not cause a seal to fail. It would affect a seal if the seal or other components are already not working correctly and allowing some water to pass to compromise the seal.

 

[Thingy]

It does seem to be an issue with seals with these kettles. Whereas we have one wth a window/guage on the side, we have had water escape from there, and on the stand for the cordless, we have had kettles deposit water there.

I think there is something in what Porf says, as once the seal has been comprmised, there could be a build up of limescale exacerbating the issue.

 

[otherclive]

We have given up buying expensive domestic kettles as they don't seem to last any longer than the cheap ones. So if our home kettle develops a problem its 10 minutes walk to a supermarket to spend another few quid on a cheap one with 12 months warranty.