I suppose that still begs the question somewhat, since the US does have 240V (2 phase) already driving many appliances. Why hasn’t it ever become standard for luxury kitchens to have a European-style outlet for use with a European kettle? I know the US already has a different 240V plug shape, so it might have to be an unlicensed installation, but surely someone wanted hot tea faster and did that calculus before?
I wired a UK kettle to an unused 240V range outlet in the US once. It was amazing, boiled a liter of water in just under a minute. Obviously kinda sketchy.
I just meant I spliced the line cord, adapters don't exist. It was an easily accessible NEMA 10-50 outlet, so we simply unplugged it when we weren't actively using it, because of the obvious fire hazard of a 16awg line cord on a 50amp breaker (which is why adapters don't exist).
Gratuitous disclaimer, don't try this at home kids...
Well, as you say, it would not be according to code and the insurance company might have something to say about it. It's also single phase but not quite the way you do it in the USA, it would be a neutral and a phase whereas in the USA I think it is 2x110. Finally, it's 50 Hz rather than 60 which would work fine for resistive loads but not so well for inductive ones such as transformers and motors.
In all likely not worth the trouble. When I moved to Canada I gave away most of my power tools for that reason and when I moved back I had to do that all over again.
> In all likely not worth the trouble. When I moved to Canada I gave away most of my power tools for that reason and when I moved back I had to do that all over again.
If you ever have to do it again, you can probably get a transformer rated high enough for power-tools for cheaper than replacing all of your power tools.
The line frequency tends to screw with things with motors too. Moved from the US to Belgium back when compact cassette was a common format for music.
Killed a few tapes with a transformer on a US tape deck before buying a 220V 50Hz unit. No, I don’t remember if the pitch was grossly off, but I’m guessing it wasn’t.
Of course you can. That's kind of obvious. It is also highly impractical. Besides the frequency delta you end up having to lug a heavy transformer along and then you have to alternate it across your tools so you don't end up frying the transformer.
You can run 240V circuit to kitchen for kettle and put in NEMA 6 outlet. But few people care about fast boil and importing European kettle. Most people use the microwave or stovetop, and 120V kettles are fine in most cases. It will never become a standard thing.
I think the answer to your question is that it mostly doesn't matter for personal mug size quantities of hot water and if it does matter to you there are readily available competing options such as dedicated taps for your kitchen sink.
Perhaps the biggest reason is that a traditional kettle on any half decent electric range will match if not exceed the power output of any imported electric kettle. Many even go well beyond that with one burner marked "quick boil" or similar.
>Why hasn’t it ever become standard for luxury kitchens to have a European-style outlet for use with a European kettle? I know the US already has a different 240V plug shape, so it might have to be an unlicensed installation, but surely someone wanted hot tea faster and did that calculus before?
I've heard of Americans getting EU plugs for things like this, but it's extremely uncommon. The simple answer is: Americans just don't drink tea very much, and the ones who do aren't going to go to this much trouble and expense just to be able to boil water for their tea twice as quickly.
These make absolutely no sense and are extremely wasteful if you're only making 1 or 2 cups of tea per day. They make a lot of sense if you're in an office full of tea-drinkers though. Home users are more likely to be in the first group.
> I know the US already has a different 240V plug shape, so it might have to be an unlicensed installation, but surely someone wanted hot tea faster and did that calculus before?
How expensive would a proper AC->DC->AC brick for that power level be?
Not so simple, you'd have to use a 'drier' or 'welder' socket for that otherwise you won't have enough power. A single circuit in Europe is 240V 16A or 3840W!
A pure sinewave inverter for that kind of power is maybe 600 to 1000 bucks or so, then you'd still need the other side and maybe a smallish battery in the middle t stabilize the whole thing. Or you could use one of those single phase inverters they use for motors.
No one in the USA drinks hat tea. The choices (and it tends to be regionally-based) is sweet or unsweet tea. No need to boil a kettle quickly for that.
As a counter argument, things like pour over coffee is getting to be more popular in the US and older drip coffee makers seem to be getting slightly less popular.
Still though, I don't seem to see most of those people seriously clamoring for the electric kettle to go a bit faster. The cost for the wiring difference and dealing with odd imported kettles just isn't worth it generally.
Perplexingly I was traveling in one of the iced tea regions of the country in need of a cup of hot tea, and they had no way to make it. Like, you have a commercial coffee maker and hot cups, the coffee maker has a hot(ish) water tap. All you need is a $4 box of teabags that’ll last until the heat death of the universe. Nope.
> The choices (and it tends to be regionally-based) is sweet or unsweet tea.
... Unless you're buying it pre-made, does this not still start with making hot tea the regular way? Or what exactly are you doing with the tea bags and loose tea from the supermarket?
