To electric kettle owners....

[Tradd]

My stainless.steel one is maybe 3 years.old.

[Gardenarian]

I really like my electric kettle. You can't leave it on and burn it out. It is faster than a kettle on my gas cooktop. I use it to boil water for cooking and stuff. Because it is not sitting on the stove, it doesn't get greasy.
I have one at my main house and one at my cabin. The cabin has hard water and I need to boil some vinegar water in it every couple of months, and scrub it with a bottle brush when cool. At my main house, we get no build up of deposits.
They don't cost much more than a regular kettle, and are well worth the price.

[ToomuchStuff]

you only get a couple of years at the most from a cheap plastic one, I worry about the chemicals being leached by the plastic from kettles. I have a stainless steel one almost 2 years old now!

What do you do with it?
I worked in a garage, that had no hot water and a plastic kettle was what we used to heat up water to clean battery terminals, or for something hot to drink other then coffee (owner had to have his coffee in the morning to get going). When it finally died, a couple years back, it was over 20 years old.

[RichLife]

As a tea drinker, I love my electric kettle. To avoid buildup try to only put in as much water as you need and toss out the leftover when done. Or you can use a water filtering can or tap so you only put clean water in there. Might not be able to fully avoid having to clean it with vinegar every so often but it will certainly help.

[pony mom]

Thanks everyone. I will tell my mom all the benefits. Convincing her to put an appliance on the counter is another hurdle. We only have a tissue box, a glass, and a cookie jar on our countertop. Having a kettle that shuts off automatically, instead of running to shut off a whistling one, is a great thing.

[Zoe Girl]

Mine is ceramic and very attractive. Blue and white with a pattern. It is from Target if they still carry them. Maybe that is better than a metal one to her?

[Miss Cellane]

Thanks everyone. I will tell my mom all the benefits. Convincing her to put an appliance on the counter is another hurdle. We only have a tissue box, a glass, and a cookie jar on our countertop. Having a kettle that shuts off automatically, instead of running to shut off a whistling one, is a great thing.

One of the things I like about my electric kettle is that it sits on the counter. It's about two feet away from the sink, in a little corner. The drawer below it has all my tea and tea strainers and the tongs for fishing those big tea bags out of mugs. The cabinet above it has all the mugs and tea cups. It's a little tea bar, really. Organized and convenient.

Or maybe put it next to the cookie jar--tea with cookies sounds good to me!

[Zoe Girl]

I NEED tea tongs, why didn't I ever get them? Fishing tea bags out of milky, sugary tea because I forget is kinda icky.

[mira]

Yeah, as Ishbel said, virtually everyone here has one. I've never seen a stovetop one outside of my grandmother's house - she lives in the US.

My parents bought a cheapo plastic one from a supermarket and it dribbles everywhere when you pour it... not recommended! We have this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 which works perfectly.

We don't get a build up of scale or anything on it because the water is so soft here.

[Selah]

Yes, they are great, and I got one in America when I let my kettle boil dry on the stove and ruined it. Yay for automatic shut-off! Filtered water and the occasional boiling of vinegar will keep your kettle reasonably descaled over time. In Israel, they use citric acid salts, aka lemon salt, to do the same thing for washing machines and other appliances that regularly heats water. Vinegar is also great for running through your automatic drip coffee maker (e.g. Mr. Coffee) for improving speed of brewing and the taste of the coffee.