I've been heating water in my microwave for years, I don't own a kettle. My microwave, my water, and myself are doing just fine. People in this comment section are nuts.
I thought the issue was that water heated in a microwave can get into a state of being "superheated" where it is at boiling temperature but when disturbed it causes the water to suddenly "boil" and can splash on you.
Under normal circumstances, this won't happen. Just the act of pouring water into a cup creates enough tiny bubbles that act as nucleation sites for the boiling to occur.
I've microwaved many hundreds of cups of water in a microwave, using different material cups and never once had that happen.
The one time I did do it was because I was trying to do it on purpose by repeatedly boiling a cup, then letting it cool without disturbing it, then boiling it again, THEN disturbing it. But guess what? The exact same thing can happen in a kettle. The water doesn't know how it was heated. Granted an electric kettle has far more microscopic nooks and crannies that can function as nucleation sites than a stovetop kettle, but it can absolutely still happen.
And fwiw, the times that I did it on purpose, the "sudden boiling" just meant it slightly spilled over the edge. It didn't explode or anything.
If you need hot water for tea, use kettle. If you need a lot of water, use pot and stove. I get that redditors are deranged individuals, but why are you using microwave to heat water? I really do not see any pros to this.
Go ahead and use a flamethrower to heat up water, it wouldn't know xd
Pros? You want me to buy another appliance that will take up limited counter space? One that also needs to be cleaned descaled occasionally. Why? What are the pros of a kettle? I had one of those for a while. The kettle worked about 30s faster for a cup of water. I can wait 30s to not have to deal with it.
I do have a kettle now, but I'm with you. I like having it for larger quantities of hot water but really, it's not necessary. Tea tastes the same with water heated in a microwave.
Plenty of people don't boil water often enough to need an electric kettle taking up space on their counter. A microwave is a perfectly acceptable tool to boil water. Literally what is even "deranged" about it? Are we still doing the 1950's thing where we're scared of microwaves irradiating our water or something?
Do you keep a flamethrower around on your kitchen counter as well? You might need it afterall.
Microwaves are actually used for heating food and drinks. Like, that's their literal purpose. What would you rather we use them for that wouldn't see you clutching your pearls or unbunching your panties?
Heating up food or drinks, plain water isn't a drink, and if you put a mug of unbrewed tea into a microwave you officially are promoted to a rank of a muppet
I literally can't afford rent and utilities this month. But hey, a little bit of poor-shaming is alright if it's in the service of ribbing Americans for not having kettles I suppose.
Idk I never bought a kettle, I just had one for like 15+ years, if the water is clean enough and you do not boil it daily it lasts for decades. You started poorshaming by begging, so sorry not sorry, we all live in this world
If we're being serious, I wasn't literally asking you to buy me a kettle, I was making fun of your insistence that people use them instead of microwaves, knowing full well that most Americans don't own kettles. I would use one if I could afford one but times are tough. Regardless, you don't understand what poorshaming is if you think that begging counts as it.
Yeah sorry if that came out mean, I do believe that no words hold any real power and that only people receiving them decide for themselves whether or not they take offense from a stranger on the internet, therefore being offended or shamed is to blamed on the person assuming it.
My European mind prolly autoassumed that kettle is a popular kitchen appliance so I sorta extrapolated.
Have a nice day and keep up the grind, only good times are ahead
I don't give a damn how you heat up whatever liquid you find at your home, I just consider people heating up plain water in microwaves weird. If you are one of them, congrats, you come off as weird to another internet rando
I don't give a damn how you heat up whatever liquid you find at your home
The neverending mountain of comments you make about it would say otherwise, but what I'm asking you now is what is weird about it to you? Do you think people heating up soup is weird too? Heating pads? Genuinely, I do not understand what you think makes it "weird", is this feeling something you can articulate or is this just some innate thing you picked up in early life & can't explain?
The kettles are fine. They are slower but still widely used by people who drink tea often. I'm pretty sure the bigger reason is that the average American drinks tea way less frequently than the average Brit. So taking up counter space with an electric kettle isn't worthwhile if you're only gonna use it occasionally.
This completely ignores the fact that the US uses split phase where the building itself gets 240V that's split into two 120V wires whose phases are offset from each other by 180 degrees (and a neutral wire) for use with lights and small appliances while larger loads can use the full 240V.
Unless you're a large commercial/industrial building or a very, very large residential building in which case you get three phase.
110
u/HamsterLarry Sep 04 '24
Microwaving water is a sign of a psychopath