Signs of getting old... meh.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Today, I was killing some time before heading out, and stopped in at WallyWorld (okay, I know--it's evil, but hey, it's cheap, and wintertime, cash is short.  Sue me.)

And I saw this lovely red teakettle-- porcelain finish, inside and out--one of my favorite types to clean.   It was heavy, which meant even heating, and the finish was flawless, which meant it wouldn't rust for a long, long while.  Had a nice wide opening top, which snapped in (made of stainless steel), and a pouring spout with a whistle fitted in, and a nice "at remove" lever to pull it open without risk of burns from the invisible steam-vapor (something I've done more times than I care to document).

A nice sturdy plastic handle arcing over the top, meaning it was clear of the sides-- critical for gas stoves, which tend to spill excess heat up the sides of pots (spoiling side-handles that can't handle heat).

In short?  It was just what I suddenly decided I needed.  To go with my French Press Coffee machine, which I've been using to make loose-leaf tea in.  One batch is about 20 ounces or so, perfect size to drink up while still warm.  By tearing open the bag, one bag is sufficient to make nice, medium-strong tea in the full 24 ounces.  And I can pre-load the scant teaspoon of honey, if I like.   

I had been boiling the water in a stainless steel skillet, but if I get distracted, I boil it dry-- kinda hard on the skillet...

So, I bought it.   Brought it home.  Cleaned it up nice and thoroughly, and rinsed even more so.   Filled it with hot tap water, and set it on the stove to heat up, trusting in the new whistle to alert me when it was ready.

And then proceeded to return to the computer, to catch up on today's gossip.   Which got me quite engrossed (facebook and all that).  I even added a new friend, who seems quite nice.   But I wondered why my FB had started playing "sounds of nature", a nice soundtrack of a babbling brook, with faint bird singing in the background.    Okay, nice enough--continue to read the new posts.

About 2/3 of the way down my page, I decided that "sounds of nature" was enough, and where was it coming from, anyway?  Hmmm... searching up and down the FB page, I saw no running videos/sound feeds.  Puzzled, I finally closed down the whole browser---

--- but the sound track persisted!  What was going on?  I even turned off my PC's speakers-- still hearing the "sounds of nature"---

---- when it finally hit me:  that was a steam whistle!   Almost too faint for my aging ears, but loud enough.   A glance back into the kitchen showed it had a nice fast-stream of steam-vapor coming out.   So fast, it had overwhelmed the whistle somewhat.... and the "babbling brook" was obviously the furiously boiling water inside....

... I had me a laugh, then a bit of a cry too-- that I was so old, I had already forgotten the new kettle, and my hearing so weak, that I couldn't pinpoint the source of those "sounds of nature" as coming from the kitchen, and not my PC's speakers...

.... 

On the other hand?  Now I know how it sounds, and I also know it's too faint to overcome the TV, so I'll resort to a kitchen timer when watching the tube.    But it did pour ever so nicely, far better than the skillet which always ends up spilling here and there. 

I've got me some nice SuperFruit tea steeping even now-- I'm going to have it over ice, later.   mmmmmmm! 

[pieces o nine]

It does sound like a lovely kettle, Bob.   

I've used a small "Mr. Coffee" to heat water for tea for the last several years. I'd boiled a teakettle pretty far down a couple times when engrossed with something else, but will never trust myself with another one after not  hearing the whistle (I have pretty good hearing, too!) and turning a fetching new teakettle into a hideous, smoking, toxic lump on a smooth surface cook top. Fortunately, it didn't ruin the cook top, but it scared me plenty!

The additional timer idea is a good one. Enjoy your tea in peace! 

[Sibling DavidH]

Lucky it had a whistle, or it might have boiled dry and burned through.  We have to keep an eye on ours on the coal stove.

[Opsa]

I hear you, Bob! Great story.

I absolutely have to have a kettle with a loud whistle, or I will totally forget to check it. I have wandered outside and forgotten, too. If I go outside now when I have the oven timer or kettle on, I try to remember to wear a clip-on timer on my clothes. I suppose I should put my address on it too, in case I get lost!

[Aggie]

I use a glass-bodied electric kettle, which sits on top of its corded base but can be lifted up sans cord and dragged over to the tea pot. The entire boiling area which is contacted by water is a single glass unit, so there's no nasty plastic involved (well, there's a little bit on the spout). The element is in the base, outside of the glass, so it's very easy to clean out the calcium from the bottom with a batch of vinegar.  The kettle shuts itself off after boiling for about 30 seconds, which is great for my absent mind.  I'm forever re-heating the water, but can't boil it dry. No whistle, but generally I can hear the boil.

I think I like it because it reminds me of labware. 

I got this from our local Loblaws (parent company) supermarket; they do lots and lots of well-priced and good-quality products under their President's Choice house brand. This one is virtually identical, branded as Chef's Choice:

[Opsa]

Oooooohhhh, arrrrrrggghhhh....!

Must be getting older, gushing over a kettle.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Well, there is a kinda sad follow-up note.

Although I never ran the new one dry, it's already showing a chip at the very top-- likely poor quality enamel, as I've seen this on other Chinese manufactured stuff.  I still have the receipt, so back it goes.  

*sigh*

I'm seriously considering ordering one from somewhere or other-- perhaps a pure copper one?  I like the look of copper, and as a metal, it is not soluble in water (nor any of it's salts) to an appreciable degree, and thus safe for humans.  Obviously, I must avoid lead-based soldered joints here.

As for the whistle?  I'm already thinking about that, too:  I know where I can get a classic brass "police" whistle, with a genuine balsa insert (or "spinner") inside.   And a bit of creative brazing (non-lead) could easily attach this to the kettle somewhere or other-- it need not be the spout, after all-- a good boil will easily generate sufficient pressure to activate the super-loud police-type whistle.

I quite imagine I won't be able to ignore that.  

It is a darn shame that something as simple as enamel would chip this soon-- enamel-on-steel is one of the oldest coatings humans have discovered and used down through the ages.  It's basically a form of glass or silica that's melted onto the metal in a thin enough coating that it won't crack during temperature extremes.  Or, it's not supposed to anyway.  meh.   The brand was not your junk brand, either.  

But I do not forgive a failed product, as there are too many from which to choose.  

However, since the chip was on the outside?  And since I cannot make it worse?  I'm using it for now-- I have 30 days from Wally-world to take it back for a refund, so... I have time to get another.  

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Well.  

I decided a more scientific approach is in order, so I turned to Amazon, and keyed in "tea kettle".  Naturally, I got lots of stuff completely unrelated to either tea or kettles, but that's typical for Amazon's non-search "feature"....

...

Ignoring the non-tea kettle stuff, I sorted through the first 10 pages or so, and was rather surprised at the offerings.

But the most surprising is this one:  http://www.amazon.com/Alessi-Michael-Graves-Kettle-Whistle/dp/B00004Y6FT/ref=sr_1_2?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1359672411&sr=1-2.  Words are insufficient, here--you just have to go look.  And yes, I did check to see if this thing comes with some sort of internet-connection to use your iPod to notify you when the tea had steeped sufficiently.  Nope.   Some of these don't even whistle, according to the less than enthusiastic reviews...

I found one made entirely of heavy, heat-proof glass, allegedly suitible for either gas or electric stoves.  I like that very much, but it doesn't whistle.

I found another, made of glazed ceramic, which is (according to the blurb) a traditional Chinese teapot material-- again, you can put over heat to boil water, and being inert ceramic, no extra flavors.  I rather like that one too-- it'll maintain the hot water for rather a bit, unlike a metal one which cools down quickly.   Alas, no whistle on this one, either...

... which has got me thinking.   A smallish copper tube (I have this, as scrap, in excess), a real cork stopper of suitable size (to fit into the spout).  Bore out the cork, making it into a gasket around the copper tube.  And braze one end of the tube into that brass police whistle I was speaking of earlier... sure, I'd need a cloth to pull it out, as it'd be rather warm from the steam...

... but I rather like having my own choice of whistle, instead of the rather mild ones you typically get.   I could even mount several, and have it play a chord...   Or experiment with making a flute-type whistle from the copper tubing-- how hard could that be, anyway?   Is not the flute, one of the oldest musical instruments, since... ever?  

But I continue to shop-- not a single all-copper offering, though.  I'm disappointed at that.  I did see all cast-iron!  That' sucker'd be heavy, for sure.  

0000000000000000000000000000000000

Edit:   this one looks kinda cool-- made of stainless steel (bottom) and silicon rubber, collapsible http://www.amazon.com/Cuissential-SlickBoil-Collapsible-Silicone-Kettle/dp/B006BA7MM2/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=1T44DGMZDS32U&coliid=I237TLK2QQJEFD

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Oh. my. 

This:  http://www.amazon.com/Alessi-Il-Conico-Tea-Kettle/dp/B00029RAUM/ref=sr_1_11?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1359673819&sr=1-11&keywords=tea+kettle

I don't care if it sings your baby to sleep-- nothing that is meant to boil water, is worth nearly $300... not even if it's for a B-52... meh. 

What's worse?  It's butt-ugly too...

[pieces o nine]

Some designer do get quite full of themselves, don't they?


Not haivng to keep replacing the very utilitarian Mr.Coffee allows me to squander money on fetching teapots.  I still have a sekrit hankerin for this. 

[Bluenose]

  ...ish

Talking about boiling kettles dry reminds me of a story my old man tells about when he was a commercial pilot for BOAC, flying Bristol Britannias.

The aircraft designers, recognised that pressurising the cabin with bleed air from the gas turbines (Brits were a large 4 engine turbo-prop) would produce a very dry cabin environment.  So to counter this, they installed a humidifier.  Sounds good, until you find out that this consisted of a one pint stainless steel container into which was introduced water (so far so good) with a 10 KW heating element (yes, you heard me right Joyce, ten kilowatts!).  The only time it was ever used, it burnt a hole in the side of the aeroplane and after that the flight crews understandably refused to use it.  The ground engineers apparently responded to continued complaints about the humidifier from the crews with "we have only ever had one failure" and seemed unimpressed with the reply that  "yes, it has only ever been used once..."

Returning you now to normal service.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

LOL!  That is a tale worth re-telling, Blue.  In the priceless category, too. 

10KW for only one pint?  Whew.   I would quite imagine the water didn't so much boil, as it did flash-over into steam...  It's a wonder things did not get worse than a mere hole. 

To put it in perspective?  That same 10 kw (or so) could easily be used to heat an average home, in all but the coldest latitudes. 

[Aggie]

I'm seriously considering ordering one from somewhere or other-- perhaps a pure copper one?  I like the look of copper, and as a metal, it is not soluble in water (nor any of it's salts) to an appreciable degree, and thus safe for humans.  Obviously, I must avoid lead-based soldered joints here.

I'm afraid I have to call not true on that one, although if you are not boiling strong acids for tea you should be fine. 

[Griffin NoName]

I'm a bit obsessed with kettles too. If that makes me old, I don't care. My current kettle is black with a window into the water which shines a blue light when heating. I love the blue light. I can see if it's switched on even if it isn't making any noise. The whistle is not pressure operated; it just switches on as a result of the auto-electricity-off on boiling. You can switch the whistle to be off or on. Actually I think I posted rapturously here about this kettle when I bought it.

[Swatopluk]

I'm seriously considering ordering one from somewhere or other-- perhaps a pure copper one?  I like the look of copper, and as a metal, it is not soluble in water (nor any of it's salts) to an appreciable degree, and thus safe for humans.  Obviously, I must avoid lead-based soldered joints here.

I'm afraid I have to call not true on that one, although if you are not boiling strong acids for tea you should be fine. 

Not sure there no complexing gents in tea.
And copper(II)chloride is quite soluble. It's enough to cause trouble for sensitive people.