What's the point of a Vektra kettle?

waqasahmed

I've looked into it, and it looks like it basically has a flask style design where it keeps your water hot for a while 

That's all well and good, but if you're boiling a kettle for the exact amount you need it for every time, then what real benefit do you get with a thermally insulated kettle?

It does have temperature options, but so do others 

Petriix

Basically the less heat lost to the atmosphere, the less energy wasted overall. Heating a regular kettle multiple times, even with the exact amount of water required, will mean the kettle itself heats up and then loses that heat to the room.

Hopefully with the insulated kettle you'll lose less heat to the room with more energy being retained inside the kettle (and it's remaining water) therefore requiring less energy to boil for a second or subsequent time. I imagine there's practically zero gain if you only boil the kettle once or twice a day, but some benefits for those who drink many cups of tea at regular intervals. 

Officer_Dibble

They're also lower power than traditional kettles (under 2kW) so are useful if you have solar panels and want to avoid high peaks of demand - less risk of you having to draw from the grid while it's boiling. The "kettle" we use is even more extreme, more like an insulated urn that boils fairly slowly but leaves you with hot water on tap for the day.

t0rt0ise

Ew! Got to make tea with freshly boiled water. Tastes horrible otherwise.

TheGardener

In a house where up to 6 people can be coming down for breakfast in the space of an hour - and potentially boiling the kettle 6 times...the Vektra has proved a great buy (got it on promotion) because its filled, boiled once, and then as it has a jug/carafe style, its put on the table and everyone uses it from there. 
You can choose what temperature you want to heat water to from 50 through 100 Degs so warm water for hot water bottles etc
It doesn't maintain the 100 temp for more than an hour tbh and @Petriix has a good point - not much use if you don't use a kettle often but the lower wattage is useful.

Qyburn

t0rt0ise said:

Ew! Got to make tea with freshly boiled water. Tastes horrible otherwise.

Exactly - glad I'm not the only one

diystarter7

Petriix said:

Basically the less heat lost to the atmosphere, the less energy wasted overall. Heating a regular kettle multiple times, even with the exact amount of water required, will mean the kettle itself heats up and then loses that heat to the room.

Hopefully with the insulated kettle you'll lose less heat to the room with more energy being retained inside the kettle (and it's remaining water) therefore requiring less energy to boil for a second or subsequent time. I imagine there's practically zero gain if you only boil the kettle once or twice a day, but some benefits for those who drink many cups of tea at regular intervals. 

Hi

I was thinking like the OP

Very useful and helpful post, thanks

We may now consider this kettle.

Thanks

Astria

I have a similar kettle but it works more like a coffee machine instead of a kettle - instead of trying to boil all the water at the same time, it only heats the water as it comes out, so you get the exact amount every time and the heat loss is a lot less because of the tiny amount of water that's actually heated. Plus, doing it this way means you can have a water reservoir on the back so you don't have to fill it up every time you want a cuppa. Just put cup under with coffee or t bag in and press go. I find it useful for other drinks too as the temperature can be changed between 40c and boiling (which is more like "in excess of 95c" rather than exactly 100c for obvious reasons)

waqasahmed

TheGardener said:

In a house where up to 6 people can be coming down for breakfast in the space of an hour - and potentially boiling the kettle 6 times...the Vektra has proved a great buy (got it on promotion) because its filled, boiled once, and then as it has a jug/carafe style, its put on the table and everyone uses it from there. 
You can choose what temperature you want to heat water to from 50 through 100 Degs so warm water for hot water bottles etc
It doesn't maintain the 100 temp for more than an hour tbh and @Petriix has a good point - not much use if you don't use a kettle often but the lower wattage is useful.

That's fair RE: lower wattage. I've used my thermomix as a kettle and I quite like the lower wattage on that (ie: pulling much less from the grid) 

waqasahmed

Astria said:

I have a similar kettle but it works more like a coffee machine instead of a kettle - instead of trying to boil all the water at the same time, it only heats the water as it comes out, so you get the exact amount every time and the heat loss is a lot less because of the tiny amount of water that's actually heated. Plus, doing it this way means you can have a water reservoir on the back so you don't have to fill it up every time you want a cuppa. Just put cup under with coffee or t bag in and press go. I find it useful for other drinks too as the temperature can be changed between 40c and boiling (which is more like "in excess of 95c" rather than exactly 100c for obvious reasons)

What machine do you have?