1L of water boils in 3.5 min in my microwave. The microwave reheats leftovers and can cook certain food well. I don't have an electric kettle because I already have an appliance that out performs it. The only downside is that it offends my friends from tea centric countries.
this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2022
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A electric kettle is still a bit better than a microwave, but if you already own a microwave, I guess the energy used to make the kettle can be higher than the energy difference for some time.
I never tried tea from microwaved water, but according to rumours it makes the tea taste "off". Microwave ovens are also taking up more space, so unless you have got one already for different reasons than boiling water it would make more sense to use an electric kettle or just the stove if it is a modern (induction) one anyway.
I have heard the taste thing too (and some nonsense about radiation). Try it an have someone randomize the tasting for you. I did that and couldn't choose the microwaved water reliably. Your sense of taste might be better than mine though.
You're right that it takes up more space and it would make no sense if you only use it for boiling water. For me it is more versatile and worth the space.
Heating tea in a microwave oven sounds disgusting.
That's a popular opinion.
That's pretty much the only reason why people don't like microwaves... because all the other people don't like them.
Microwaves are all-around quite bad compared to a pan or pot. They are just faster, but that comes at a price in taste. Not worth it imo.
You're half right. Anything that you want browning on cannot be cooked in a microwave. Anything you would just give a short steam you can. Just need to understand the tool and its uses. High end restaurants use a microwave as part of normal dinner service (they pull out the dinging bell so you don't notice though).
That could explain why I dont like high-end restaurants.
Pans and pots are at the same time quite bad compared to an oven. At least if you want somethink baked. But that's of course an unfair comparison, because the methods and wanted results are completely different.
A microwave is not something that can do EVERYTHING better. Nobody ever said that.
When you microwave water you also get all that grease and whatever is in the microwave. It all vaporizes a little bit and settles on the top of your water. Unless you have a perfectly clean microwave.
Yuck
A normally cleaned microwave is significantly more hygienic than the normally cleaned kitchen. There's all kinds of stuff flying around everywhere, and almost none of it is bad for you.
If there is vaporized oil in your kitchen, you have a serious problem
lolol
Have you ever cooked for yourself? Doesn't sound like it to be honest.
I didn't say it was bad for you I said it tastes bad.
I suppose that could be true. I don't clean my microwave much and have never noticed a problem. If it is a problem for water it would be a problem for anything you put in there.
try this: microwave some water, then let it cool to room temperature, and then drink it. does it not taste different than room-temperature water that hasn't been in your microwave?
In addition to plain room temp tap water I will compare it to a different heating method. For me that will be stove top. I will edit this with results when the water cools.
Background: I decided to take this up because things are easier to taste at room temperature than if they're hot or cold. My previous comparison was done with hot tea and this seems like a better straight up control even if it doesn't directly reflect the real world use.
Method: I used unfiltered city water that is pretty average - not hard or anything like that. I brought it to just a boil with each method then left to come to room temperature. I tasted and so did my roommate. I marked the glasses and they mixed them up so neither of us knew which was which.
Results: There was a definite difference between boiled and not. Both boiled had a slight drying feel compared to straight from the tap and left to come up to room temp. There was an extremely slight difference between stove and microwave. The stove tasted a tiny bit flatter/blander and the microwave tasted a little more minerally. We could only find the differences by tasting very, very closely and I thought the flatter tasting one was going to be the microwave. Both of us would rather drink the straight tap water than boiled and cooled water.
Conclusions: For my use case the taste difference is so insignificant that it doesn't matter. It is also only a difference and not a better/worse judgement. I could probably do more to help the taste of my water by adding a filter than by adding a kettle.
Further research: I would be curious to see how the trial plays out in areas with hard water. The mineral taste from the microwave might be stronger in an area with a higher mineral content in the water to begin with.
thanks for the report!
Except because they are made out of plastic. :/
You can get stainless steel or stainless+glass ones! That's what we have.
Ive searched on the Latin American Amazon equivalent and I have not found one, but maybe I am not searching enough. Uwu
Look for a Zojirush water boiler. I have a 3L version that I bought used a few years ago for like $80 and it's even better than a regular electric kettle.
https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar/MLA-1108297812-water-boiler-warmer-_JM
This is the only one there is, it is used and made out of plastic. :/
The inside is metal. Pretty much any electric tea kettle is going to have some plastic in it.
Ahh, from the putside it looked like it was all plastic.
so strange... most of the kettles I've seen have just been metal or glass. you'd think having a plastic casing for something meant to produce large amounts of heat would be an issue...
Modern ones have tech in them that makes them automatically shut off once the water gets boiling, so they never get above 100C. Whatever plastic would be used for the device, has a melting temperature above that or else it would never get CE/TüV/KEMA approved.
Well, sure, but plastic degrades anyway by salt and minerals in the water plus the high temperature, so it is still not the best idea.