1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:00,919 Hello. 2 00:00:00,919 --> 00:00:02,233 It is still November. 3 00:00:02,233 --> 00:00:04,528 The heat just kicked on, but I don't care. 4 00:00:04,528 --> 00:00:09,492 And today, I'm going to make my car charging station boil water very quickly. 5 00:00:09,492 --> 00:00:14,647 And I'm going to do it using this British kettle which I have made work with a car charging station 6 00:00:14,647 --> 00:00:20,119 using this very cursed adapter I built using very cursed parts. 7 00:00:20,119 --> 00:00:24,386 Now, before I hear any complaints  about the effort that got put into this one, 8 00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:30,560 this video is basically a repeat of that time  I made a shop heater with a J1772 connector,   9 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:34,886 allowing me to use my car charging station as a  nice and convenient power cable 10 00:00:34,886 --> 00:00:42,885 that delivers 240 volts AC (which in case you didn't know, is all  a level two charging station actually does). 11 00:00:42,885 --> 00:00:49,126 But this time I put that connector onto an electrical  box and on the other side of it... 12 00:00:49,126 --> 00:00:51,232 is this horrible thing. 13 00:00:51,232 --> 00:00:53,048 But more on that later. 14 00:00:53,048 --> 00:00:55,663 You might wonder why I've done this. 15 00:00:55,663 --> 00:01:03,668 Well, you see, I have a few British friends who have all expressed frustration at how slow electric kettles are here in the US. 16 00:01:03,668 --> 00:01:10,701 Because of our 120 volt household power and the desire to maintain compatibility with smaller 15 amp circuits, 17 00:01:10,701 --> 00:01:15,551 most ordinary appliances are limited to 1,500W of power, 18 00:01:15,551 --> 00:01:17,783 and kettles are no exception. 19 00:01:17,783 --> 00:01:24,705 Put that much power into a liter of room temperature water, and it will take about 4 minutes for that water to boil. 20 00:01:24,705 --> 00:01:28,775 Now, personally, I think that's plenty fast 21 00:01:28,775 --> 00:01:34,296 but because the Brits have 13 amps of  230 volt power at every receptacle, 22 00:01:34,296 --> 00:01:40,100 they can shove three whole kilowatts of power into their water boily things. 23 00:01:40,100 --> 00:01:43,794 And because they can, they do. 24 00:01:43,794 --> 00:01:45,563 And today, they're so used to this 25 00:01:45,563 --> 00:01:51,681 that the absurdity of a plastic countertop appliance sucking down more power than my home's central air conditioner 26 00:01:51,681 --> 00:01:53,403 just doesn't quite register. 27 00:01:53,403 --> 00:01:59,491 Fun fact, the BBC used to have to share when breaks in their programming would happen with the National Grid 28 00:01:59,491 --> 00:02:03,149 because half a million people getting up to put the kettle on all at the same time 29 00:02:03,149 --> 00:02:08,740 meant there was suddenly a large nuclear  reactor's worth of power draw to be dealt with. 30 00:02:08,740 --> 00:02:10,735 For making tea. 31 00:02:10,735 --> 00:02:12,603 And other hot beverages, probably. 32 00:02:12,603 --> 00:02:14,368 Ooh, maybe even porridge. 33 00:02:14,368 --> 00:02:19,473 Uh, anyway, after I made that video on the shop heater powered by my charging station, 34 00:02:19,473 --> 00:02:26,495 a certain slow-mo guy named Gav suggested I make a kettle that works with a car charger. 35 00:02:26,495 --> 00:02:28,551 That sounded delightfully up my alley, 36 00:02:28,640 --> 00:02:31,003 so I promised I would make that happen. 37 00:02:31,003 --> 00:02:32,174 And here we go! 38 00:02:32,670 --> 00:02:40,032 First, I would need to get my hands on a kettle designed to work with the 240 volt electricity my car charging station puts out. 39 00:02:40,032 --> 00:02:47,812 So, I imported this British kettle, which draws the customary 3,000 watts from the wall. 40 00:02:47,812 --> 00:02:52,059 Next, I would need a way to power this kettle from my charging station. 41 00:02:52,059 --> 00:02:54,251 Now, I could have done the sensible thing, 42 00:02:54,251 --> 00:02:59,081 which would be to build an adapter like this with a NEMA 6-20 receptacle 43 00:02:59,081 --> 00:03:04,404 and then cut the end off of this cord and connect it up to a NEMA 6-20 plug. 44 00:03:05,221 --> 00:03:10,779 But a while ago, someone on the internet made me aware that Leviton sells this thing. 45 00:03:11,567 --> 00:03:16,233 Yes, this is a real product you can buy for some reason. 46 00:03:16,233 --> 00:03:27,280 The Leviton BSRDP-W is a single BS1363 receptacle designed to fit into a North American junction box. 47 00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:29,167 Why on Earth do they sell this? 48 00:03:29,167 --> 00:03:30,637 I have no idea! 49 00:03:30,637 --> 00:03:34,783 There's no way this would be to code anywhere you might install it. 50 00:03:34,783 --> 00:03:36,803 [sudden muzak] 51 00:03:36,803 --> 00:03:40,194 Okay, so this instruction sheet made me dig a little deeper 52 00:03:40,194 --> 00:03:47,450 and it would seem that Saudi Arabia's current  SASO standards call for type G plugs and sockets 53 00:03:47,450 --> 00:03:48,843 (that's the British one). 54 00:03:48,843 --> 00:03:58,350 But it seems that in the past they and/or perhaps other Gulf countries were following NEMA standards for junction boxes, etc. 55 00:03:58,350 --> 00:04:01,499 This device meets SASO standards 56 00:04:01,499 --> 00:04:07,441 and that little symbol above the 0007 is the Gulf Conformity Mark of the Gulf Cooperation Council 57 00:04:07,441 --> 00:04:13,889 and so I think it is intended for use in retrofit situations in those countries. 58 00:04:13,889 --> 00:04:19,202 So it's got a real use case... but certainly not here. 59 00:04:19,202 --> 00:04:26,239 Because we use split-phase power over here, nothing you might plug into this will be correctly wired. 60 00:04:26,239 --> 00:04:29,934 It will function just fine - no electrical load knows the difference 61 00:04:29,934 --> 00:04:37,889 - but these two pins will both be live at 120 volts potential to ground, which means depending on how a device was wired, 62 00:04:37,889 --> 00:04:41,301 it may always be energized, even if switched off. 63 00:04:41,301 --> 00:04:43,446 Which might be shocking. 64 00:04:43,657 --> 00:04:49,840 Now, Leviton was smart enough to make sure this switch  is a double pole switch that isolates both pins.   65 00:04:49,840 --> 00:04:53,339 But still, this is all kinds of weird! 66 00:04:53,339 --> 00:04:55,981 And yet it exists. 67 00:04:55,981 --> 00:05:04,430 So, I threw together this adapter, which simply has the line one, line two, and ground pins of the J1772 connector 68 00:05:04,430 --> 00:05:09,577 wired directly to the cursed receptacle on the other side. 69 00:05:09,577 --> 00:05:11,844 Am I showing you what's inside of here? 70 00:05:11,844 --> 00:05:12,980 No! 71 00:05:12,980 --> 00:05:17,697 And to make the charging station think it's  plugged into a car which is requesting power, 72 00:05:17,697 --> 00:05:25,277 the control pilot pin is connected to the ground  pin through an 882ish ohm resistor and a diode. 73 00:05:25,277 --> 00:05:29,427 Now plugging this into my charging station causes it to go [clack] 74 00:05:29,427 --> 00:05:35,047 and energize this receptacle with the correct voltage but in the wrong way. 75 00:05:35,047 --> 00:05:36,747 It will work, though. 76 00:05:36,747 --> 00:05:38,871 So let's do a little test. 77 00:05:38,871 --> 00:05:44,411 Here's an American kettle plugged into the wall and bringing this much water to a boil. 78 00:05:44,411 --> 00:05:47,640 This is almost exactly one liter, but not quite. 79 00:05:47,640 --> 00:05:52,002 The important thing is I'm using the exact same amount of water with every test. 80 00:05:52,002 --> 00:05:56,904 The water was 63.7° F or 17.6 C. 81 00:05:56,904 --> 00:06:05,743 And with the kettle pulling about 1,460 watts, it took 4 minutes and 5 seconds to hit my subjective definition of boiling. 82 00:06:05,743 --> 00:06:12,651 And for a slightly less subjective definition, the kettle switched itself off at 4 minutes 17 seconds. 83 00:06:12,651 --> 00:06:15,944 But I had a second American kettle to test. 84 00:06:15,944 --> 00:06:18,656 This cheaper model has an exposed heating element. 85 00:06:18,656 --> 00:06:22,612 And since it becomes completely submerged when filled with water, 86 00:06:22,612 --> 00:06:28,035 there are absolutely no heat losses to the air below the kettle. 87 00:06:28,035 --> 00:06:33,746 That doesn't matter very much,  but you'll see why I also tested this one later. 88 00:06:33,840 --> 00:06:39,550 This one was filled with water at 63.1° F or 17.3 C. 89 00:06:39,550 --> 00:06:46,416 And after a failed start because it wasn't seated properly, it drew 1,420 watts from the wall 90 00:06:46,416 --> 00:06:51,747 and required 4 minutes and 15 seconds to hit my subjective definition of boiling. 91 00:06:51,747 --> 00:06:55,800 And it switched itself off at the 4 minute 35 seconds mark. 92 00:06:55,800 --> 00:07:02,427 So, both of these kettles require about 4 minutes of time to boil about a liter of water. 93 00:07:02,427 --> 00:07:06,921 And now it's time to see how much faster a right proper kettle is. 94 00:07:06,921 --> 00:07:12,572 This time the water was at 61.8° F or 16.6 C. 95 00:07:12,572 --> 00:07:14,860 And I want you to notice something here. 96 00:07:14,860 --> 00:07:17,773 This is just under 1 liter of water. 97 00:07:17,773 --> 00:07:24,077 And when I placed it in this kettle, the water line went up to about the 4.5 mark. 98 00:07:24,077 --> 00:07:25,586 That doesn't make any sense. 99 00:07:25,586 --> 00:07:29,648 So this is 4.5... what exactly? 100 00:07:29,648 --> 00:07:31,386 Oh, I found the answer. 101 00:07:31,386 --> 00:07:34,792 And having found it, I simply cannot resist pointing out 102 00:07:34,792 --> 00:07:40,741 that every kettle I have ever used here in the US tells you its capacity in liters. 103 00:07:40,741 --> 00:07:46,435 Yet, this British kettle has markings for, and I swear I'm not making this up, 104 00:07:46,435 --> 00:07:48,616 breakfast cups. 105 00:07:48,616 --> 00:07:52,397 Not an ordinary British cup, which is six imperial fluid ounces, 106 00:07:52,397 --> 00:07:59,643 but a British breakfast cup, which is eight imperial fluid ounces or 7.69 US fluid ounces - 107 00:07:59,643 --> 00:08:03,832 That's right, our ounces, pints, and gallons aren't the same, in case you didn't know, 108 00:08:03,832 --> 00:08:06,789 or 227 milliliters. 109 00:08:06,789 --> 00:08:12,821 So, the next time any of you out there who speak metric get annoyed that I forgot to include a conversion for you, 110 00:08:12,821 --> 00:08:18,960 I want you to remember this little adventure  where we all learned what the [bleep] a breakfast cup is. 111 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:26,341 Now, in fairness, I can't be too annoyed about  this thing using a weird non-standard cup 112 00:08:26,341 --> 00:08:31,503 because for us Yanks, although 8 ounces defines our standard cup, 113 00:08:31,503 --> 00:08:35,280 a cup of coffee is only 6 ounces. 114 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:40,495 If you've ever wondered why your coffee pot has smaller than a cup cups, that's why. 115 00:08:40,495 --> 00:08:47,197 So, we've also got our fair share of strange customary units  for hot beverage purposes hanging around. 116 00:08:47,197 --> 00:08:53,180 And I suppose it's a fun coincidence that we've got 8 oz standard cups and 6 oz coffee cups 117 00:08:53,180 --> 00:08:59,664 while the Brits have 6 oz standard cups and 8 oz... breakfast cups. 118 00:08:59,664 --> 00:09:07,379 Actually, it's only through figuring out what this unit is on this kettle that I learned British cups are 6 ounces. 119 00:09:07,379 --> 00:09:12,488 What's going on there? You have 20 cups in an imperial gallon? 120 00:09:12,488 --> 00:09:16,240 At least our customary  units consistently work in powers of two. 121 00:09:16,960 --> 00:09:19,482 ...until you get down to the teaspoon - 122 00:09:19,482 --> 00:09:21,549 Anyway, enough about strange units. 123 00:09:21,549 --> 00:09:25,931 How long does it take this British kettle to boil that water? 124 00:09:25,931 --> 00:09:30,645 Well, we have twice as much power going into this thing, so if the maths work out, 125 00:09:30,645 --> 00:09:32,969 it should only take about 2 minutes. 126 00:09:32,969 --> 00:09:33,958 And whaddya know! 127 00:09:33,958 --> 00:09:38,770 It took 1 minute 55 seconds to hit my subjective definition of boiling. 128 00:09:38,770 --> 00:09:42,921 And it switched itself off at the 2 minute 10 second mark. 129 00:09:42,921 --> 00:09:46,683 That sure is quite a lot faster than what the other two can manage. 130 00:09:46,683 --> 00:09:52,602 And I suppose if you're a big tea drinking culture, it would be nice to shave a couple of minutes off the boiling time. 131 00:09:53,769 --> 00:10:03,210 But I still think it's kind of bonkers that shoving 3 kilowatts into a cheap plastic kettle is just a normal thing over there. 132 00:10:03,210 --> 00:10:04,964 But then I thought... 133 00:10:04,964 --> 00:10:09,121 what if we shoved 6kW into a cheap plastic kettle? 134 00:10:09,121 --> 00:10:14,409 Because you see, if I were to hook up an American kettle to 240 volt power, 135 00:10:14,409 --> 00:10:20,781 Ohm's law would dictate that it will consume twice as much current than it will from a 120 volt supply. 136 00:10:20,781 --> 00:10:23,845 And by also having twice as much voltage, 137 00:10:23,845 --> 00:10:31,726 that means its power draw will quadruple from 1,500 watts to 6,000 watts. 138 00:10:31,726 --> 00:10:34,585 And that's why I made this other adapter. 139 00:10:34,585 --> 00:10:36,671 This is a NEMA 6-20, 140 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:42,199 one of the various 240 volt receptacles we have here, but which are rarely ever seen. 141 00:10:42,199 --> 00:10:49,280 And with a matching plug and a little bit of choppy choppy,  I can send 240 volts through these cheap kettles.   142 00:10:49,280 --> 00:10:52,961 And my charging station can supply up to 7.5 kW. 143 00:10:52,961 --> 00:10:58,611 So, it should have no trouble at all dealing with the 6 kW kettle I'm about to make. 144 00:10:58,611 --> 00:11:03,270 Now, obviously, don't do this at home for lots of reasons. 145 00:11:03,270 --> 00:11:07,220 One, I will be overloading the NEMA 6-20 slightly. 146 00:11:07,220 --> 00:11:13,147 The kettle's gonna draw about 24 amps when the receptacle and plug are only rated for 20. 147 00:11:13,147 --> 00:11:18,710 But even worse, the wires going to the kettle are going to be overloaded by quite a good deal. 148 00:11:18,710 --> 00:11:23,954 This is only 16 gauge wire, which should only really have 13 amps pushed through it, 149 00:11:23,954 --> 00:11:26,453 but we're doing 24. 150 00:11:26,453 --> 00:11:31,479 Now, honestly, the kettle should only run for about 1 minute before the water boils. 151 00:11:31,479 --> 00:11:37,883 So, I won't be overloading it for long at all, and I doubt any of the electrical connections are going to get very warm. 152 00:11:37,883 --> 00:11:43,894 But, I'll be shoving a stupid amount of power through a very small heating element inside a plastic kettle. 153 00:11:43,894 --> 00:11:46,913 So, you know, stuff might go wrong. 154 00:11:46,913 --> 00:11:49,457 Only one way to find out, though! 155 00:11:49,457 --> 00:11:51,620 I had a fire extinguisher at the ready 156 00:11:51,620 --> 00:11:58,758 and filled this kettle with my standard  not-quite-liter at 65 Fahrenheit, 18.3 C. 157 00:11:58,758 --> 00:12:04,020 The power switch did not latch correctly, so the start  wasn't perfect, but even still, 158 00:12:04,020 --> 00:12:08,471 this thing got the water boiling in just 55 seconds. 159 00:12:08,471 --> 00:12:11,446 Not such a slow kettle anymore, huh? 160 00:12:11,446 --> 00:12:14,652 You'll notice the water is boiling quite violently. 161 00:12:14,652 --> 00:12:18,902 I'm not sure it would be safe to actually fill this thing up all the way. 162 00:12:18,902 --> 00:12:21,182 But boy is it quick! 163 00:12:21,182 --> 00:12:29,139 And sure enough, it was powered for such a brief period of time that the power cord had barely warmed up at all to the touch. 164 00:12:29,139 --> 00:12:33,823 Now, I decided to do this again with a cleaner start and with colder water. 165 00:12:33,823 --> 00:12:39,165 This time, the water was 60.8 F, which is exactly 16 C. 166 00:12:39,165 --> 00:12:43,876 And well, if the colder water made a difference, it wasn't enough to tell. 167 00:12:43,876 --> 00:12:50,010 Because again, it was violently boiling by the 55 second mark, and the kettle switched itself off about 7 seconds later. 168 00:12:51,241 --> 00:12:53,279 So, we learned a few things. 169 00:12:53,279 --> 00:12:57,761 One, this does indeed work to make a stupidly fast kettle. 170 00:12:57,761 --> 00:13:01,570 Two, it's probably not safe to fill this up with any more than a liter of water, 171 00:13:01,570 --> 00:13:04,261 or else it'll probably throw boiling water out of itself. 172 00:13:04,261 --> 00:13:08,164 And three, it survived long enough to do the test twice. 173 00:13:08,164 --> 00:13:10,580 But then I noticed something. 174 00:13:10,580 --> 00:13:12,609 Long after it had switched off, 175 00:13:12,609 --> 00:13:19,627 this steady stream of bubbles was coming up from where the heating element is bonded to its little support bracket. 176 00:13:19,627 --> 00:13:25,796 These bubbles kept going for several minutes, but there were no signs of an external leak. 177 00:13:25,796 --> 00:13:31,580 I thought it might be possible that a pinhole leak in the heating element had formed. 178 00:13:31,580 --> 00:13:35,838 See, everywhere else on the heating element is completely submerged in water, 179 00:13:35,838 --> 00:13:39,734 which will do a great job taking heat energy away from it. 180 00:13:39,734 --> 00:13:47,590 But that little connection point there might have stayed dry enough for the heating element to melt a small hole in itself. 181 00:13:47,590 --> 00:13:54,000 And those bubbles might be the result of air inside the heating element being displaced with water. 182 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:58,842 And if that is a leak, it would be very dangerous to use again. 183 00:13:58,842 --> 00:14:03,797 I decided to let this sit overnight full of  water so I could investigate this later. 184 00:14:03,797 --> 00:14:06,681 For now, I had another kettle to test. 185 00:14:06,681 --> 00:14:13,608 This one has its heating element bonded to the bottom of its stainless steel interior, which is a very common design. 186 00:14:13,608 --> 00:14:17,545 It can apparently handle 3 kW without an issue. 187 00:14:17,545 --> 00:14:20,035 But what about six? 188 00:14:20,035 --> 00:14:24,563 Well, again, only one way to find out! 189 00:14:24,563 --> 00:14:29,392 This kettle also only needed about 55 seconds to get the water boiling, 190 00:14:29,392 --> 00:14:33,696 but the water inside was boiling much more violently than the last kettle. 191 00:14:33,696 --> 00:14:40,049 You can quite clearly see the steam which activates the auto stop feature flying out near the power switch. 192 00:14:40,808 --> 00:14:42,420 Uh yeah, in case you didn't know, 193 00:14:42,420 --> 00:14:47,757 there's a bimetallic disc down here which will snap and shut the power off once it gets hot. 194 00:14:47,757 --> 00:14:53,965 And it's this tube here at the top which will direct steam down to that disc once the water is actually boiling 195 00:14:53,965 --> 00:14:57,086 that makes the disc snap and shuts off the kettle. 196 00:14:57,086 --> 00:14:59,342 Steve Mould taught me that. 197 00:14:59,342 --> 00:15:03,275 I picked the kettle up after it shut off and felt the bottom of it. 198 00:15:03,275 --> 00:15:06,809 To my surprise, it wasn't really warm at all. 199 00:15:06,809 --> 00:15:10,201 The electrical contacts were quite hot, 200 00:15:10,201 --> 00:15:15,377 but it didn't seem like the plastics  had gotten any more than slightly warm. 201 00:15:15,377 --> 00:15:18,476 Water is really good at absorbing heat energy, 202 00:15:18,476 --> 00:15:25,249 but I figured the embedded heating element would direct at least some of its heat downward at the base. 203 00:15:25,249 --> 00:15:28,238 If it did, it was hardly noticeable. 204 00:15:28,238 --> 00:15:30,968 But that's where the good news ends. 205 00:15:30,968 --> 00:15:35,686 I tried to do this again and discovered it ain't working no more. 206 00:15:35,686 --> 00:15:39,070 The neon indicator in the switch was still lighting up, 207 00:15:39,070 --> 00:15:41,382 but no more boily boily. 208 00:15:41,382 --> 00:15:44,763 So, this was a very fast kettle... 209 00:15:44,763 --> 00:15:46,003 once. 210 00:15:46,003 --> 00:15:48,398 Which is honestly what I expected. 211 00:15:48,398 --> 00:15:53,552 I figured these things would have some sort of thermal fuse which will blow if it gets too hot. 212 00:15:53,552 --> 00:15:57,597 Like for instance, if you switched it on without any water in it. 213 00:15:57,597 --> 00:16:01,406 And since this one only has the water on one side of the heating element, 214 00:16:01,406 --> 00:16:07,714 it stands to reason that 6,000 watts of power simply got the fuse too hot. 215 00:16:07,714 --> 00:16:10,413 But I wanted to know why exactly it failed. 216 00:16:10,413 --> 00:16:16,190 And with the other kettle's mysterious bubbling, there were now two things to investigate. 217 00:16:16,190 --> 00:16:21,076 First, if this kettle has a thermal fuse, it's integral to the heating element. 218 00:16:21,076 --> 00:16:23,366 I don't see any sort of separate component. 219 00:16:23,366 --> 00:16:25,915 And when I checked the heating element with an ohm meter, 220 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:30,067 it shows either open circuit or quite a few megaohms. 221 00:16:30,067 --> 00:16:32,756 However, it blew, it blew. 222 00:16:32,756 --> 00:16:38,628 The water simply couldn't pull the heat away quite as fast as it needed to, and this burnt itself out. 223 00:16:38,628 --> 00:16:41,832 But nothing down here seems like it got very hot. 224 00:16:41,832 --> 00:16:46,696 All the plastic looks undamaged, and I sure didn't smell anything during the test. 225 00:16:47,805 --> 00:16:53,239 That doesn't really matter as it's still broken, but honestly, I expected a little more carnage. 226 00:16:53,239 --> 00:16:57,951 And now to see if this heating element was actually filling up with water. 227 00:16:57,951 --> 00:17:03,098 I removed it from the kettle and then used a Dremel tool to cut a slice through the heating element. 228 00:17:03,098 --> 00:17:05,789 I found absolutely no signs of moisture. 229 00:17:05,789 --> 00:17:10,276 And I even heated it up with a torch to see if any steam might come out. 230 00:17:10,276 --> 00:17:12,803 So I was apparently chasing a phantom there. 231 00:17:12,803 --> 00:17:16,575 That was probably just a nucleation site of some sort. 232 00:17:16,575 --> 00:17:21,506 However, cutting into this revealed that the magnesium oxide which fills the tube 233 00:17:21,506 --> 00:17:29,369 and maintains an insulating gap between the electrically conductive nichrome wire in the center and the steel sides of the tube, 234 00:17:29,369 --> 00:17:32,274 appears to have fused together. 235 00:17:32,274 --> 00:17:40,821 The last one of these that I cut through had the magnesium oxide escaping like sand, but here it's now all quite solid. 236 00:17:40,821 --> 00:17:47,775 I couldn't bend this any more than you see here because the tube seems to be filled with solid rock now. 237 00:17:47,775 --> 00:17:50,629 And honestly, that makes sense. 238 00:17:50,629 --> 00:17:56,326 The actual heat was coming from that nichrome wire in the center of this tubing. 239 00:17:56,326 --> 00:18:02,171 So, while the water could do a great job keeping the exterior of the tube relatively cool, 240 00:18:02,171 --> 00:18:06,012 the inside of the tube was getting stupid hot. 241 00:18:06,012 --> 00:18:11,377 Just for comparison's sake, the 7.5 kilowatt shop heater which started this project 242 00:18:11,377 --> 00:18:15,946 spreads those kilowatts between six heating element sections. 243 00:18:15,946 --> 00:18:20,123 This little coil here is about as long as just one of those, 244 00:18:20,123 --> 00:18:24,923 but it was producing nearly as much heat as the entire heater does. 245 00:18:24,923 --> 00:18:28,810 If we could have seen the insides of the tube while it was on, 246 00:18:28,810 --> 00:18:35,463 I'm sure it would have been glowing quite brightly, and I doubt this would have lasted more than a few more cycles. 247 00:18:35,463 --> 00:18:40,201 I was tempted to get another one of these kettles to see how long it might last, 248 00:18:40,201 --> 00:18:46,299 but that would have been effort and I already feel bad enough for murdering two of them. 249 00:18:46,299 --> 00:18:48,591 So, what have we learned today? 250 00:18:48,591 --> 00:18:52,041 Well, British kettles are indeed quite fast, 251 00:18:52,041 --> 00:18:57,443 but hook an American kettle up to 240 volts and it's way faster. 252 00:18:58,581 --> 00:18:59,662 Once. 253 00:18:59,662 --> 00:19:02,621 We also learned what a breakfast cup is. 254 00:19:02,621 --> 00:19:07,764 And we learned that Leviton makes this thing for some reason. 255 00:19:07,764 --> 00:19:12,915 Now if you live in North America and actually wanted to have a 3 kW kettle, 256 00:19:12,915 --> 00:19:20,635 one way you could do that is to ask an electrician to install one of these NEMA 6-20 receptacles in your kitchen. 257 00:19:20,635 --> 00:19:25,513 That's a bit easier said than done due to the requirement for GFCI protection in kitchens 258 00:19:25,513 --> 00:19:28,999 and the need for two free slots in your breaker panel, 259 00:19:28,999 --> 00:19:34,197 but with the appropriate breakers, it can be done safely and to code. 260 00:19:34,197 --> 00:19:39,659 That will allow you to use 240 volt appliances with a relatively normal receptacle 261 00:19:39,659 --> 00:19:43,151 and not one of our various terrifying monster plugs. 262 00:19:43,151 --> 00:19:47,746 The next part though becomes some  flavor of sketchy no matter what. 263 00:19:47,746 --> 00:19:52,013 I cannot find any 240 volt kettles for sale here, 264 00:19:52,013 --> 00:19:56,542 which means you'll have to do what I did and import a British or European one, 265 00:19:56,542 --> 00:20:01,327 then chop off its plug and wire it to one of these. 266 00:20:01,327 --> 00:20:05,999 And the trouble there is again our split-phase power. 267 00:20:05,999 --> 00:20:09,809 Any kettle you might import will work just fine, 268 00:20:09,809 --> 00:20:15,271 but the neutral wires inside of it will not actually be wired to neutral any longer. 269 00:20:15,271 --> 00:20:18,930 They will be live at 120 volts to ground. 270 00:20:18,930 --> 00:20:24,164 Whether that actually creates a safety hazard  depends on a whole bunch of factors. 271 00:20:24,164 --> 00:20:32,630 And to be honest, since not all plug standards in Europe are actually polarized, I feel like most designs out there would be fine. 272 00:20:32,630 --> 00:20:39,083 But you will be committed to using an imported, modified appliance that you stuck a different plug on. 273 00:20:39,083 --> 00:20:42,494 And insurance companies may not like that so much. 274 00:20:42,494 --> 00:20:44,489 So keep that in mind. 275 00:20:44,489 --> 00:20:48,768 If however you've got one of them fancy induction stoves, 276 00:20:48,768 --> 00:20:54,666 then any ordinary stovetop kettle (that's compatible with induction cooktops of course) 277 00:20:54,666 --> 00:20:58,354 can be just as fast as this British kettle. 278 00:20:58,354 --> 00:21:02,443 In fact, possibly faster depending on your stove. 279 00:21:02,443 --> 00:21:04,863 I am talking proper stoves, though. 280 00:21:04,863 --> 00:21:12,980 Those plug-in induction hot plates are limited to the same power as a plug-in kettle, so don't expect those to save you any time. 281 00:21:12,980 --> 00:21:20,567 If you've got a built-in cooktop or range with induction burners, though, a stovetop kettle should be wicked fast. 282 00:21:20,567 --> 00:21:22,729 And you get the benefit of a whistle! 283 00:21:22,729 --> 00:21:24,368 What's not to like? 284 00:21:24,368 --> 00:21:27,954 Actually, while I know it's not really saving me any time, 285 00:21:27,954 --> 00:21:32,861 I have switched to a stovetop kettle which I use with an induction hot plate. 286 00:21:32,861 --> 00:21:38,998 I have a conventional radiant stove, which honestly I enjoy using more than my induction plate 287 00:21:38,998 --> 00:21:43,792 mainly because it has real knobs that are actually infinitely adjustable. 288 00:21:43,792 --> 00:21:49,159 But when I'm bringing water to a boil,  the induction plate is significantly faster. 289 00:21:49,159 --> 00:21:54,179 So, since I keep that thing next to my stove for making pasta or whatever, 290 00:21:54,179 --> 00:21:58,161 rather than take up even more counter space with a plug-in kettle, 291 00:21:58,161 --> 00:22:00,775 I just leave one of these things on there. 292 00:22:01,534 --> 00:22:07,478 But now, if I need to boil eight breakfast cups of water even faster, 293 00:22:07,478 --> 00:22:09,583 I'll just head out to the garage. 294 00:22:10,488 --> 00:22:12,998 ♫ anglo-saxophonically smooth jaxx ♫ 295 00:22:14,866 --> 00:22:16,342 Why am I doing this? 296 00:22:16,342 --> 00:22:20,562 ...because of our 120 volt household voltage [bong from phone] 297 00:22:22,313 --> 00:22:23,586 oops 298 00:22:23,586 --> 00:22:29,713 ...could have done the sensible thing which would be to build an adapter like this with a NEMA 6-20 receptacle 299 00:22:29,713 --> 00:22:32,427 and then cut the end off of this caaard 300 00:22:32,427 --> 00:22:34,357 coorrrd coorrd. 301 00:22:35,261 --> 00:22:36,000 Welp. 302 00:22:36,926 --> 00:22:39,226 We're having a hard time with this line today. 303 00:22:39,226 --> 00:22:43,161 First, if this kettle has a thermal fuse... 304 00:22:43,161 --> 00:22:44,972 I'm trying to pry it open. 305 00:22:44,972 --> 00:22:46,069 [laughs] 306 00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:49,804 Oh, I screwed it back together. I forgot I did that. 307 00:22:54,328 --> 00:22:55,529 Did I not - ugh 308 00:22:56,317 --> 00:22:58,452 That means I have to  take it apart again to film the 309 00:23:00,495 --> 00:23:04,047 I will never let go of this "breakfast cup" thing. 310 00:23:04,047 --> 00:23:08,653 Just had to invent and standardize a whole unit based on "a cup for drinking tea or coffee while eating breakfast," huh? 311 00:23:08,653 --> 00:23:11,897 And you actually put that on your kettles! 312 00:23:11,897 --> 00:23:14,071 Never again are Brits allowed to suggest American units are uniquely arbitrary and weird. 313 00:23:14,071 --> 00:23:15,358 Now go eat a crumpet.