My car charger can boil water really fast

[00:00] Hello.

[00:00] It is still November.

[00:02] The heat just kicked on, but I don't care.

[00:04] And today, I'm going to make

[00:09] And I'm going to do it using this British kettle

[00:14] using this very cursed adapter

[00:20] Now, before I hear any complaints 

[00:24] this video is basically a repeat of that time 

[00:30] allowing me to use my car charging station as a 

[00:34] that delivers 240 volts AC (which in case you didn't know, is all 

[00:42] But this time I put that connector onto an electrical 

[00:49] is this horrible thing.

[00:51] But more on that later.

[00:53] You might wonder why I've done this.

[00:55] Well, you see, I have a few British friends who have all expressed frustration at how slow electric kettles are here in the US.

[01:03] Because of our 120 volt household power and the desire to maintain compatibility with smaller 15 amp circuits,

[01:10] most ordinary appliances are limited to 1,500W of power,

[01:15] and kettles are no exception.

[01:17] Put that much power into a liter of room temperature water, and it will take about 4 minutes for that water to boil.

[01:24] Now, personally, I think that's plenty fast

[01:28] but because the Brits have 13 amps of 

[01:34] they can shove three whole

[01:40] And because they can, they do.

[01:43] And today, they're so used to this

[01:45] that the absurdity of a plastic countertop appliance sucking down more power than my home's central air conditioner

[01:51] just doesn't quite register.

[01:53] Fun fact, the BBC used to have to share when breaks in their programming would happen with the National Grid

[01:59] because half a million people getting up

[02:03] meant there was suddenly a large nuclear 

[02:08] For making tea.

[02:10] And other hot beverages, probably.

[02:12] Ooh, maybe even porridge.

[02:14] Uh, anyway, after I made that video on

[02:19] a certain slow-mo guy named Gav suggested

[02:26] That sounded delightfully up my alley,

[02:28] so I promised I would make that happen.

[02:31] And here we go!

[02:32] 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.

[02:40] So, I imported this British kettle,

[02:47] Next, I would need a way

[02:52] Now, I could have done the sensible thing,

[02:54] which would be to build an adapter

[02:59] and then cut the end off of this cord

[03:05] But a while ago, someone on the internet

[03:11] Yes, this is a real product you can buy for some reason.

[03:16] The Leviton BSRDP-W is a single BS1363 receptacle

[03:27] Why on Earth do they sell this?

[03:29] I have no idea!

[03:30] There's no way this would be

[03:34] [sudden muzak]

[03:36] Okay, so this instruction sheet made me dig a little deeper

[03:40] and it would seem that Saudi Arabia's current 

[03:47] (that's the British one).

[03:48] But it seems that in the past they and/or perhaps other Gulf countries were following NEMA standards for junction boxes, etc.

[03:58] This device meets SASO standards

[04:01] and that little symbol above the 0007 is the

[04:07] and so I think it is intended

[04:13] So it's got a real use case... but certainly not here.

[04:19] Because we use split-phase power over here,

[04:26] It will function just fine - no electrical load knows the difference

[04:29] - but these two pins will both be live at 120 volts potential to ground, which means depending on how a device was wired,

[04:37] it may always be energized, even if switched off.

[04:41] Which might be shocking.

[04:43] Now, Leviton was smart enough to make sure this switch 

[04:49] But still, this is all kinds of weird!

[04:53] And yet it exists.

[04:55] So, I threw together this adapter, which simply has

[05:04] wired directly to the cursed receptacle on the other side.

[05:09] Am I showing you what's inside of here?

[05:11] No!

[05:12] And to make the charging station think it's 

[05:17] the control pilot pin is connected to the ground 

[05:25] Now plugging this into my

[05:29] and energize this receptacle

[05:35] It will work, though.

[05:36] So let's do a little test.

[05:38] Here's an American kettle plugged into the wall

[05:44] This is almost exactly one liter, but not quite.

[05:47] The important thing is

[05:52] The water was 63.7° F or 17.6 C.

[05:56] And with the kettle pulling about 1,460 watts, it took 4 minutes and 5 seconds to hit my subjective definition of boiling.

[06:05] And for a slightly less subjective definition,

[06:12] But I had a second American kettle to test.

[06:15] This cheaper model has an exposed heating element.

[06:18] And since it becomes completely submerged when filled with water,

[06:22] there are absolutely no heat losses to the air below the kettle.

[06:28] That doesn't matter very much, 

[06:33] This one was filled with water at 63.1° F or 17.3 C.

[06:39] And after a failed start because it

[06:46] and required 4 minutes and 15 seconds

[06:51] And it switched itself off at the 4 minute 35 seconds mark.

[06:55] So, both of these kettles require

[07:02] And now it's time to see

[07:06] This time the water was at 61.8° F or 16.6 C.

[07:12] And I want you to notice something here.

[07:14] This is just under 1 liter of water.

[07:17] And when I placed it in this kettle,

[07:24] That doesn't make any sense.

[07:25] So this is 4.5... what exactly?

[07:29] Oh, I found the answer.

[07:31] And having found it, I simply cannot resist pointing out

[07:34] that every kettle I have ever used

[07:40] Yet, this British kettle has markings for,

[07:46] breakfast cups.

[07:48] Not an ordinary British cup,

[07:52] but a British breakfast cup,

[07:59] That's right, our ounces, pints, and gallons

[08:03] or 227 milliliters.

[08:06] So, the next time any of you out there who speak metric get annoyed that I forgot to include a conversion for you,

[08:12] I want you to remember this little adventure 

[08:19] Now, in fairness, I can't be too annoyed about 

[08:26] because for us Yanks,

[08:31] a cup of coffee is only 6 ounces.

[08:35] If you've ever wondered why your coffee pot

[08:40] So, we've also got our fair share of strange customary units 

[08:47] And I suppose it's a fun coincidence that we've got 8 oz standard cups and 6 oz coffee cups

[08:53] while the Brits have

[08:59] Actually, it's only through figuring out what this unit is on this kettle that I learned British cups are 6 ounces.

[09:07] What's going on there? You have 20 cups in an imperial gallon?

[09:12] At least our customary 

[09:16] ...until you get down to the teaspoon -

[09:19] Anyway, enough about strange units.

[09:21] How long does it take this British kettle to boil that water?

[09:25] Well, we have twice as much power

[09:30] it should only take about 2 minutes.

[09:32] And whaddya know!

[09:33] It took 1 minute 55 seconds

[09:38] And it switched itself off at the 2 minute 10 second mark.

[09:42] That sure is quite a lot faster

[09:46] 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.

[09:53] 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.

[10:03] But then I thought...

[10:04] what if we shoved 6kW into a cheap plastic kettle?

[10:09] Because you see, if I were to

[10:14] Ohm's law would dictate that it will consume twice as much current than it will from a 120 volt supply.

[10:20] And by also having twice as much voltage,

[10:23] that means its power draw will

[10:31] And that's why I made this other adapter.

[10:34] This is a NEMA 6-20,

[10:36] one of the various 240 volt receptacles

[10:42] And with a matching plug and a little bit of choppy choppy, 

[10:49] And my charging station can supply up to 7.5 kW.

[10:52] So, it should have no trouble at all

[10:58] Now, obviously, don't do this at home for lots of reasons.

[11:03] One, I will be overloading the NEMA 6-20 slightly.

[11:07] The kettle's gonna draw about 24 amps

[11:13] But even worse, the wires going to the kettle

[11:18] This is only 16 gauge wire, which should

[11:23] but we're doing 24.

[11:26] Now, honestly, the kettle

[11:31] 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.

[11:37] But, I'll be shoving a stupid amount of power through a very small heating element inside a plastic kettle.

[11:43] So, you know, stuff might go wrong.

[11:46] Only one way to find out, though!

[11:49] I had a fire extinguisher at the ready

[11:51] and filled this kettle with my standard 

[11:58] The power switch did not latch correctly, so the start 

[12:04] this thing got the water boiling in just 55 seconds.

[12:08] Not such a slow kettle anymore, huh?

[12:11] You'll notice the water is boiling quite violently.

[12:14] I'm not sure it would be safe

[12:18] But boy is it quick!

[12:21] 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.

[12:29] Now, I decided to do this again

[12:33] This time, the water was 60.8 F, which is exactly 16 C.

[12:39] And well, if the colder water

[12:43] Because again, it was violently boiling by the 55 second mark,

[12:51] So, we learned a few things.

[12:53] One, this does indeed work to make a stupidly fast kettle.

[12:57] Two, it's probably not safe

[13:01] or else it'll probably throw boiling water out of itself.

[13:04] And three, it survived long enough to do the test twice.

[13:08] But then I noticed something.

[13:10] Long after it had switched off,

[13:12] this steady stream of bubbles was coming up from where the heating element is bonded to its little support bracket.

[13:19] These bubbles kept going for several minutes,

[13:25] I thought it might be possible

[13:31] See, everywhere else on the heating element

[13:35] which will do a great job taking heat energy away from it.

[13:39] But that little connection point there might have stayed dry enough for the heating element to melt a small hole in itself.

[13:47] And those bubbles might be the result of air

[13:54] And if that is a leak, it would be very dangerous to use again.

[13:58] I decided to let this sit overnight full of 

[14:03] For now, I had another kettle to test.

[14:06] This one has its heating element bonded to the bottom of its stainless steel interior, which is a very common design.

[14:13] It can apparently handle 3 kW without an issue.

[14:17] But what about six?

[14:20] Well, again, only one way to find out!

[14:24] This kettle also only needed

[14:29] but the water inside was boiling

[14:33] You can quite clearly see the steam which activates the auto stop feature flying out near the power switch.

[14:40] Uh yeah, in case you didn't know,

[14:42] there's a bimetallic disc down here

[14:47] And it's this tube here at the top which will direct steam down to that disc once the water is actually boiling

[14:53] that makes the disc snap and shuts off the kettle.

[14:57] Steve Mould taught me that.

[14:59] I picked the kettle up after it shut off and felt the bottom of it.

[15:03] To my surprise, it wasn't really warm at all.

[15:06] The electrical contacts were quite hot,

[15:10] but it didn't seem like the plastics 

[15:15] Water is really good at absorbing heat energy,

[15:18] but I figured the embedded heating element would direct at least some of its heat downward at the base.

[15:25] If it did, it was hardly noticeable.

[15:28] But that's where the good news ends.

[15:30] I tried to do this again and discovered it ain't working no more.

[15:35] The neon indicator in the switch was still lighting up,

[15:39] but no more boily boily.

[15:41] So, this was a very fast kettle...

[15:44] once.

[15:46] Which is honestly what I expected.

[15:48] I figured these things would have some sort of thermal fuse which will blow if it gets too hot.

[15:53] Like for instance, if you switched it on without any water in it.

[15:57] And since this one only has the water

[16:01] it stands to reason that

[16:07] But I wanted to know why exactly it failed.

[16:10] And with the other kettle's mysterious bubbling,

[16:16] First, if this kettle has a thermal fuse,

[16:21] I don't see any sort of separate component.

[16:23] And when I checked the heating element with an ohm meter,

[16:26] it shows either open circuit or quite a few megaohms.

[16:30] However, it blew, it blew.

[16:32] The water simply couldn't pull the heat away

[16:38] But nothing down here seems like it got very hot.

[16:41] All the plastic looks undamaged,

[16:47] That doesn't really matter as it's still broken,

[16:53] And now to see if this heating element

[16:57] I removed it from the kettle and then used a

[17:03] I found absolutely no signs of moisture.

[17:05] And I even heated it up with a

[17:10] So I was apparently chasing a phantom there.

[17:12] That was probably just a nucleation site of some sort.

[17:16] However, cutting into this revealed that

[17:21] and maintains an insulating gap between the electrically conductive nichrome wire in the center and the steel sides of the tube,

[17:29] appears to have fused together.

[17:32] The last one of these that I cut through had the magnesium oxide escaping like sand, but here it's now all quite solid.

[17:40] I couldn't bend this any more than you see here because the tube seems to be filled with solid rock now.

[17:47] And honestly, that makes sense.

[17:50] The actual heat was coming from that

[17:56] So, while the water could do a great job

[18:02] the inside of the tube was getting stupid hot.

[18:06] Just for comparison's sake,

[18:11] spreads those kilowatts between six heating element sections.

[18:15] This little coil here is about as long as just one of those,

[18:20] but it was producing nearly as much

[18:24] If we could have seen the insides of the tube while it was on,

[18:28] I'm sure it would have been glowing quite brightly, and I doubt this would have lasted more than a few more cycles.

[18:35] I was tempted to get another one of

[18:40] but that would have been effort

[18:46] So, what have we learned today?

[18:48] Well, British kettles are indeed quite fast,

[18:52] but hook an American kettle up to 240 volts and it's way faster.

[18:58] Once.

[18:59] We also learned what a breakfast cup is.

[19:02] And we learned that Leviton makes this thing for some reason.

[19:07] Now if you live in North America

[19:12] one way you could do that is to ask an electrician to install one of these NEMA 6-20 receptacles in your kitchen.

[19:20] That's a bit easier said than done

[19:25] and the need for two free slots in your breaker panel,

[19:28] but with the appropriate breakers,

[19:34] That will allow you to use

[19:39] and not one of our various terrifying monster plugs.

[19:43] The next part though becomes some 

[19:47] I cannot find any 240 volt kettles for sale here,

[19:52] which means you'll have to do

[19:56] then chop off its plug and wire it to one of these.

[20:01] And the trouble there is again our split-phase power.

[20:05] Any kettle you might import will work just fine,

[20:09] but the neutral wires inside of it

[20:15] They will be live at 120 volts to ground.

[20:18] Whether that actually creates a safety hazard 

[20:24] And to be honest, since not all plug standards in Europe are actually polarized, I feel like most designs out there would be fine.

[20:32] But you will be committed to using an imported,

[20:39] And insurance companies may not like that so much.

[20:42] So keep that in mind.

[20:44] If however you've got one of them fancy induction stoves,

[20:48] then any ordinary stovetop kettle

[20:54] can be just as fast as this British kettle.

[20:58] In fact, possibly faster depending on your stove.

[21:02] I am talking proper stoves, though.

[21:04] 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.

[21:12] If you've got a built-in cooktop or range with induction burners, though, a stovetop kettle should be wicked fast.

[21:20] And you get the benefit of a whistle!

[21:22] What's not to like?

[21:24] Actually, while I know it's not really saving me any time,

[21:27] I have switched to a stovetop kettle

[21:32] I have a conventional radiant stove,

[21:38] mainly because it has real knobs

[21:43] But when I'm bringing water to a boil, 

[21:49] So, since I keep that thing

[21:54] rather than take up

[21:58] I just leave one of these things on there.

[22:01] But now, if I need to boil

[22:07] I'll just head out to the garage.

[22:10] ♫ anglo-saxophonically smooth jaxx ♫

[22:14] Why am I doing this?

[22:16] ...because of our 120 volt household voltage

[22:22] oops

[22:23] ...could have done the sensible thing which would be to build an adapter like this with a NEMA 6-20 receptacle

[22:29] and then cut the end off of this caaard

[22:32] coorrrd coorrd.

[22:35] Welp.

[22:36] We're having a hard time with this line today.

[22:39] First, if this kettle has a thermal fuse...

[22:43] I'm trying to pry it open.

[22:44] [laughs]

[22:46] Oh, I screwed it back together. I forgot I did that.

[22:54] Did I not - ugh

[22:56] That means I have to 

[23:00] I will never let go of this "breakfast cup" thing.

[23:04] Just had to invent and standardize a whole unit based on "a cup for drinking tea or coffee while eating breakfast," huh?

[23:08] And you actually put that on your kettles!

[23:11] Never again are Brits allowed to suggest

[23:14] Now go eat a crumpet.