If you would have asked me a year ago if I needed an electric kettle, I would have replied with a quick and emphatic no! I don’t drink much tea and I’m not a pour-over coffee person, so to me it just seemed like yet another unnecessary waste of valuable counter space—especially because I already had a cute Le Creuset stovetop kettle I rarely touched.
Then in 2024 I updated BA's electric kettle testing, which meant using multiple models at home for a few weeks. Now I can’t imagine living without one. Not because I’ve switched to tea (I haven’t) or become a pour-over person (I haven’t), but because a good electric kettle offers boiling water practically on demand, and it’s turned out to be quite handy for cooking, cleaning, and even enhancing a cup of not-pour-over coffee.
The kettle in my kitchen is the Fellow Corvo EKG in matte black—which I admit I initially chose for aesthetic purposes since it wasn’t the winning model in my tests. But it’s still a high-end kettle that can be adjusted to the single degree and will keep water at the target temperature for up to an hour. And I use it multiple times a day.
Here are five (of many) “off-label” ways I use my electric kettle. And, yes, these are things I could accomplish with a stovetop kettle, but the electric version is so much more convenient. It works quickly, chirps delightfully instead of whistling incessantly when it reaches the target temperature, then holds it there for up to an hour.
Preheating my coffee mug
My Ember mug (another thing I thought I didn’t need until I got one) died last winter, and without a battery-operated warming mug, I immediately noticed how quickly my coffee would go cold. But instead of spending upward of $100 on another temperature-control mug, I decided I would just preheat my regular old mug with boiling water so the ceramic didn’t absorb the heat from the coffee. Now the first thing I do when I get to the kitchen in the morning is tap the knob to turn on my kettle (I fill it up before bed). The water boils quickly and makes the mug piping hot in less than a minute. I do it at least a few times a day—and I love that I can put my coffee mugs in the dishwasher again (smart mugs and dishwashers do not mix).
Making foolproof late-night ramen
Most instant ramen noodle brands list microwave and stovetop instructions on the package, but I use my electric kettle to do my own little take on the Cup O’ Noodles method. I add the contents of the ramen packet to a small heat-safe mixing bowl, pour in enough boiling water to fully submerge everything, cover it with a ceramic plate, and let it sit for about five minutes, or until the ramen is soft but still a little chewy. If you prefer your noodles a little softer, you can just add more boiling water (a good kettle will keep it boiling) and cover it for another minute or two.
Speeding up a stovetop boil
Bringing a saucepan full of tap water to a roiling boil is a pretty quick process, especially on an induction cooktop, but getting a large, heavy Dutch oven full of water to a boil is another story. If I’m short on time, I can speed things along by adding water from my electric kettle. Having boiling water on standby is also helpful if I need to get water back to a rolling boil after adding cold ingredients to a pot—or if too much water has evaporated from the pot and I want to add water without dropping the temperature and interrupting the boil.
De-gunking really dirty dishes
Elbow grease is an important part of clearing cooked-on gunk from hand-wash-only dishes, but you can use a lot less of it if you start with boiling water. For years, I’ve boiled a little water in my dirtiest pots and pans to basically “deglaze” what would otherwise require lots of scrubbing to remove. And now that I have an electric kettle, I can replicate the method with glass baking dishes, aluminum sheet pans, and other cookware I can’t heat on my induction cooktop.
Clearing drains
When I moved from a house to a rented apartment, I had to make a few compromises in the kitchen. I managed workarounds for most of them, but I couldn’t exactly install my own garbage disposal. I did upgrade the standard-issue sink strainer, but from time to time minor clogs would cause slow drainage—which is especially annoying when I’m straining pasta or finally catching up on my pile of handwash-only dishes. Now, though, it’s a problem I can solve in about three minutes with a single kettle full of boiling water. (Works in my bathroom sinks too.)