Unknown electric kettle

[greenstar]

I found a lovely electric kettle at the local car boot yesterday. £2, sold display only, and it works. I'd been looking for one as my excellently designed De Longhi modern marvel, which i like, has started to shed it's chromed plastic finish after 2 years. I'd guess my find is pre war, and the chrome finish shows no sign of splintering off. When I first tried it it dribbled like a teasmaid on boiling, but on cleaning the vents it just bubbles happily. There was only a little scale in them.
I would be interested to know the manufacturer and date. The name has worn off the plate underneath.
The only drawback is that I got an electric in the first place after destroying a couple of gas kettles - I have a tendency to put them on and forget. The new old one, of course, does not turn itself off. I could also do with a cable and plug - I tried it out with an earthless connector I use on a radio.
Tony

[Paul_RK]

Hello Tony,

I've a fortunate positive identification The remaining traces of red lettering on the nameplate made me think of Hotpoint. A search for 1930s Hotpoint kettles brought up

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthoped...ttle-279528554

which does look very similar, but then a great many kettles around 1930 looked very similar to one another. The seller of that one, though, helpfully provided details including its catalogue number, 80073A: and while Hotpoint can't be made out on the nameplate of yours, 80073A just about can.

Paul

[Brigham]

I'm guessing that it's indirectly-heated from below the base, rather than having an immersion element?

[Herald1360]

What's its power rating? One kilowatt was common back then, so a full kettle would take about 10 minutes to boil.


On the auto stop front, a simple(?) inline timer would do. Even a partially filled kettle would be unlikely to boil dry in the time it takes a full one to boil.

[greenstar]

YES! That's it, a Hotpoint. Thanks a lot Paul, it's really good to know name and date. I wonder when electric kettles were first made?
Yes, Brigham, it is indirectly heated. This is why it's so tall - a lot of the height is the heating compartment. I'm not sure how I would get into it to replace the element, but fortunately this is not necessary. It's a delight.

[greenstar]

Herald, that's an excellent idea. The power rating I don't know, but yes, i can time it boiling full. It's not fast but would only need about 1/3 full usually. Could you refer me to a circuit for a timer or where to get one?
Thanks.
Tony

[julie_m]

70 watts applied for one minute will make one litre of water one degree hotter -- assuming no leakage of heat to the surroundings.

[Herald1360]

For its power consumption, measure the element resistance and work out Vsquared/R. 1kW is about 57 ohms.


Something like this would do,


http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/time-d...elays/7912701/


but there may be a more suitable plug in domestic product available somewhere.....

Other possibility-

The timer cannibalized from an old microwave oven, perhaps?

[Paul_RK]

It's 1500 watts - this one's on eBay.

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/gmQAAO...an/s-l1600.jpg

[emeritus]

Electric kettles were certainly available in 1893: extract from that year's GEC catalogue attached, which implies they were a recent introduction.

[paulsherwin]

The separate heating arrangement will probably extend the useful life. Old immersion heater based kettles often develop insulation leaks which will trip an RCD breaker.

[greenstar]

The microwave timer idea seems good - must try Freecycle.
I'm surprised they go back to 1893. I don't know a lot about electricity supplies, but my grandparents didn't get lighting until the 30's (when I knew them they had 40W bulbs and waited until they couldn't see before turning lights on) and I doubt their wiring would have run a kettle. But then again, I worked once at a country house which had it's own power plant installed in the early 1900's or before, still there and working in the 80's - the TV would pulse with the working of the single cylinder engine - but I digress.

[Paul_RK]

The two kettles I have of similar age to yours are smaller ones, both branded Premier, which I think became or was taken over by Hotpoint: one 3.1A 200-220V and the other 2.7A 240-250V - both just within the capacity of a lighting circuit of the day.

The consensus seems to be that electric kettles were first offered in 1891, with immersion-type elements offering faster heating emerging in 1922 - those seem to have taken a while after that to become dominant in the market. Quite a proportion of the housing stock in 1930 still didn't have mains electricity, but there are enough 85 year old kettles still around to vouch for their popularity with those who did.