Upton or Chef's Choice Electric Pot

You mean Kamjove, right?

If you've become accustomed to brewing gongfu with water heated by a Kamjove, you should probably pay close attention to the spouts of the kettles you examine. It's going to be hard to find one whose pour is as easy to control.

/Lew

I have two chef's choice pots (bought from Upton). I picked the Chef's Choice because it had 1500 vs 1400 watts. I've been happy with them - not a single problem. I bought the second for my office.

Just a bit of logic for you to intermix with aesthetics and personal tastes. In the U.S. all of our standard 110v circuits can only produce a max of 1500 Watts. Electricity to heat is an almost 100% conversion with little loss, so basically any kettle from a $5 cheap one to a $200+ Zojirushi is going to boil water exactly the same. Even a difference between a 1400 Watt and 1500Watt labeled unit is negligible. So it really just comes down to the look, feel, and features you desire.

- Dominic

P = I x E. A 15amp 110v circuit can handle 1650w, a 20amp 110v kitchen circuit 2200w. The 15amp circuit is normally 14g wire which is the same as most kitchen appliance power cords. The 20amp is 12g wiring used in washers and refrigerators. So 1500w is really a limitation of the powercord in the kitchen and be sure to use the toaster on a different circuit at the same time.

Jim

PS First day > >

Gratitude?

/Lew

Apparently, I picked my chef choice pots for no good reason at all =]

They do work well for me, and I haven't blown any circuits (then I don't prepare a lot of toast, either) =]

The one thing this pot does not have that others (idk about the upton) have is a heat control - these pots boil and quit. If you are the type that wants an exact temp, you probably will want a different pot. I just wanted 1 liter boiling faster than it was taking on the gas stove. These pots meet that need, and can go 1.75 liters.

If I remember right, the box said "Made in China" so perhaps its related to your dead pot.

[shen] [dominic] [corax] hi shen. dominic is right on all counts, i think. having recently gone through this again myself, at both home and office, i have some 'features' to suggest you bear in mind: [see below for comments on these, seriatim; for some illustrations, go to e.g. amazon.com and type 'electric kettle' as search parameters -- you'll get about 4 pages of options] [1] auto shut-off feature? [2] ease of pouring [handle shape; total weight of unit when full] [3] ease in re/filling with water [4] warranty? [5] visual aesthetics? [6] total volume of boiled water each time [7] sturdiness? [8] water taste? [9] adjustable temps? [10] internal surface: coated? [1] this is important to me because over the years i have boiled more than one kettle dry on the stove [ahem]. i get distracted -- i believe we now call it 'multitasking' -- and forget to watch the thing [which as we know by definition never boils anyway]. for sheer efficiency it's hard to beat those small coil immersion heaters, that plug into the wall and go straight into the cup -- but they are huge fire hazards too. no multitasking with one of those! [2] will others [incl your mother] be using the kettle? these can get pretty heavy when full, if they need lifted. one major plus with the zojirushi of course is: you don't lift it at all. you just push a button. [3] not all kettles are created equal, esp in this regard. my mother has a cuisinart KUA-17, which is visually pleasing -- i think she was charmed that it looks like a traditional kettle -- and boils water 'wicked fast' as they say in new england. plus i find that cuisinart products generally are sturdily built and dependably long-lived. but with this one, the handle arches right over the area where you refill it with water; on a visit to her, the first time i tried to refill it, the handle was fussily in the way, *plus* i almost scalded my hand from the rising steam. i decided right then i had to buy a pot with a side-mounted handle. [4] ----- [you'll of course compare these and their merits relative to the other factors involved] [5] this is going to be the most personal part of course. from your question [upton vs chef's choice] you may have narrowed the choice down quite far already, but if not, have a look at the images on those amazon pages for the breadth of variety. *** for sheer aesthetics, i don't think you can beat the traditional chinese ceramic-kettle-on-a- brazier; but that is likely not the most *efficient* solution. the closest to it, visually, is probably the kamjove KJ-750A -- but the handle isn't side-mounted, which it is on the kamjove V60 [i'm betting the latter is the one you were using]. [these kamjoves aren't pictured in those amazon.com pages; see e.g. at

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under 'kettles'] [6] don't know how important this is to you. the chef's choice is about as big as they come. but again, the more water inside, the heavier it would be to lift, if lifting is entailed [and an issue] [7] my previous 'round' of purchases involved a chef's choice 677 and i loved it. it served me well and for *several* years of daily hard use. lotta mileage on that thing. finally the lid snapped off, near the hinge, and there was no repairing it. i would still have to say that that was a 'sturdy' pot; but see no. 8 below. [8] i instantly replaced that chef's choice 677 with another of the very same model. to my chagrin, the newer one seems to be made of a different type of plastic [perhaps to address the sturdiness issue?]

-- this time it has that archetypal 'plasticky' smell, and no amount of boiling water will get rid of it. i boiled trial potsful of water for two weeks! i boiled it with vinegar in the water. no luck. it still smells like plastic -- which means the tea is going to *taste* like plastic, and i can't have that. --> so i replaced it with a cuisinart CJK-17BC. they are very similar in appearance. this one also arrived smelling like plastic! but one long boil [well okay, one potful with two re-boilings] of a strong solution of vinegar in water removed the smell and taste completely. so far [several months] i have been very happy with this cuisinart model. [9] as i recall, you drink a lot of greens and whites as well as other types of teas. so easy variability of water temp could be a high priority for you. the zojirushi or the upton are obvious choices for this -- but see no. 10 below. [10] my heart was set on a zojirushi. the idea of having a constant supply of hot water all day -- possibly at several temps -- was irresistible. but i was crushed to find that every single zoji has a plastic coating of some kind. not sure why this is -- maybe so that it can double as a rice-cooker? anyway, i may be worrying needlessly, but i am hearing more and more about the dangers of plastics [particularly those with BPA -- see e.g. at

for a few alarming items -- a more recent study i saw highlighted the diabetes connection. i believe they are also making it illegal now for any baby bottles to be made with BPA]. particularly when heated, plastics worry me. now: and what follows here is important: i don't know if [a] the zoji plastic has BPA in it, or [b] other plastics besides those made with BPA are harmful. **i may be worrying needlessly.** but it may not be needless either. they used to think thalidomide was completely safe, for example. so with huge regret i did *not* buy the zoji. [for those who

*don't* worry about plastic, the bodum 'mini-ibis' -- i think it's 5410-03USA -- is outstanding, a handy size for traveling, and not too expensive. comes in different colors.

for most of us, the purchase will entail a sort of equation in which each of these functions as an item of variable value. chances are, you and other readers will also think of other features that prove important to bear in mind. and of course there's no one 'best' kettle for everyone -- otherwise there wouldn't be those four pages of options at amazon.com.

hope this isn't just TMI ... regards to all, corax

I am curious, Corax, what did you end up choosing? Shen

[shen] Nice to hear from you, Corax! [corax] shen! ni hao ma? [shen] As far as temperature goes, that's of no real difference. I always seem to leave the lid open and peek and pull the pot away at either the pin bubble (for green), makeral eye for oolongs or big fish eye for blacks. [corax] the lu yu way! that's the best, really, if one can learn to do that. then one is free of the need for thermometers, fancy switches, and such. [shen] I am curious, Corax, what did you end up choosing? [corax] i used to have this one: the new version of that was the one that smelled plasticky. but dave here says he likes his chef's choice, so maybe mine was an oddity. or maybe he has a different model? in any case, i exchanged that for this one: and this is the one my mother swears by: the bodum mini-ibis that works so well [and FWIW does *not* produce boiled water that smells or tastes plasticky -- is smell a sufficient warning?]: and note: these links are for convenience. you might be able to source any or all of these more cheaply somewhere else ...

Another option is the "Pino Kettle" which has the advantage of being precisely adjustable to any temp you desire through a digital control. Set it for 193 degrees and thats what you get, set it for 148, 162, whatever.

I reviewed the prototype a few years ago, you can see my take on it here

I use it at work everyday for the last year and a half and no problems so far. I really like being able to dial in whatever temp I want, especially great for greens and whites.

Mike