It boils water. And it looks red. Yay
Update: the tea filter broke and thus the auto shutoff as well (fix this with a towel on the top of the kettle). There’s a fragile plastic rod that attaches to either a string or a spring that controls the tea filter’s mounting. It broke for me and just flopped downwards instead of shutting the kettle. Managed to get a replacement, but I wouldn’t get this exact model.
my ascot 1.5 liter boils cold water in 7 minutes or less. that is quite a bit, enough to speed up ramen and coffee. much faster than a quart cup in the microwave. not enough to make a full thermos of tea in one brewing though, and definitely not enough to brew a full gallon of tea at once. a better pot would be more than twice the size, and need more power to brew as quickly.
I get the appeal, but I think cost and counter space would be limiting issues. of course, what annoys me isn’t the seven minutes, but the small size. then again, a gallon of boiling water in a heating unit is going to weigh too much.
however, I don’t think i’d put two boilers on the counter just because I make too much tea.
faster would be slightly more convenient, but would push the price up (not that there aren’t outrageously priced regular water kettles.)
I think it is like most other appliances: they use the nominal 1500/1875 amp target because that’s what a lot of 110 infrastucture peaks at.