On this page, you will find out how many watts a kettle draws.
Using a kettle to boil water draws a large amount of power. This is because the system uses an electrical heating element. Electricity flows through a metal coil to heat it up, then this heat energy transfers into the water to increase its temperature. In addition, these appliances are designed to work very quickly in just a matter of minutes. Despite this large power draw, it is still one of the most efficient and convenient ways to boil water.
Below we will discuss and test kettle wattage, explain how to work it out for yourself, and calculate the total electricity required.
How Many Watts is a Kettle?
The average kettle uses between 1100 – 3000 watts.
The exact number depends on the size and model of your kettle. For example, a small 1 liter kettle uses about 1500W while a larger 2 liter kettle draws 2000W or more.
As you will find out, the power levels vary from appliance to appliance. A lower volume kettle has a smaller heating element and requires less water. While larger or quick boil kettles work harder to boil water which increases the power draw.
How to Find Out Your Kettle Wattage
There’s 3 ways you can work out the wattage of a kettle.
- Check Product Specification
The quickest way is to look at the kettle’s specification. The watts (W) is usually written on a sticker on the base of the appliance. If not, you can check the user manual or the manufacturer’s website for technical details.
- Use a Wattmeter
A wattmeter is brilliant for getting a live wattage reading and tracking total energy usage of any appliance. You can simply plug it into your kettle to get instant information.
I used one to test my kettle which gave a live reading of 2835W. This is on the high end of the scale and is a large Breville kettle.
- Wattage Formula or Calculator
If you know the amperage and voltage of your kettle you can use this to find the running watts. Simply use the formula Amps x Volts = Watts. Or you can head over to the ‘Watt Calculator’ to work this out.
Kettle Wattage Examples
Let’s take a look at specific examples of how many watts a kettle draws. Below is a collection of modern kettles with their listed power ratings.
| Kettle Model | Power Rating (Watts) |
| Smeg Retro 7 Cup | 1500 |
| Amazon Basics 1L | 1500 |
| Consori 1.7L | 1500 |
| Comfee 1.7L | 1500 |
| Chefman 1.7L | 1100 |
| Elite Gourmet 1L | 1100 |
| Black+Decker 1.7L | 2000 |
| Tesco Basics | 2800 |
| Breville 8 Cup | 2800 |
As you can see, the power ratings vary between different kettles. So you should take the time to check your own appliance.
How Much Electricity Does a Kettle Use?
You can use kettle wattage to work out how much electricity it uses. Plus this can be useful in understanding how much it costs to run your kettle.
A watt (W) is a measurement of power at a single point in time. A watt-hour is the total amount of electricity used in an hour. For example, a kettle drawing 1500W would use 1500Wh when running for an hour.
Happily, electricity bills are recorded in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A kilowatt is simply 1000 watts. So a 1500W kettle running for 1 hour uses 1.5kWh.
In reality, you use a kettle for maximum 15 minutes a day. This means a kettle uses about 375Wh or 0.375kWh electricity a day. That’s 11.25kWh a month and 135kWh a year.
That’s an electricity cost of about $0.05 a day or $20 a year to make plenty of tea, coffee, and other hot drinks. Many people boil water less often than this so costs will drop dramatically in this case.
Using a Kettle Off-Grid
If you’re planning to use your kettle in an off-grid situation like a power outage, RV, boat, truck or similar, the information above is important. It enables you to pick the correct power products and know how long you can run them for.
You can either use a power inverter, portable power station, or generator to generate electricity.
To make sure everything runs smoothly you should check two things on this equipment – wattage capacity and total energy capacity.
Your power source, like an inverter, should have a wattage capacity of at least 20% more than your kettle. This ensures it will be able to deliver enough power as they are never 100% efficient. To boil water, you will generally need at least 2000W of power capacity.
Secondly, you need to ensure your energy source, like a battery, has enough energy to run the kettle for the required amount of time. It will use about 125Wh electricity for each usage. This is the equivalent to 10.4Ah on a 12V battery.
With this knowledge, you should think about using a low watt camping kettle rather than a normal home appliance. They are much smaller but can reduce power draw to 700W! (You will have to wait a little longer for it to boil though).
How Many Watts Does a Kettle Use Summary
I hope you now have a clear understanding of how many watts a kettle uses.
Kettles are great at what they do and you can have boiling water in a matter of minutes. Due to this speed and convenience the power draw while in use is quite high for such a small appliance. To reduce the total energy required, you should never boil more water than you need. This is especially true if you are relying on an off-grid power source.
