Noob Question. Kettle

[High_Iron]

I am a new owner of a Hampton HI300. I went with the enamel finish. Can I put a cast iron kettle directly on the stove? or do I need one of those trivets? What about a NON cast iron kettle?

I am looking at those Half kettles, and am wondering if I should include the trivet.

Also, Does this really work in putting moisture back in the air? Or am I better off getting a humidifier?

Thanx

 

[fraxinus]

Not sure about the trivet, but any kettle - cast iron, aluminum, copper - will work. Any spills or boil overs will likely mark the enamel, probably not permanently. Keeping the interior of the kettle clean helps with this. The addition of moisture to the air is really pretty minimal and will not significantly raise the humidity level. A kettle does provide a pleasant sound and this plus the visible rate of steam are handy indications of how the stove s working.

 

[donatello]

The first thing I did after my Pacific Energy insert install was to have the wife put a 1/2 kettle (actually a 1/2 pot which I paid $$$50 for that darned thing!) filled with water (and that aromatic oil stuff) on top. Within a day I found that I wasted my money! The insert does not get hot enough where it would sit, to properly heat the water. I had a real good humidifier my mother-in-law gave us years back. And THAT works great. I would REALLY recommend buying a good quality one, money well spent (unlike that cast 1/2 pot)...Correct me if I'm wrong but your Hampton HI300 is an insert, you may have the same issue.

 

[Cearbhaill]

The first thing I did after my Pacific Energy insert install was to have the wife put a 1/2 kettle (actually a 1/2 pot which I paid $$$50 for that darned thing!) filled with water (and that aromatic oil stuff) on top. Within a day I found that I wasted my money! The insert does not get hot enough where it would sit, to properly heat the water. I had a real good humidifier my mother-in-law gave us years back. And THAT works great. I would REALLY recommend buying a good quality one, money well spent (unlike that cast 1/2 pot)...Correct me if I'm wrong but your Hampton HI300 is an insert, you may have the same issue.

I have exactly the same insert as you and my steam kettle gets blazing hot and humidifies the room really well. I bet I go through a half gallon a day or more.

 

[babalu87]

I vote no on the cast iron.
What if you want a cup of tea? Hot cocoa? Hell, the power is out and you need hot water for coffee?
Something in enamel or stainless so you can at least use the water. I had a cast iron one and after a few days it was brown water and not the good kind of brown water that comes from oak barrels.

 

[ecfinn]

The first thing I did after my Pacific Energy insert install was to have the wife put a 1/2 kettle (actually a 1/2 pot which I paid $$$50 for that darned thing!) filled with water (and that aromatic oil stuff) on top. Within a day I found that I wasted my money! The insert does not get hot enough where it would sit, to properly heat the water. I had a real good humidifier my mother-in-law gave us years back. And THAT works great. I would REALLY recommend buying a good quality one, money well spent (unlike that cast 1/2 pot)...Correct me if I'm wrong but your Hampton HI300 is an insert, you may have the same issue.

This is not true with all inserts. It depends entirely on the design of the insert. My insert, a Lopi Revere, sticks out 10" from the fireplace and provides a perfect surface for boiling water. Part of this is because the top of the insert is not insulated from the firebox. This insert is designed to take burnt gases up at the front of the stove, across underneath the top and out the back of the top. The air flow for the blower goes in a different path so it does not cool the top. This means I can put about 2 gallons of water a day into the air in my home using 2 pots on top of my insert. This is not true of all inserts, but it was one of the primary selling points for me on this particular one. I check the temp on the top of my insert right between my two pots and I routinely have it >600.

HTH,

Eric

 

[ChrisN]

I have a 1 gallon enamel pot on my stove and fill it daily. I don't think it has made a significant difference in the house humidity levels. If you're serious about raising RH, I would go with the humidifier.

Chris

 

[BurningIsLove]

I vote no on the cast iron.
What if you want a cup of tea? Hot cocoa? Hell, the power is out and you need hot water for coffee?
Something in enamel or stainless so you can at least use the water. I had a cast iron one and after a few days it was brown water and not the good kind of brown water that comes from oak barrels.

Yeah, I have two separate kettles. The cast iron/enamel finish kettle is on 24x7 for humidification & the occasional crushed herbs, and then a separate kettle for oatmeal/tea/coffee/power outages and I need to wash the funk off myself. The cast iron one raises the humidity from about 19% to 24% when its boiling vigorously, so it goes from sahara-->steppe levels of humidity, but still rather dry. Need a dedicated humidifier to get anywhere above that.

 

[swestall]

I saw pictures of a stove that had a kettle on it and they overfilled it making quite a spill. It was a VC and the enamel came off all around the griddle.
Having said that, I have a stainless kettle resting on some soapstone blocks (woodstock boot warmers recommended by anther Hearth Room poster) and its nice. I sure hope we don't spill though.... Ya got me thinking.....maybe we should lose the kettle.

 

[argus66]

i have a 75 gallon fish tank across the room this helps and fish are so enjoyable.

 

[BurningIsLove]

I saw pictures of a stove that had a kettle on it and they overfilled it making quite a spill. It was a VC and the enamel came off all around the griddle.
Having said that, I have a stainless kettle resting on some soapstone blocks (woodstock boot warmers recommended by anther Hearth Room poster) and its nice. I sure hope we don't spill though.... Ya got me thinking.....maybe we should lose the kettle.

I had a really bad boilover just the other week....hardened sediment on the top of the stove from the kettle, one heck of a mess. I thought I had wrecked the finish on top of the stove. However 5 minutes w/ a moist sponge (stove not lit at the time) got all the crud & apparent rust off reasonably easily. This revealed that stove top paint had not been damaged to any real extent. Applied some black stove polish w/ an old rag, buffed off the extra 30 minutes later, and the stove looked better than it had before the boil over.

So the lesson for me was that it looked 10x worse than it was, and less than 1/2 hour of easy work made the stove look like new. I dont think kettles are really all that destructive

 

[swestall]

Yes, cast is not a problem, but Soapstone and Enamel can be.

 

[chrisman34]

I use a large canning pot. I think i evaporate about a gallon and a half a day....house stays about 40-45%

 

[RedRanger]

As long as you don`t have something like "psorasis".. Don`t worry about it. However, as a sufferer of that condition I discovered that a humidifier is a huge benefit. Bought a Bionaire, because I don`t have to buy replacement filters, just wash the ones in the machine. In the room where the "insert" is it used to be 35% humidity, now I can keep it at 45-50% humidity. All digital control, and only have to fill it once a day. What A Difference..

Probably for the younger folks on this forum, this likelyl isn`t a concern. Unless you find your pets running away from you cause when you go to pet them, You SHOCK Them instead. And maybe shock each other :lol: Wouldn`t trade that wood heat for anything else, that`s why we have the "big screen" right there beside the fireplace. No question though, it does suck the humidity out of the air...

 

[KeithO]

I find that the evaporation from a stainless steel pot is at least 3x more than a similar volume stainless kettle. However, I have found the black cast iron kettles a complete waste of time. I think the black surface is able to cool itself much better (through radiation) than the shiney stainless thus less heat goes into boiling the water inside.

I like the sound made by the water in the kettle, since it quietly indicates how hot the stove is burning. If I wake up to silence at night I know I need to get up and throw on a couple of new logs. If I hear the rolling boil I know I have a good burn and can roll over and go to sleep. It is also possible to tell if one has a too hot burn and I may get up to damper down.

Between the pot and the kettle I have had more than enough humidity this winter. No dry skin or stuffy nose at night, quite the opposite of what I had with central heating.