tentseller

Tons of them on Amazon. I also saw many 12V mini appliance at interstate truck stops.

dand99

after using immersion heaters for XX years, I finally upgraded :-) to a travel kettle - found the small Black and Decker (0.5L) in a carrefour in Italy for just under 10 euros. Compact and quite well made, would recommend it if you can find one.

(minor pain - no automatic switch off on boil)

http://www.flipkart.com/black-decker...mdyczff7rfhyqv

tcl

An update to the discontinued Sanyo and the replacement Yazawa Travel cooker.

Some Japanese vendors are having Amazon fulfill their US orders and so the items fall under Amazon Prime shipping if you are a Prime member. I was a bit tired of guarding my Sanyo so I finally caved and bought a Yazawa since the price is also much more reasonable now that the product is actually in a US warehouse.

At first glance it seems to be a faithful copy of the Sanyo with a few noticeable improvements. The lid has small steam vents and the underside of the lid has a spork snapped in place. The pot has a different finish. Both the interior and the exterior have a rough sandpapery feel to it. The Sanyo had a very fragile non-stick interior. The Yazawa pot also does not have the "L" and "H" level markings that the Sanyo pot had for its recipe booklet. The Yazawa does not have a recipe booklet. Also noted is that the cord is a bit shorter on the Yazawa and much thicker. The scary part is that while this is a 2-prong non-grounded Japanese plug, there is a red grounding wire floating around for use in places that require grounding.

It's been a really long time since I've seen a floating ground wire and was wondering if someone could remind me what to do (or not do) with it? The electrical specs are otherwise the same as the Sanyo. I was hoping to test it alongside my Sanyo before an upcoming trip.

I just wanted to add that I know what to do with that 3rd wire that has a copper fork on the end if I were in Japan: I'd use it on the outlets that had the little flap and screw the wired fork there. However, do I just tape this up outside of Japan for safety?

oldpenny16

Thanks for your report. After doing a 15 night trip without my own kettle, I learned to be prepared. Doing a search on Amazon isn't bring up yor newest kettle for me.

tentseller

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...A2BQMNRNG9670Q

tcl

For an actual kettle I still recommend the Narita dual-voltage for international travel or the Bonavita for N.American only travel. They are almost identical. I like how there is no plasticky taste. They are however heavier than the plastic travel kettles and pull much more power at 1000W so they might trip the breaker in smaller older European hotels. The upside is that they boil water in approximately 4 minutes at 120v, and just under 3-minutes at 220v.

If you do older hotels and B&Bs often, I would recommend one of the plastic dual-voltage travel kettles that are approximately 400W or less to avoid tripping the breaker. Water boils on average from 9-15 minutes depending on the power of the unit. Sadly Austin House does not seem to be selling their travel kettle any more and most options are UK based now.

The reason I was looking at the Yazawa travel cooker is that I might be on another extended trip where I might need to heat food up up or even cook something simple for myself. While the Narita and the Bonavita can heat soup and stews, I find that at 1000W things tend to scorch easily and is a pain to clean.

oldpenny16

Thanks for the links. I make tea, instant coffee, and some foods using boiled water. The hotel proved coffee makers are often dirty and at the least oily.

tentseller

I bought one for spare in case my 24yrs old Sanyo kicks the bucket. This price is less than what I paid for my Sanyo 24yrs ago. ($300HK)

1Bag1World

While it's not technically a travel kettle, I use the following for coffee and tea:

Voltage Valet Quick Cafe Coffee Maker
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ssupportgroupf

tcl

I have the original Zelco Brisk Brew. Same thing but 20 years+ and still going strong. I use this for shorter trips when I know I'm not going to have friends, family and colleagues knocking on my door for hot water.


^ Exactly why I bought mine. What are your thoughts on the loose ground wire? and the rough finish of the pot compared to the smooth non-stick of the Sanyo? Does food stick/burn easily?

tentseller

As long as it is non stick so I can have hot soup/noodle/congee when I need some it would be fine.

The Sanyo is still running, a bit rundown.

The ground doesn't bother me with 20+ yrs traveling for NGOs.

oldpenny16

I'm trying to shop locally so I can see the options. With so many universities in my general area, I'm hoping for choices. I'll report back.

Update: 2 days of local shopping and no luck finding anything decent or even interesting. Magellans.com used to have a nice unit but that site is sleeping now. I guess Amazon is my choice.

Cyllabus

Hi folks
I am an avid in-room chef and recently bought a yazawa to supplement my little dorm room proctor silex kettle.

The yazawa hot plate arrived in two days from amazon prime to new york. A bit plastic smelling but that soon washed out. My first test failed, would not boil water... until i switched from 220 to 110. Now in about 8 minutes it boils.

I made three "dinners" on it on a recent trip, but used a teflon camppot in place of oem. Cleaned up easily but a mistake. Too easy to slide off and spill. The oem pot is indented, so stays in place.

Don't know why it needs the ground wire , can someone explain? I'd like to get rid of it.

All in all, it's a bit heavy but i like it. gives whole new dimension to my hotel cooking.

Now who makes a foldup microwave?!

Tizzette

Admit it, we are travel kettle geeks.

tcl

I used my Sanyo all through school as well. It was invaluable since they had restricted dining hall hours that did not fit into my class and sports schedules. Without it I would have probably starved. Surprisingly it was also useful for my first 2 jobs right out of school that had me traveling all over the place often arriving at odd hours when all food places were closed. Sadly, because of the hours, I was still on a tinned soup and ramen diet despite having a decent per diem on those trips.

The strange ground wire is Japan-specific. Their outlets are generally not grounded except for the kitchen and bathroom where the ground is actually a tiny flap that gets lifted up and you unscrew the screw, put the forked-ground wire there and re-screw the screw back down. The assumption is that things that need grounding are appliances that have a certain amount of metal, high current, hairdryers, cookers and kettles or are used near moisture. In N. America all outlets are/should be grounded for safety. This is why electric kettles that are metal or are above a certain current have grounded plugs, while plastic kettles and those of lower current do not. The Yazawa is all metal and therefore in theory should be grounded. My old Sanyo was not grounded but that may be because I have had it for over 20 years and electrical safety standards were not the same.

If your outlet is updated GFCI (the type with the circuit breaker), you should technically be fine with just the 2-prongs. If you use older sockets that are not grounded nor GFCI then it might be a good idea to rewire the plug to a grounded 3-prong Type A although that would limit the number of travel adapters that you could use. 3-prong travel plug-adapters are harder to find.

I currently have the loose ground wire on the Yazawa taped with electrical tape. Hope this helps.