I bought an electric kettle online. As soon as I turned it on, it tripped the circuit breakers in my apartment. I tried to return it, assuming it was defective. Seller doesn't want to pay for the shipping, because they claim it's my apartment that can't handle the electrical drain. Now, I live in an relatively older building in China, so that's feasible. But the kettle is labeled to run at 1500 watts. I have a hair dryer that runs at 2200 watts without issue. Is there another electrical metric that I'm missing? Is the product defective, is it my limited electrical grid that's the problem?
plug the electric kettle (whatever that is) into the same electrical outlet where you use your hair dryer. Quite often different breakers within a home have different ratings. If it trips that particular breaker (where you successfully use your hair dryer) then it's defective or actually higher wattage than what it claims to be.
yep - plug the hair dryer into that breaker - it might not trip it, but if it does (and the hair dryer draws even less current) you know you have a bad breaker. Whatever you do, don't touch or reconfigure any wires without professional help, even if you have a volt meter or any other test equipment. Breakers can be mislabeled under the best of conditions, let alone an older building in a foreign country. Murphy's Law has a special love for electricity! When it comes to electricity, be paranoid. With high current, double down on the paranoia!
The other metrics would be the service voltage and the amperage rating (current) of the circuit breaker. A 2,200 watt appliance at 220volts (assuming 220V, Taiwan is 110V) draws 10amps. The equation is: A=W/V If you were in the US (or Taiwan) a 2,200W appliance at 110V would draw 20Amps which would exceed most common US home's electrical outlets ratings (most are 15Amp). If your hair dryer is 2,200 watts you must be on 220V service. So your tea kettle @ 1,500W and 220V would only draw 6.8Amps. Check the circuit breaker, it should have a number reflecting its amperage rating. Note, some other outlets will be on the same circuit, so if you have more appliances running the combined current may exceed the circuit breaker's rating. Who the hell uses a hair dryer in 2017?
I tried the hair dryer and the kettle at multiple outlets. In all cases, the dryer worked fine, and the kettle tripped the breaker. One such outlet was the refrigerator-designated one, which one would assume has the highest capacity. So it would seem the kettle was defective, or at least used more watts than it claims. Serves me right for buying a $5 kettle online.
As an electrician I can assure you that all electric heaters contain a tiny demon. The plug administers electric shock to the tiny demon, causing it to shoot tiny fire balls, that's what causes the heat. The demons are held in the devices with magic seals, the 4 year old Chinese kid who made your kettle must have flubbed the sealing spell and the demon escaped. Good news is it probably escaped at the factory. Either that or you thought a $5 electric kettle wouldn't come with it's very own short.
