To boil a kettle of water before and after:

Before: turn the knob to max and wait a moment.

Today: long-press the on/off button to turn the stove top on, press another button to select plate, adjust power by hitting the plus button ten times to get it to the max setting. Then wait a moment.

That's the worst damn user interface you can think of for using a physical machine that begs for tactile controls.

I stayed at a place last week just like this, but the max was 9, not 10. If you get to 9 and press '+' again, it resets to 5! From there, pressing '-' goes down to 4, not back to 9, so press '+' another 4 times to get to max.

Ah, the UK story on that would be "fill kettle, plug it in, switch it on and wait for it to boil"

Kettles on stoves are weird to us.

So when you say, "I'm going to put the kettle on," you're referring to putting the kettle on the counter, not the stove? Or do Brits not use that expression for using a kettle.

Yeah we say that, and it does mean the general case of putting your kettle on to boil. It could mean stovetop or electric.

But for the vast majority of us it's electric.

I guess, for you, it's a phrase that's lost the original meaning. Like "hanging up" a phone or "rolling down" a car window.

Erm... not quite in the same sense IMHO, we're still putting the kettle on to boil. When I flick the switch, the kettle is 'on'. It's even in the 'on' position :)

I'm not sure the etymology of "put the kettle on" has been strictly about a stove-top for a very long time. To me it's a method-independent phrase, and a reference to setting the kettle to boil, not its physical placement.

I am going to hazard a guess here.

When cast-iron stoves were common and possibly the primary source of heat for many homes, I am pretty sure that for most of the cold parts of the year, they would be fired-up and kept hot most of the day and night for warmth.

So - it wasn't a big production to boil water, you would just put it on the already hot stove.

(And also - I did not know this until recently but kettle can mean just a large cauldron/pot - although typically it would also have a wire handle and a lip/spout for easy pouring. Hmmm they were also used to hang above campfires, so my stove theory might go even further back...)

Ah, that makes sense! I guess I was assuming that "on" was in reference to it's placement _on_ the stove. But turning the circuit _on_ makes sense too.

To each their own I guess. Have fun waiting over 10 seconds each time you turn the stove on and off, much less fiddling about trying to find the damn button. Personally I much prefer the knob. No waiting. Just turn the knob to max in less than a second. It boils. Done. As for washing, respectfully, I don't agree. There is a TON more washing needed on the ceramic top. Yes, it's "easier" when you have to do it, but you have to do it way more often for it to look half as good.