Spare a tear for me dbd....I hate the bloody thing!

It's not complicated to replace it with a gas one though there is some cost involved; it was $900 to connect the stove and dryer where we live now.

I have been hanging back a bit, as I feel that my minor irritations with my white goods might be representative of a more serious general angst...and I'm waiting to see where it might pan out There is no gas in my road though.

Propane

I had that in France that just came up through a nifty pipe through the basement....here I have just steered clear so far, as our kitchen is such a mess at present and I will get it sorted come spring. I just feel sure that there is going to be some unfathomuable ruling though as there is for everything else.

I feel like I'm playing 'dollies' here in Canada...here I am with my great big washing machine, dryer and cooker and fridge and they all seem to have built for someone of much bigger proportions shopping carts too, I can't reach to the bottom of them

As bats says, propane is the option if you don't have a gas line (we don't). My cost was for a propane hook up. Note that gas appliances sold in North America typically come with the parts for natural or propane gas operation.

First world problems

Unfortunately with things with motors and heating elements, Ohm's Law is significant.

This is why you need a higher (Amp) capacity circuit for your washing machine in Canada, as a much higher current is required to produce the same power at 110 volts.

It is also why kettles and irons are all crap in Canada.

P=V^2/R and that's the problem!

As for washing clothes, the detergents here are not as good. Less biological stuff in them.

Arm and Hammer is particularly poor. Tide is about the best.

My $8 kettle from 2005 is still going strong.

I meant the effectiveness of them...

Mine boils water. What else do they do?

As does mine. Not sure how it could become more effective...lol..Boils in about 3 minutes.

If you brought a kettle from UK or Ireland to N. America it would take a lot longer to boil as it's rated for 240V so only has half the power.

Kettles bought in UK typically are 3KW so boil water quickly. However kettles in N. America ar usually 1.5 to 1.8Kw due to the current limitation of 110v as explained above

So N/ American kettle are slower to boil the same amount of water as UK Irish kettles.

Fascinated, I just did some research on this. It seems North American kettles might take about an extra two minutes to boil for a full kettle.

So I imagine that might be about 40 seconds extra for each time I make a cup of coffee.

Just imagine all that extra stuff I could fit in each day with a UK kettler/power supply.

Nevertheless withabix's comment stands correct. UK / Irish kettles are more effective at boiling water. Those 40 seconds could be very important rushing out to work of a morning

Or if you add up all those 40 seconds say 4 cups of a coffee a day for the next 20 years thats 324 hours!!!!!!!!!!