It's pink, it's rubber, it's a kettle - it's a pink rubber kettle. I think the point of this is that it is rugged while also being easy to fold down for storage and travel.
It's not a fast kettle at just 600W (I measured 700W on the local 245V supply) but for a single cup of coffee it could be acceptable. They are apparently available in 120V or 220V versions.
The cable is copper coated aluminium, and the one shipped is not polarised and has no earth/ground wire. That's unfortunate, since the kettle does have an exposed metal ring around it, and a common failure mode with heating elements is to leak current to the casing. There is an earth wire internally, so with a proper IEC style lead it should be grounded.
The temperature control is by a thermal switch on the heater plate, but there is no auxiliary thermal fuse to protect against its failure. Many certified devices like this have the extra thermal fuse in the opposing lead for double protection against a fault in the element causing current flow to ground causing uncontrolled heating. The thermal switch did cut off the heater just as the water started boiling. It cuts in and out as needed, so make sure you switch off (and preferably unplug) the unit if leaving it unattended.
The black inserts around the screws are high temperature plastic to offer some protection against the plastic base melting.
The heater block is welded onto what appears to be a thin stainless steel dish that is folded in at the sides to grip the silicone rubber flask tightly.
While I don't generally recommend grey import products for safety reasons, this unit seems fairly serviceable for use by suitably intelligent people. The fact it cycles the heating on and off as needed does suggest it could have uses for heating other liquids for technical purposes (wax maybe?). The thermal switch could be swapped for a lower temperature one if required too.
The keywords to find this on eBay are "foldable electric kettle".
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- https://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
#ElectronicsCreators

It's a kettle. not just any Kettle but the finest pink rubber. Kettle from China I mean everything's made in China but this is a direct import so it may have special special features inside. Can you even see inside here? I'll shine a light down into it.

Inside we have a stainless steel looking boiling plate. it does say 304 whether that means uh, 304 stainless steel or something else. I Don't really know it's read about 600 watts, but you know what? Let's just fill it with water and we'll boil it. I'm just going to fill it with water right now.

one moment please. The water has been put in I've put in 500 milliliters or half a liter. It is up to just below the max. Mark Here let's plug it in and see how long it takes to boil.

So I'm going to plug this into my little tiniest uh test meter here. and then there's a switch on the side and at the same time as I press the switch I'm going to start a timer. So the power. it says 720 Watts it's at 600 watts but 720 is good is it PTC element.

but I don't think it is a PT helmet I Think it is an actual heat element right? Tell you what. I Shall let this come up to temperature and apparently when it comes up to temperature it doesn't cut off. They say if you're traveling and you go to a very hard high altitude where a water bottles sooner, it may not stop boiling because it is purely thermal that it will cut in and out once it reaches the desired temperature, right? Tell you what? Since this is literally waiting for a pot to boil, I shall pause the video and come back once it has biled one moment, please. And the result? It took about five minutes to boil 500 milliliters of water.

so say roughly one minute per 100 milliliters. So probably just three minutes if you made a single cup in this. it started boiling steam Canal as you'd expect and then the cutout kicked in. So it works.

That's good. Let's move this stuff out the way and I'll pull the water out with this. and then we shall open this thing. But first, before we do that, let's see if it feels wobbly.

Does it feel robust? But now it's full of boiling water? Uh, it does. It doesn't feel too bad. It feels like you could tip that without it suddenly going rubbery and dying and doing stuff anyway. We'll also check out this cable because there's always a suspicion that the cable with these import products may not be up to standard.

This is a thing if you use it with another product that draws more power, right? Tell you what. I'll pause while I pour this away and then we'll explore it one moment please. This is very hot, so I'll let it cool down and while it's cooling down, well, it's a kettle. So yes, it is hot.

let's explore the cable so let's just lob uh. this cable off the cable does say well. it's embossed with uh, 0.75 millimeter, two core, 0.75 millimeter. Do you trust that you trust any? Oh God No.

Look at the size of the chords and that, right? So what? Let's uh, nibble, nibble, nibble through this. I should have got a lighter handy for the aluminum test. I Think this is very cheap, nasty cable, but we've got other stuff to compare it to. Here it is.
uh, let's compare it to actual 0.75 millimeter which looks a lot thicker. Let's strip them. I should just strip them with the Snips it does look very coppery. Oh, it doesn't feel right though, does it? Oh, it feels very, very rigid.

Let's uh, strip some of this feels better. Uh, right? I Want I'll just grab the lighter and we'll do the flame test. I have the lighter. Let's do the flame test and see, we'll try it on the real copper first.

So I shall hold a flame under the real copper. I've just pull a couple of strands out and it discolors. It goes kind of like it glows. Oh, it's actually melted down a bit, but it's not shriveling up like the uh, the aluminum normally does.

Let's pull a couple of strands out of this and do the same flame test I Should Zoom down there shouldn't I I Should Zoom down flame test and it just instantly just absolutely just shrivels up and goes limp. So this is just copper coated aluminum, isn't it or some other? Bakery Compare the two of them. see that one's just shriveled and gone limp. This one has held its shape though it has melted back a bit with the heat.

Uh, right. so not really necessarily the very best cable not super current carrying Excellence here. Okay, well that was predictable. That's fine.

It's what we've come to expect when you get leads with Chinese products. I Do recommend throwing them in the bin and getting reputable leads from a reputable Source In the UK that'd be something like RS Components Rapid Electronic CPC The big suppliers who have a a reputation to protect this thing is color now. I'll still get water every winter. There are three screws under here, so let's bring in a driver and remove those screws and see what it reveals.

I would guess there maybe into the stainless steel heater plate in the bottom. If it is stainless steel, it feels like they're spinning. To be honest. I'm sure they are coming out well.

they are quite long. Oh, they're very long with a little rubber band, a little rubber bone. This is where I could have got my new cordless driver and done this really quickly but I didn't Did I no I really have to start doing that. Is this going to come off? Is there something else I should know? Is there some secret thing holding this in place? I should just keep on screwing just in case any better.

Oh, that is better. They are quite long. They are quite long. What is this going to reveal? Okay, it's going to reveal something very simple.

It's going to reveal the incoming Supply which does have an earth connection. Uh, shame that it's a double pole plug. But for reference because this metal ring which is kind of makes it important really. Uh, you.

if you use an earth cable, there is an earth wire going on to the chassis here, the metal components uh, the little connection at the side does. go through this switch with its little new indicator and even notice the neon indicator. But it's got three connections so there will be a new indicator and then one leg goes to the heat element and the other leg goes to the thermostatic switch. Well actually the thermostatic switch goes via this to the So the little indicator light go off as well.
The look of it and that's very straightforward. It's not bad. It's a fairly solid little thing down here. and how have they fastened the rubber into? Have they basically put two? Oh, I Think they've actually crimped two layers together with the rubber trapped in between them.

It looks like it, so it is physically crimped in. That's interesting. It doesn't seem to be coming out. Teresa which is good.

So there we have it. It is more or less what I expected the heater plate with the heater physically, um, fused onto that. It's good that it's Earth I Wasn't expecting that. Well, it's a bit nicer if they actually Supply the Earth cable.

But but you get what you get. And so there we go. the the Pink Rubber Kettle To all intense purposes, it's not too bad. It seems quite a logical design and the thermal cutout did trip just after the water started boiling, so it is fairly close to the correct temperature.

That's pretty good. So there we have it. So if you do get one of these I don't necessarily recommend you've got one of these. But if you do get one of these, uh, get yourself a three core proper pre-core Flex if you have if you live in an area with grounded sockets and either way, you just basically change the flex for a new one anyway, because this is just not really great.

It's not going to handle up to fault conditions very well, but there we have it. Z Chinese Rubber Kettle The pink Rubber Kit I should have demonstrated that to fold a bag down, you're basically just fold it in like this and you just smidge it in and it just compresses back down to a smaller size for travel, presumably. But that's it. The rubber Kettle from China it's not too bad.


17 thoughts on “Pink rubber kettle teardown – not terrible”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Apurva Bahadur says:

    I have one of these kettles for travel use. While the kettle has merits about collapsing into a tiny size, the water turns conductive when the kettle is powered. Put the tip of a neon tester in the water when the kettle is powered, and the neon would light up! Under no circumstances, should the user insert a conductive item like tongs (or one's fingers) in the water if the kettle is plugged in, even if the rocker switch or even the wall switch is off – some of the dodgy installations may have the wall switch in the neutral circuit. I feel that if we use a proper cable with the earth connected with the kettle, the ELCB/RCD will trip instantly or the MCB will violently trip due the phase shorting with earth. A very dangerous appliance, especially for a user who doesn't understand the fundamentals of electricity.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mike Cowlbeck says:

    Saw one of these at a camping shop recently. I didn't notice if it came with a proper kettle lead (with the notch) or just an IEC60320 lead and a fairly crap one at that.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars reprapmlp says:

    Coming from Clive, "not terrible" is essentially a glowing review.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Worawat Li says:

    Surprising, the cable is trash, but the kettle is actually good.
    I made a mistake of buying a fake cable like that for my broken laptop adapter before, it went up in flame while I was using it. Had I went to bed earlier that day, I might be a goner.
    I learnt the lesson, not gonna buy cheap cable ever again, even for low current use, it could break and shorted internally without current meltdown.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Michael O says:

    Im glad you mentioned that cable. I work in IT so reuse C13 cables all the time for project plugs. I have seen some truely awful wires under all that rubber. My favorite was a supposedly heavy duty cable that was over a cm thick but had 20 guage AL wires inside. It was all rubber and rope filler.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Michael O says:

    Im glad they label it as sus so you know ahead of time. I love marinating my water in hot plastic. 🤤

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars beefgoat says:

    My wife is so going to want one of those if I tell her about this video. Who knows, maybe we do need one? lol

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Anthony Davies says:

    Here's a little tip, use the cutters the other way up and the stripping is easier.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Y Ren says:

    304 means SAE 304 stainless steel. It's known for good corrosion resistance. Thus commonly used among cookware.
    Although, there's no guarantee the marking matches actual material.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars White Tiana says:

    why are the chinese so incredibly dishonest at all times?…..

    go ahead youtube, ban me for "hate speech" just for pointing out the obvious.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Dr.Andy Hill says:

    Ooh! A Kink Pettle!

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars alierengam says:

    Meet Phil, The Screwdriver 😊

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Guido D.G. says:

    I have a small cute kettle too but it's full metal of course and according the manual it has a second safety feature independant from the thermal protection. There is a strange metal tube inside the water compartment and it looks as if it is supposed to catch the steam from the top of the water compartment. The manual is a bit vague about it, and your video made le curious so i will try to lookup how it works. Maybe my little kettle is designed to be safe at high altitude 😮

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars MytronixOfficial says:

    Well, the Cable has earth on the device side and not on the supply side. Meaning it (and any device shipped with it) will probably never enter the EU, or rather rarely whenever customs doesnt check. Thats kinda sad, for me. But probably a good thing because too many people wouldnt notice or know.

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Shaun Clarke says:

    The higher power draw might be due to running at 240V while being designed for 220V markets?

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Reapor Of Dragon says:

    they're mostly using nickel for house voltage and even in higher voltage since its cheaper production and less stealing in factories etc…

  17. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rainefallen says:

    I would actually be horrified using this in my own home for some reason.

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