Kelly Kettle boil water time.

Winter time is the best time for me to get out the kelly Kettle and start making tea and doing experiments.

I have been comparing the time it takes me each morning with different materials to get 6 cups of water to boiling temp.

This morning I had my best time with 6 cups of water to boiling in the Kelly Kettle in 8 minutes,  from the time I lit the first paper to boiling.....

I have compared this to my 8 quart instant pot which takes 15 minutes to boil the same amount of water,  it pulls over 1200 watts of energy.

I want to keep experimenting with different fuel to see if I can even get this faster,  I have noted each time I add fuel it adjusts for the colder material then jumps back up in temp.

Love experimenting and finding the fastest way to a cup of hot tea.

How long have you had your Kelly Kettle?

I have looked at them time and again, and each time decided against buying because you can't cook in them.

And yet it's such a great idea. Can I make my own? Hmm.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:How long have you had your Kelly Kettle?

I have looked at them time and again, and each time decided against buying because you can't cook in them.

And yet it's such a great idea. Can I make my own? Hmm.

I have had it about 5 years  if I remember right...

They have a video of how to make them,   I have been thinking about paying a welder to weld a 8 inch stainless pipe into the bottom of a 20 - 50 quart  stainless pot.    But if you look closely at the kelly kettle they have engineered it with curves that help in the heat transfer.     There is more than meets the eye in the way it is made but I wanted one designed for heating 50 gallon  of water.      The best I have found so far is a gas water heater, but you have to look out for BOOM SQUISH, and the safety from Ernie with a candle and a marshmallow is DON"T be the MARSHMALLOW.    


I love my kelly kettle, and playing with it has taught me  much about effective  fuel, and effective fuel feeding rate.

I have added a chimney to the unit but I have not yet masted feeding it with a chimney.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Kettle

I found this article,  amazing history of this device.

We've had ours for 20 years, maybe more.  There is a small accessory that fits to the top of the kettle on which you can sit a small saucepan.  You'll never make a gourmet meal, but you sure can warm a can of beans, some soup or make some porridge. If you have a small frying pan, you can even cook eggs.  We had a lot of fun with it when we were travelling, we've even used dry cow dung as fuel!

Olga Booker wrote:We've had ours for 20 years, maybe more.  There is a small accessory that fits to the top of the kettle on which you can sit a small saucepan.  You'll never make a gourmet meal, but you sure can warm a can of beans, some soup or make some porridge. If you have a small frying pan, you can even cook eggs.  We had a lot of fun with it when we were travelling, we've even used dry cow dung as fuel!

I have been using pizza boxes ,    2 boxes will heat up 6 cups of tea to boiling for me.    I adore this design.

I don't like using the top to cook on but the bottom when it is full of coals could be useful to cook on.      I agree it is not the best to cook on, but to heat water to boiling it is ideal.     Useful for oatmeal..

Hey mart

Any chance you could record how long it takes from when you first start the fire? To the point when 6 cups of water is boiled? I see you said 8 minutes. Is this the average?

Our current wood stove is an old fisher stove and from start up to having our morning tea takes about 40 minutes. That means 40 minutes to get 1 liter of water boiled.

I have watched a video where the person said it took 3:15 minutes to boil 8 cups. However they said this after the fire was started.



Also, How is the smoke? Do you think it would be reasonable to set up a little brick enclosed area just outside the house. Just to boil tea in the morning?

These are about 150 dollars in canada for the stainless steel base camp model.

Much appreciated.

jordan barton wrote:Hey mart

Any chance you could record how long it takes from when you first start the fire? To the point when 6 cups of water is boiled? I see you said 8 minutes. Is this the average?

Our current wood stove is an old fisher stove and from start up to having our morning tea takes about 40 minutes. That means 40 minutes to get 1 liter of water boiled.

I have watched a video where the person said it took 3:15 minutes to boil 8 cups. However they said this after the fire was started.



Also, How is the smoke? Do you think it would be reasonable to set up a little brick enclosed area just outside the house. Just to boil tea in the morning?

These are about 150 dollars in canada for the stainless steel base camp model.

Much appreciated.

Here you go  8 min,  with 5.5 cups water ( I measured it and found I had 1/2 cup less than I thought )     I do dump a bit so that I don't spill it in transport.

Water temp was 55 deg F at start.

Time will be longer if I use less quality fuel stock.   Cardboard is about the best.




The shorter boil times normally is because they have the smaller Kelly Kettles.    

I LOVE my Kelly Kettle!  I picked one up from the company when I was in California earlier this year and used it every day while boondocking in Quartzsite, AZ.  The base isn't even necessary if you fire up the kettle sitting on rocky, sandy soil.  There's enough airflow to feed the fire without it.  I tried the chimney insert for cooking, but it didn't work as well as using the base alone.  My problem was getting a fire to stay lit long enough for wood to catch fire for cooking.  Any tips on that?  Fatwood was helpful.

An alternative cooking setup I created before I got my Kelly Kettle is a candle cooker.  I made up my own multi-wick organic beeswax candles and used them in a teapot warmer for a base.  It boils water or soup in 20 minutes, and can safely be used in an enclosed space. Three to five thin wicks works best.  A single fat wick creates a big flame, but also a lot more smoke and carbon build up than multiple thinner wicks.  NOT good for an enclosed space.  Tried to upload a video, but MP4 is not allowed.

Hi Suzanne,   MP4's are allowed to upload as an attachment (maybe there is a size limit that prevented you for doing so on permies?)
However, a better way is to upload your video to youtube, Vimeo etc and then linking it as Mart did.
If you have any more specific questions about this, just ask.

Thanks, Gerry.  When I tried to upload, I got a message saying MP4 not allowed.  Will try YouTube.

Thanks for your help, Gerry.  This is the candle cooker I mentioned in my earlier post.  The pot it's sitting in is a Kuhn Rikon double walled insulated pot that I can even hold in my lap while cooking.  Nice that I can safely move it around with the fire going if necessary.  A bonus... The Kelly Kettle base also fits this insulated pot.  😊

Suzanne Shaddix wrote:Thanks for your help, Gerry.  This is the candle cooker I mentioned in my earlier post.  The pot it's sitting in is a Kuhn Rikon double walled insulated pot that I can even hold in my lap while cooking.  Nice that I can safely move it around with the fire going if necessary.  A bonus... The Kelly Kettle base also fits this insulated pot.  😊

That looks very interesting   I guess it is another way to cook with bee's wax.

I have improved my boil time.


I added insulation to the outside of the Kelly Kettle.

5 1/2 cups of water to boiling in 5 iminutes and 40 seconds as compared to 8 minutes before.

I added a chimney  which greatly helped the burn.


If I could improve the loading of the device I believe I could make this even faster.    I am thinking that I could have two paint cans that I fill one while the other is burning then switch and load the other...

Love tweaking fire :-)

That looks very interesting   I guess it is another way to cook with bee's wax.


Yes, Mart... I LOVE my Kelly Kettle for outdoors, but for when I need to cook in an enclosed space, (even in the car with windows cracked), the candle cooker gets the job done with far less smoke and ash.  It was fun experimenting to see how the number of wicks and thickness affected efficiency.

I wonder if you could cut up an ironing board cover to make an insulated jacket for your kettle?  Maybe double or triple-layer with aluminum foil between the layers?

Suzanne Shaddix wrote:That looks very interesting   I guess it is another way to cook with bee's wax.

Yes, Mart... I LOVE my Kelly Kettle for outdoors, but for when I need to cook in an enclosed space, (even in the car with windows cracked), the candle cooker gets the job done with far less smoke and ash.  It was fun experimenting to see how the number of wicks and thickness affected efficiency.

I wonder if you could cut up an ironing board cover to make an insulated jacket for your kettle?  Maybe double or triple-layer with aluminum foil between the layers?



Ironing board cover I like that.....   I was thinking aluminum sheeting but I may just do a quick cover with aluminum foil just to make it look nicer for temp.

Under 6 min boil time is awesome to me  

I am also thinking of seeing how long the boil tiem is on my Silver fire gasifier camp stove.     I have used it on that before but I have not timed it.

Added Alum foil to the outside,    this should do the job of giving me the insulation that I need, and stop the insulation from getting wet.     That was a great idea, should hold me till I do the next upgrade.

Ironing board cover I like that.....   I was thinking aluminum sheeting but I may just do a quick cover with aluminum foil just to make it look nicer for temp.

Under 6 min boil time is awesome to me  

I am also thinking of seeing how long the boil tiem is on my Silver fire gasifier camp stove.     I have used it on that before but I have not timed it.



You can buy the same fabric by the yard that ironing board covers are made from.  Not sure which way would be cheapest, but I bet you could pick up an ironing board cover or an ironing pad really cheap at a place like Salvation Army or Good Will.
I think I might make a jacket with two layers, (metalic surfaces against the kettle and on the outside),  with a layer of aluminum foil in the middle.
Thanks for posting the results from your tests.  Look forward to seeing more.

This guy got his Kelly kettle to boil in 4 min ...    I am not sure how much water he had in his.

New morning boiled up 5.5 cups of water in the Kelly Kettle in 8.25 min using wood that had dew on it.

I used cardboard to jump start the process and dryer lint with  magnesium rod to start.

I used a tiny fan to help the process.

Questions I have after doing this...

1)   Does charcoal give off more heat than burning with flame?

2)   Does a vortex increase the heat from the flame against the walls of the Kelly Kettle?

3)   How could I determine the best ratio of air in to heat generated in the Kelly kettle?        I am thinking a thermometer in the Kettle would help to determine what changes I do would make the burn faster...

I didn’t know about Kelly Kettles. What a great invention. Did you try setting one on top of a wood gasifier stove, TLUD, or rocket stove? Is there anyway to use a hopper to feed pellets? In that video in England created it made a huge amount of smoke. I like Marts burn better using cardboard and less smoke. Not sure how to answer your questions. I would think a vortex helps with time, turbulence , and temperature. Looking forward to your next test.

Dunno, it seems to me that if you step away from a self-contained unit, there isn't much point. There are lots of ways to boil water. This one is particularly cool (and hot!).

Jeremy Baker wrote:I didn’t know about Kelly Kettles. What a great invention. Did you try setting one on top of a wood gasifier stove, TLUD, or rocket stove? Is there anyway to use a hopper to feed pellets? In that video in England created it made a huge amount of smoke. I like Marts burn better using cardboard and less smoke. Not sure how to answer your questions. I would think a vortex helps with time, turbulence , and temperature. Looking forward to your next test.

Gasifier yes, a Silver Fire Stove.   worked but I did not time it.

TLUD   yes,  but was slower by about 10 min.    it seems the father away it is from the coals the less the heat transfer.


I did a test recently where I used fairly damp wood  with a small 5 V  fan,  I got 8 min burn time with that as well.    I imagine if I had dryer wood it would of been far better.


As I type this I have not tried using charcoal....   I think that would be an interesting test...


But considering an Insta Pot using 1200  Watts takes 15 min to boil the same amount of water  has me very impressed with the Kelly Kettle for the amount of wood to get the job done.

I have now had 3 boil times under 6 minutes.    I used sub standard wood  ( old, rained on)   and a large wad of paper to get the fire going.    

After that I use this air pump as bellows,  I turn it on and off to give intermittent puffs of air to the chamber.

I have also come to realize that if I put a rock on the top of the kettle that the air is forced to come out slower thus I am trapping more heat in the chamber.

I believe that there is an optimal air gap at the top for air in / out at different levels the fire is at.


Any how pretty good to shave off 2 min from the boil time.

Suzanne Shaddix wrote:Thanks for your help, Gerry.  This is the candle cooker I mentioned in my earlier post.  The pot it's sitting in is a Kuhn Rikon double walled insulated pot that I can even hold in my lap while cooking.  Nice that I can safely move it around with the fire going if necessary.  A bonus... The Kelly Kettle base also fits this insulated pot.  😊

Hey I saw this, and I thought of you...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juM7EIv4Hfc