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French Electric Tea Kettle: Will it work in Berlin?

Good morning, everybody.

I think I know my answer, but please confirm this for me. I bought a travel-sized hot water electric tea kettle when I was in Paris. It is NOT dual voltage. It is 220-240 volts. It has the two round plugs. It is not grounded, although it looks like it will fit a grounded adapter.

To keep things simple, my basic question is, "Will this work in Berlin?" For that matter, would it work in all of Germany? I get the impression that the answer is yes.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Posted by
8889 posts

It is 220-240 volts. It has the two round plugs. It is not grounded,

I bet it is grounded. Kettles must be grounded.
I bet the plug looks like this: http://www.plugsocketmuseum.nl/CEE7/CEE7-7plug.jpg
French sockets have a ground (earth) pin which sticks out of the socket, and goes into a receptacle in the plug, as you can see in the photo.
German (Schuko) sockets have side contacts for ground (earth). Diagram: http://www.interpower.com/ic/images/cee_74_cee_77_diagram.gif

Any grounded appliance you buy in France or Germany (or the rest of Europe except CH, IT, GB, IE), has a plug like the one in the photo, and will fit both French and German systems.

So the answer is still the same, yes it will work in Berlin.

Posted by
19052 posts

I agree with Chris. if the tea kettle really has a two pin plug, like this plug, it would be limited (unless it is illegal) to 2½ amps, less than 600W, and would heat slowly.

Posted by
337 posts

The 'Europlug' aka CEE 7/16 isn't the only ungrounded French/German plug, there is also the Konturstecker aka CEE 7/17 which is rated for up to 16 ampere. And it too would work fine in Germany.

Posted by
91 posts

Thank you to all the "techies," engineers, electricians, and friends who responded.

It looks like I am all set to go; the trip will be next year.

Chris: For your info, the kettle is a nice quality "Bodum, designed in Switzerland." The plug looks like the picture you send for French sockets.

Danke an alle.

Posted by
10 posts

A little bit off topic, but still it became interesting to me - why did you even need an electric kettle in Paris?) As far as I remember from my trips - in hotels (at least in those in which I was, the kettles were presented)

Posted by
10 posts

Although if think a bit, I had a similar need for a teapot when I went on a bus tour in Europe (Poland-Czech Republic-Germany-France). In Poland and France there were kettles in hotels, but in a couple of hotels in the Czech Republic, tea could be taken only in a restaurant or in a bar, there were no teapots in the room. On the account of Germany, I do not remember (I traveled about 4 years ago, maybe even 4.5). Then I thought that it would be nice to buy a kettle, but I did not find small ones, there were only large models of a liter or 2, maybe a little less, in shops, like those maybe. I'm not a supporter of huge bags on the trip, so I'm trivial nowhere to put it.

Posted by
32515 posts

designed in Switzerland

The Bodum folks make nice products.

Apropos of nothing, the sneaky words on their ad "designed in" usually means "but made in China". So is most other stuff, but it almost seems like they hope that people will see the "Switzerland" and gloss over the "designed in".

Posted by
91 posts

Here is why I needed a tea kettle in Paris.

For part of my trip, I stayed at Victoria Palace Hotel in the 6th Arrondissement. Overall, the stay was pleasant, but they had no tea kettle or coffee-making machine in the rooms. I think they wanted guests to buy their breakfasts.

I could have bought their breakfasts, or I think I could have ordered room service for coffee. They were willing to bring hot water in a plastic carafe to my room. I did this the first morning of my stay.

The hotel is one block from an FNAC Department Store. On my first day in Paris, I identified a small Bodum kettle at FNAC, but thought it was a little bit of expensive. I then wasted time at a Monoprix Store, buying a large cheap kettle. A short time later, I returned the large cheap kettle, still unopened in the box, to Monoprix. Shortly after that, I returned to FNAC and was lucky to purchase the last Bodum kettle.

Victoria Palace is rated as a five-star hotel. I would rate it at maybe a 3.5 or 4-star hotel. I will never return to the hotel, nor will I ever recommend it. It also confounded me that management locked the volume on their televisions at 30%. This was their policy for all hotel rooms.

I think this hotel missed numerous opportunities for showing graciousness or goodwill to their guests.

Second point on the tea kettle -- I think the Bodum kettle is 7/10th of a liter. It is very nicely designed by the Swiss. Yes, it is made in China. Unfortunately, it is not dual voltage so I can't use it in the USA or Canada.