Shhhh! This Is The Secret The “Soup Nazi” Doesn’t Want You To Know!
Written: May 24 '05 (Updated May 24 '05)
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Pros: Boils water quickly, great for raman noodles, nice for melting chocolate too!
Cons: Not kid friendly, potential of steam burns of you aren’t careful.
The Bottom Line: If you are a tea or soup junkie, this is a must have item!
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| Freak369's Full Review: Rival Hot Pot 4080 |
I am an iced tea junkie and there isn't a day that goes by that I am not making a pot or two of it. Most of the time I use my coffee maker or iced tea maker for the job but when I want a spot of hot tea before it cools off I grab my Rival Hot Pot and brew away. I had no idea that these were so popular but when I picked up a new one at Wal-Mart there were only a few left. I asked the clerk why there was half a shelf for the product but there were only four boxes left; that's when he told me that all the college students [more likely their parents] stock up on them when they are on sale. For $6.99 I couldn’t pass up getting another one because the one that I had was starting to act a little funny and took a little longer than usual to bring water to a boil. Most of the time this gets used to boil water for hot tea but I also use it for soups and most recently I tried it out to melt chocolate. This doesn't work as well as the double boiler method but it works in a pinch.
Rival Hot Pot
Regardless of the size you purchase [four or five cups] you are getting something that will boil water quicker than a microwave and safer too. I had a nasty incident with a microwavable tea kettle when I super heated the water and when I went to add the tea leaves it started to bubble, hiss and crackle like I was making some kind of evil, demented concoction. After that I decided that when I wanted tea and couldn't wait I'd use one of these suckers to do the job. The nice thing about this is you can adjust the temperature - but it does take a while to get that down to a science. It's just a dial but once you get the hang of using it you'll be able to "cook" with it. I’ve used this to make macaroni and cheese for the kids when I was too lazy to drag out a pot and stand there waiting for the water to boil. Sure I still had to wash out the inside of the hot pot but it was a little bit less of a mess. This is something that is "off limits" for the boys to use; it’s not that I don't trust them but they do tend to goof around a little too much in the kitchen and Id rather be safe than sorry when it comes to accidents.
This will boil 32 ounces of water in about three minutes [less if you are starting out with warm or hot water] which is quicker than using the stove and, in my case, safer than a microwave. If you work in a small office that doesn’t have a kitchen or microwave then this is nice to have on hand to heat up food or make soup and because of the compact size of it, it can be cleaned in a bathroom sink if need be. I have one of these in the kitchen and one in my "office" because sometimes I am too lazy to run back and forth to the kitchen to get a hot cut of tea. I found a small steamer rack [and I am talking small] that fits inside this so if I want to steam a small portion of vegetables I can do it without having to pull out pots and large steamer baskets. Once you start using this you do get a little spoiled - you’ll try to use it for everything that normally requires a pot or microwave safe bowl.
This is also great to have if you are going camping and will have access to electricity - you can make coffee in the morning, hot cocoa at night and light snacks during the day. The last time we went camping I packed one of these for the trip and when I asked, "Where’s the outlet?" everyone bust out laughing and someone replied, "About twenty miles down the road, do you need an extension cord?" So the lesson here is always ask if there is electricity and if it is going to be close to where you are camping. On a side note; I lasted about fourteen hours before I had to leave. I might like to rough it when I camp but no electricity is taking it too far. And since I mentioned extension cords - you don’t want to use those with this - just for the simple fact that it makes it too easy to have an accident. The cord on this is short for a reason - so there is less of a chance of someone tripping over it, knocking it over or getting something caught on it.
You can also use these for melting cheese and chocolate - not together of course! I like the fact that I can have this on the warm setting and melt cheese for nachos or a cream sauce without having to worry about the bottom of a pot burning and ruining it. If you make chocolate these are nice to use because you can adjust the temperature; when it’s melted you can put it on the 'warm' setting and stir it everyone minute or so and have a completely liquid to work with. This is nice if you are making chocolate covered strawberries, nuts or pretzels because you don’t have to stand over the stove and make sure that the chocolate is constantly moving around. Like I said, you do have to get used to the rather vague temperature settings on the dial but once you find the ones that work best for you - it’s a complete breeze to use!
The Bottom Line
So far I haven’t had any problems with any of the Rival hot pots that I’ve owned; you can get these in a few different sizes but the 32 ounce one seems to be the best size for me. They are usually about eight dollars but you can catch them on sale every few months. This is a nice thing to have around if you want to boil water quickly and safely; it’s something that can be taken anywhere [well, as long as there is electricity] and because it has a ‘warm’ setting you can use it to keep things warm during a picnic, cook out or barbecue. If you’ve never used one of these you don’t know what you are missing. They are easy to clean [just don’t submerge them in water], last at least a few years and don’t look tacky if you leave them sitting on the kitchen counter.
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2005 Freak369
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Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $6.99
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