An electric kettle system designed for particular use onboard passenger transportation vehicles. In many instances, hot beverages are brewed using a separate beverage maker system, but it may be desirable to maintain the warmth/heat of a kettle containing the hot beverage that is separate from the beverage maker system. The electric kettle system described provides a base and a carafe with a locking connection therebetween. The system incorporates a heater plate within the carafe, and the heater plate is activated when the carafe is positioned on the base.

An appliance (10) to heat a liquid, the appliance (10) including: a hollow body (16) providing a chamber (23) to receive the liquid, the body (16) having a bottom wall (17) and a side wall (18) extending upwardly from the bottom wall (17) so as to surround the chamber (23); an electrical resistance heater (27) fixed to the body (16) and to which electric power is delivered so that the heater (27) has a raised temperature to heat the liquid contained in the chamber (23); a switch (29), adjacent the heater (27), that receives electric power and delivers electric power to the heater (27), the switch (29) being mounted in the body (16) and located so that heat generated by the switch (29) can be delivered to the liquid via conduction; and wherein the switch (29) is mounted on the body (16) to inhibit heat transfer by conduction between the heater (27) and switch (29).

An actively heated or cooled food container can have a lid movable between an open and a closed position and an insulated body to which the lid can be attached. The insulated body can have a sidewall that defines a perimeter of the container body and a base, the sidewall and base defining one or more chambers that can be sealed by the lid. The food container can have a temperature control system that can include one or more heating or cooling elements in thermal communication with one or both of the sidewall and the base and operable to heat or cool one or both of the sidewall and the base to thereby heat or cool the one or more chambers in the food container.

An electric kettle may include a body made of a metal material and configured to form a space in which fluid, such as water is contained, a heating module provided in the body to heat the space, a handle mounted to protrude from an outer surface of the body, a handle cover made of a metal material and configured to form a protruding upper surface of the handle, and a handle printed circuit board (PCB) provided inside of the handle and including a touch sensor in close contact with a rear surface of the handle cover to sense a touch operation of the handle cover. An operation of the heating module may be controlled by the handle PCB.

An actively heated or cooled food container can have a lid movable between an open and a closed position and an insulated body to which the lid can be attached. The insulated body can have a sidewall that defines a perimeter of the container body and a base, the sidewall and base defining one or more chambers that can be sealed by the lid. The food container can have a temperature control system that can include one or more heating or cooling elements in thermal communication with one or both of the sidewall and the base and operable to heat or cool one or both of the sidewall and the base to thereby heat or cool the one or more chambers in the food container.

A portable carafe has a reservoir (14) for holding a liquid, a hot liquid outlet (18) and a hot liquid flow path (22) connecting the reservoir to the hot liquid outlet. A heater (28) is arranged in the hot liquid flow path so that the heater can heat liquid passing from the reservoir (14) to the hot liquid outlet (18). The heater (28) may be inactive when no liquid is passing through the hot liquid flow path, and may be active only when hot liquid is to be dispensed. The carafe may include a battery (50) for powering the heater. The carafe may include a cold liquid outlet (20) and a cold liquid flow path (34), and may be arranged so that tilting the carafe in one direction causes hot liquid to be dispensed, whereas tilting the carafe in another direction causes cold liquid to be dispensed.

A solid-state radio frequency (SSRF) water heating apparatus is disclosed. In embodiments, the SSRF water heater includes a water tank, SSRF generator array and RF sensors enclosed within an RF-shielded cage. The SSRF array synthesizes RF signals in the microwave range and transmits the RF energy through the water tank, exciting and heating the water molecules without direct contact. The RF sensors at the opposite end of the tank sense residual RF energy not absorbed by the water. Control processors regulate the generation and transmission of the RF energy based on the sensed residual energy. The heated water and/or generated steam is piped to hot water dispensers, beverage makers, or steam ovens.

The present application is directed to an apparatus that includes an inner vessel, a vacuum insulator vessel disposed around and bonded to the inner vessel, a bottom cover affixed to the inner vessel and the vacuum insulator, the bottom cover including a control circuit with a voice recognition module, a transistor switch and one or more sensors. A heater strip is disposed around at least a portion of the bottom cover and is in contact with the inner vessel, a charging interface is configured to receive a power charge from an external source, a battery pack with a number of conduits is configured to provide a power supply to the control circuit and the heater strip and to receive the power charge from the charging interface, and the voice recognition module is configured to identify audio commands received and activate the power supply of the battery pack to the heater strip to increase a temperature of the inner vessel and contents of the inner vessel.

An electric kettle may include a body made of a metal material and configured to form a space in which fluid, such as water is contained, a heating module provided in the body to heat the space, a handle mounted to protrude from an outer surface of the body, a handle cover made of a metal material and configured to form a protruding upper surface of the handle, and a handle printed circuit board (PCB) provided inside of the handle and including a touch sensor in close contact with a rear surface of the handle cover to sense a touch operation of the handle cover. An operation of the heating module may be controlled by the handle PCB.

An actively heated mug has a body with a chamber that can receive and hold a beverage and a heating element to actively heat the chamber, batteries, and circuitry that controls the operation of the heating element. A user interface is electrically connected to the circuitry and has one or more buttons actuatable a) to turn on the heating element, b) to adjust a temperature setting to one of multiple temperature settings to control the operation of the heating element to heat or maintain the liquid at a user selected temperature setting, and c) to turn off the heating element.