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At work I frequently brew my own coffee. I use a "coffee cone," which works very easily when you pour boiling water over the grounds - coffee simply drips through the filter.

I am not terribly picky about my coffee. Until recently, I filled a glass measuring cup with tap water (which is chlorinated), microwaved it until it was boiling, and used it. Coffee was OK.

Recently a co-worker brought in one of those electric tea kettles. She fills it with water, hits the switch, and it boils. I used it today for the first time and my coffee was awful. All I could taste was the chlorine! We used the same water. Do these tea kettles make chlorinated water taste worse?

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    most likely something is wrong with her kettle. Either that or the water is hotter/cooler than when you use a microwave, and as a result your coffee tastes different. You can try boiling the water and sipping it plain to see if there's anything different, or letting it cool and then tasting both of them. If the kettle one tastes noticeably worse, it's because of the kettle
    – Esther
    Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 19:12
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    If you leave chlorinated water to stand for an hour or two the chlorine will evaporate off.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Sep 30, 2022 at 8:25

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This has nothing to do with chlorinated water, but some low-quality kettles, especially ones made of plastic, may leach a chlorine-like or plasticky taste (according to commenters in this iFixit thread).

You can determine this by boiling spring water (or other non-chlorinated water) in both the microwave and kettle, and tasting them plain. If the kettle is indeed low-quality, then the non-chlorinated water boiled in it should taste weird as well.

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    This is normally only true if the kettle is new (or very many years old so the plastic has started to degrade, or stored wet for a long period). I suspect it's new and will improve with a few uses - if filled right up for some of them
    – Chris H
    Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 20:09
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    @ChrisH I think I wouldn't ever get comfortable drinking from chlorine leaching kettle. Even if I feel nothing, how do I know manufacturer cared enough to prevent other contaminants? That's why I use kettle thathas stainless steel bottom and glass body.
    – Mołot
    Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 22:31
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    @Mołot the kettle almost certainly isn't leaching chlorine. The taste people describe as chlorine is usually something different
    – Chris H
    Commented Sep 30, 2022 at 5:35

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