Your Kettle, Urn, and Hotplate on Pesach: What You Need to Know

Dear Rabbi, what could be the problem with using the kettle that I have been using for the year? Can I also use it for Pesach? After all, I only use it with plain water, so what could be the issue? Also, I have other electric appliances like the Shabbos urn and the hotplate. Can I use them for Passover?

Thank you for your question.

HaGaon HaRav Rav Amrom Fried shlit”a writes that lechatchilah one should not use the same kettle that was used during the year for Pesach. Harav Fried Shalittah gives four reasons for this halachah.

The first reason is that sometimes people place bread or pita on top of the lid of the kettle in order to warm it up. If that happens, the lid absorbs taste from the chametz and would require libun in order to remove those beli’os. However, performing libun on the lid could damage it, and there is a rule that something which would be damaged by libun cannot be kashered with libun. Therefore, the lid cannot be kashred.

The second reason is that many kettles are made of plastic. Therefore, when a person pours boiling hot water from the kettle into foods such as pasta or porridge, the hot steam rises up into the kettle. Through this steam, the kettle can absorb taste of chametz, and so the kettle would require hagalah, but many opinions hold that plastic utensils cannot be kashered with hagalah.

For example, this issue of hot steam rising up can happen with the metal taps that we use in the kitchen.

Sometimes a person has a pot on the fire with hot food that contains chametz, and the steam from the pot rises upward and reaches the tap. When this happens, the steam can cause the tap to absorb the taste of chametz.

Another situation that can occur is when boiling hot water from the tap is poured into a pot that contains chametz. Once again, the steam from the pot rises up toward the tap, and the tap can absorb the taste of chametz.

Since the taps are usually made of metal, there is a way to perform hagalah on them.

HaGaon Rav Amrom Fried shlit”a explains that the procedure is as follows;

First, a person should wait 24 hours without using hot water from that tap. After the 24 hours have passed, one should turn on the boiler so that the water coming through the taps will be as hot as possible.

When doing hagalah, one should open the tap and let the hottest possible water run through it.

At the same time, one should pour boiling water from a kettle or a pot over the tap from the outside.

However, regarding the kettle, as we explained earlier, many kettles today are made of plastic. Since many poskim hold that we cannot perform hagalah on plastic, the kettle would not be kashered in this way.

The third reason is that very often there is limescale at the bottom of the kettle. Many authorities say that one cannot do hagalah when there is limescale stuck onto the inside of the utensil.

The fourth reason is that sometimes there may be small crumbs of chametz inside the kettle which are very difficult to find and remove completely.

Because of all these concerns, lechatchilah it is preferable to buy a separate kettle for Pesach.

The same applies as well to a Shabbos urn, which has similar halachic considerations to an electric kettle, since some of these reasons can apply there as well.

It is important to note: When buying a new urn, if it was manufactured in Eretz Yisrael, then it does not require tevillah or Hachsharah

However, if it was manufactured in Chutz la’Aretz, then it does require tevillah, and many people are also stringent to perform hagalah as well.

How does one do hagalah with a hot urn?

One should fill the urn with water and bring it to a full boil, and then pour the boiling water out.

(This is based on Yoreh De’ah siman 120 and the Chazon Ish, Yoreh De’ah siman 44.)

Hot Plate 

With regard to the Hot plate (plata chashmalit) that we use on Shabbos, lechatchilah one should have a separate hotplate specifically for Pesach.

If a person does not have a separate one, then he should clean the hotplate very well with cleaning detergents. After that, one should turn it on and leave it on for a full hour.

There are also people who are mehadrin and pour boiling water from a kli rishon over the hotplate.

Afterwards, one should cover it with thick silver foil. When buying the foil in the shop, one should try to find foil that is 50 microns thick. If one does not have such thick foil, then one should cover the hotplate with two layers of regular foil, so it would be double wrapped.

The main point is that the hotplate should remain fully covered the entire time, and there should never be any direct contact between the pot and the hotplate.

Wishing you a chag Kasher vesameach.

Azamroh Lishmecho #325