<p>Hey all,</p>
<p>Are electronic kettles allowed in the dorms? I need my tea and instant coffee, and traveling to the dining halls everytime I want a cup of hot water is a unappealing prospect.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>you mean an electric kettle? no way it’s allowed. you can heat water in your microwave…</p>
<p>I don’t know what an electric kettle is but my roommate had a coffee maker which was legal and then traded it for a single cup coffee maker. It would make a cup of hot water and was totally legal. That should work for coffee or tea.</p>
<p>since when are coffee makers legal? I’m pretty sure if the fire marshall or housing saw it one or the other would tell you otherwise. My roommate has one and is always paranoid about our RA or someone seeing it and making her get rid of it.</p>
<p>Thank you for your responses. I think I will bring a coffee maker and place it covertly. I do not believe it’ll be a fire hazard–we are dealing with relatively low temperature liquids here, after all.</p>
<p>Things with a hot plate/heating element are typically housing no-no’s…</p>
<p>it’s true you’re not suppose to have one,
but i had one and even asked my RA and she let it slide…<br>
i just kept it hidden when i wasnt using it</p>
<p>My roomate had his is full view and the RA was directly accross the hall. I never paid any attention b/c I don’t drink coffee but it never seemed to be an issue.</p>
<p>Why would you ever drink instant coffee?</p>
<p>Really? No electric kettles allowed? That might interfere with my tea addiction…</p>
<p>But it sounds like it’s possible to get away with having one?</p>
<p>I have a coffee pot in full view and it’s never been an issue. However, I don’t actually make coffee that much because I get it elsewhere and it takes a while to make. I do make a lot of tea in my room because it’s faster to just stick a cup of water in the microwave for 2 minutes and make tea that way…</p>
<p>If the heat element under traditional coffee pots doesn’t comply (I just checked [the</a> “what not to bring” list on the housing website](<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/housing/faq.php#faq_13]the”>http://www.virginia.edu/housing/faq.php#faq_13) and coffee pots weren’t mentioned, so check with them directly), the single cup maker that vistany mentioned probably fits the bill. </p>
<p>If you’re a real coffee geek, you won’t want a heat element under the pot anyway. Some of those cook the coffee past brewing, which can affect the taste. :)</p>
<p>< Drinks a lot of coffee</p>
<p>Hide it when the fire marshal comes to check.</p>
<p>Really we keep an electronic kettle in full view of the housekeeping staff in the common room and no one says anything.</p>
<p>
As someone who has witnessed a residence hall fire at another school, one of the most horrific things I’ve witnessed, please don’t skirt fire codes. The rules are in place for a reason. I know it’s tempting to focus on how they inconvenience you, but they are about the safety of your entire building.</p>
<p>My dorm had like 6 fire alarm calls this year and all of them were due to people cooking and none of it was due to the electric heating element catching fire. In fact, I couldn’t think of a relatively safer cooking appliance, besides the slow cooker or the rice cooker.</p>
<p>The firemen also probably see the kettle sitting in our common room and they don’t say anything…one time over the winter our radiator caught fire – but not the kettle.</p>
<p>It doesn’t really matter if the fire alarms you experienced weren’t related to a prohibited appliance. The fire I witnessed was related to an electrical cord that had otherwise looked just fine. </p>
<p>This wasn’t a little fire. The entire wing of the building was a total loss despite the fire being contained to one room (smoke and water ruined almost everything). </p>
<p>Just be careful. The fire codes are there for a reason.</p>
<p>If you have a microwave it does work to boil water in it to make tea. Use a pyrex measuring cup and make sure the water comes to a rolling boil before you use it to make tea. If you must get something else I would strongly suggest an electric kettle. They have thermostats so they turn off automatically and there is no exposed heating element. If you must get a coffee pot make sure it turns it’s self off.</p>
<p>DD has one of the little Keurig coffee makers. It heats a cup of water and you can put a teabag in it. It does not heat until you put the cup under the spout, so there are no worries about leaving it on. If you want to spend the $$, you can get all the K-cup coffees and hot chocolate.</p>
<p>She is not at UVA and I do not think her Kuerig is against the rules at her school–I did read them last summer.</p>