makes the tea taste funny. This drives me crazy. Boiling 2 litres of water to fill a teacup. Bonus if they stand over the kettle waiting impatiently for it to boil. P-Jay said: My grandparents hated leaving anything switched on 'at the wall' actually they didn't even trust the switch, everything got unplugged in their house. I guess s t just used to catch fire back in the 50's or something because it was a real fear of their that they'd return home to a fireball because the microwave was left plugged in - it was a house where nothing functioned without a constant blinking "00:00"