How do you heat your water??

For decanted tea, variable temp electric kettle all the way. I’m horrible at eyeballing temp and I’m extremely anal w/ my steeping parameters. I’m coveting Breville’s Automatic Tea Maker inspite of the time and tempt settings needing some minor adjustments- those will hopefully be made within the year!:) For matcha I just microwave my water cuz I use water cool enough to drink immediately.

I use an electric tea kettle. I eyeball the temperature, I’ve been brewing tea daily, many times a day for the last 12 years, so, I’ve gotten pretty good at pulling the kettle at the right time depending upon what tea I’m brewing. Sometimes, I will step away from the kettle and it will get too hot if I’m brewing a tea that requires a lower temperature, in that case, I just pour it into a ceramic vessel before I put it into my smart brewing device… the ceramic vessel wicks away the heat enough so that I don’t scorch my tea. :)

I don’t have my Breville yet. I was going to order it online, but, then decided that we’d purchase it locally instead (since we live close to Portland and there’s no sales tax). But I haven’t found it when we’ve been out and about… but then, I haven’t been looking too hard. I want one, but I don’t NEED one yet. :) Probably when autumn arrives and I am drinking more hot tea, I will INSIST that we get one immediately.

I use a kettle on the stove, pour into my kyusu, wait for a lower water temperature when needed (thermometer), and then add leaf. It works really well.

I use my Zojirushi and love it.

I think the manner in which one heats water not only depends on the person’s personality type and ability to wing it (I have the desire, just not the talent for it lol) as well as the types of tea one drinks.

at work; hot water spigot right into kati cup or cup with teabag
at home; breville water heater then into teapot OR breville one-touch teamaker (used to have zarafina as well)
on vacation; rival hot pot right into mug with teabag

I use a pair of electric kettles – a stainless steel one by Oster and the discontinued version of the glass Capresso kettle. Gotten good at judging by sound, but I got a probe that is far more accurate than my eyes, ears, and hands are.

I’ve got a Taylor electric thermometer with a long corded temperature probe meant to thread into an oven. Its displayed accuracy is lower than the actual accuracy, so it tracks temperatures to the degree well and has an alarm that goes off when the set temperature is reached. Also has a minute timer with a different sounding alarm. I guess it has problems with high oven temps, but for heating water it is more accurate and obvious than most of the programmable kettles currently out there. http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Digital-Thermometer-Stainless-Faceplate/dp/B001GD1WHU/ref=pd_sbs_k_8

This is what I use it’s perfect!

I heat my water in a Farberware tea kettle on the gas stove. I may splurge on an electric variable-temp kettle one of these days, but it would truly be an indulgence, since the vast majority of the tea I drink is black tea and thus calls for boiling water.

A fun informative view on many methods of water heating for tea:
http://blog.mightyleaf.com/bubbles-and-steam-boiling-water-for-tea/