Pesach Faqs

Q. I have an electric urn which I use all year for heating hot water. Do I have to kasher it before I use it for Pesach?

A. If an electric hot water urn remains on the counter during the year, it must be kashered in order to use it on Pesach. This is because during the year someone might have warmed up a challah on it or poured water directly from the urn into an oatmeal or instant noodle soup. Even if no one remembers doing this, one must be concerned that it may have happened at some point.

In this context, Rav Schwartz zt"l ruled that if it is the type of urn which is not brought to the table, is not washed with chametz items, and the family is 100% sure that they (and their children and guests) never used it for anything but heating hot water, and there was no inadvertent hot chametz contact (e.g., being accidentally splashed with chametz), it may be used for Pesach without kashering. Most homes are not disciplined enough to reach this level of confidence and should therefore kasher the urn.