What is a samovar?

A samovar is normally used for brewing cup upon cup of tea, but it's useful for some other things as well. A samovar runs on coal, firewood, gas, electricity or nuclear power (for industral use--eg. in tea-brewing factories.) Every Russian household has a samovar in the kitchen.

Some times in winter, the hot water pipes may be shut down, a samovar comes in handy. To use a samovar to obtain hot water, Russian pour snow or ice into it and then heat the contents. Hot water is then obtained from the spigot. Some Russians have 2 samovars--one to put in the kitchen and one to put in the bathroom so that hot baths are possible. Very large samovars that are able to melt kilograms upon kilograms of snow into litres upon litres of water can be bought and are usually used in the bathroom.