Electric Tea Kettles

[Cusina]

I just bought the Krups version for my office. I agree that it is very, very handy for a place with no stove. In my kitchen I prefer the stovetop variety as there is something nice about staring into my backyard while I wait for it to boil.

I bought my Krups at Tuesday Morning for $48. Quite the bargain, I thought.

Edited November 27, 2005 by Cusina (log)

[foodie52]

I have a Melitta Express kettle and it's held up very well. I always use fresh water and love how it comes to a rolling boil before switching off. The oxygen in the fresh water is important for a perfect cup of tea!

I have a well-used Brown Betty - makes one cup - which I never wash or rinse out. I've got a tea cosy in the shape of a cat that I bought years ago at Kew Gardens.

I mostly use PG Tips - I'm pretty much stuck on the teabag thing, but will use loose tea when received as a present.

If I didn't have my cup of tea in the morning, I doubt that I would ever get out of bed!

[Katie Meadow]

My daughter needs an electric tea kettle for the place she will be sharing with four room mates. It will get heavy use and need to be medium to large size, easy to clean if possible, inside and out. These college kids are HARD on their appliances. I am hoping to keep the price under $80. I'm hoping to satisfy as many of these criteria as possible:

Stainless steel exterior for durability. These kids are strong but not always careful, so no glass body. Also there will be no small children living there, so if the pot gets hot they can deal with it.

Some of the kids may object to plastic parts touching the water, or just plastic, generally. I guess I feel the same.

No weird smell! This seems to be the major complaint about many electric kettles; either the whole contraption smells while the water is heating or the boiled water itself tastes funny.

Some type of readable window to show water level.

Easy to maintain. Wide lid is good, so big hands can get inside for scrubbing.

Cordless pot of course. Cord retractable and adjustable into the base would be nice, but not essential. Automatic shut-off goes without saying. Don't need a lot of bells and whistles.

I assume most of the new kettles all heat the water pretty fast. So...if anyone has purchased a new electric kettle in the last couple of years I would love to hear what worked for you and what didn't, and what might be a good one for this situation. Russell Hobbs, btw, has been bought out and currently there is only one kettle on the market with the Hobbs name--and it gets mixed reviews. The Breville stainless model seems to get high marks for everything but nasty smell, which I would say is a deal-breaker.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I researched the kettle route and went for a simple hot water dispenser like one of these.

I love having hot water exactly when I want it -- not when I wait for it to heat up.

Edited May 5, 2010 by Carolyn Tillie (log)

[Joe Blowe]

I agree -- you want a hot water dispenser, not a kettle. They are large capacity, are relatively rugged, clean up easily (although you do have to descale them), and they use surprisingly little energy.

However, they do have plastic exteriors on all but the most expensive models, and the interiors are usually Teflon-coated metal. It's quite safe, though.

The biggest upside is using the timer to have 5 liters of hot water waiting for you in the morning!

[corax]

are we really sure the teflon [etc] interiors are safe? with all the recent brouhaha over BPA, and considering the sustained high heat involved here, i confess i worry. if i could find a zojirushi [or other brand] that did not have the non-stick lining, i would buy it in a minute. i drink tea pretty constantly throughout the day, and could use such a hot-water source ready to hand. not to mention for the coffee-drinkers in the house, for making soups, etc etc.

for electric kettles i have used the BODUM MINI-IBIS

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00006F2M1

which works superbly well and dependably, and is not terribly expensive; but again there's the plastic issue. i switched to the CHEF'S CHOICE 677

http://www.amazon.com/Chef/dp/B0000E5IN3/

and had two or three of these, but [a] they tend to break, and the newer models have a nasty plastic smell [from the lid] that just would not go away, even with repeated boiling [with vinegar water, baking soda water, etc]. my mother bought a CUISINART KUA-17

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004S9CZ/

which as expected is durable, hardworking, and fast; but the lid is directly *under* the handle, which can lead to steam-scalding of the fingers. my most recent foray into this arena was for the BREVILLE SK500XL

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000A790X6/

and this has been the most satisfactory so far. auto-shut-off; cordless from the base; stainless steel inside and out; 1500 watts, thus as fast as you can get in the USA; 'factory' flavor rinses out after a few vinegar-water boils; nary a problem despite constant daily use for months.

so the breville is the one i recommend, based on the experiences above.

[Joe Blowe]

are we really sure the teflon [etc] interiors are safe?

Yes.  Any other questions?

[Snadra]

If you want a quiet kettle, plastic is a better option than stainless (speaking from experience).

However, I second the Breville Ikon if you're after stainless. We bought ours last year (they are in the A$100 range) and it's been great. Wide opening, pleasant chime, and VERY quiet for a stainless kettle. We bought another as a housewarming gift for friends, and they have been just as pleased with it.

http://www.brevilleusa.com/ikon-electric-kettle-1-7.html

That said, we're on 240 volts - not sure if that makes much of a difference to boiling time.

[Dianabanana]

I've been using my Toastess kettle half a dozen times a day since 1997 and it's still going strong. This seems to be the currently-available equivalent to the one I have. It meets all of your criteria except the water-level window.

[ray goud]

I bought an Oster unit at Target. It is all stainless, shuts off after boiling, has a keeps-hot feature, comes off its base, leaving the base/cord behind (therefore safer), and only cost $30. What more can one want?

Ray

[Kayakado]

Make sure the handle is not over the fill opening. I bought a Black & Decker tea kettle and it was pretty with a large loop handle from back to just over the spout. It would burn you in a second. The directions said to heat it with this cover off but you couldn't pour it that way. You also couldn't fill it when it was hot.

Get a tea kettle like the Capresso brand where the handle is on the side and does not arch over the top. The capresso has none of the problems the B&D had with steam burns. The capresso's only downside is you have to be sure to turn off the on switch if you pour the water before it shuts off automatically. It shuts off when it reaches the boil but if you empty it before it reaches a boil and don't slide the switch to off, it stays on. I left it in this on state overnight and nothing happened but I now careful to shut it off.

[Katie Meadow]

Thanks to all for excellent suggestions. The dispenser idea is great, but the keep warm function worries me. It would be perfect for an office situation, or a home where multiple numbers are drinking hot tea or coffee all day. My experience staying in my daughter's place this spring is that that these kids are never home; they are out all day and half the night. They study in the library, eat on the fly. They just need a dependable sturdy way to heat water fast. As for large quantities, it seems pretty rare that more than three roomies are ever in the same place at the same time, so the 1.7 litres should be fine.

I think I am going with the Breville Ikon. The price is lowest on Amazon--$63 and ships free--and I can order it and clean it with vinegar before I take it up there to make sure it's all good.

[corax]

good luck katie -- hope it all goes well

[blue_dolphin]

In one of the offices I worked in, we used the Sunbeam Hot Shot to heat water for coffee, tea and soup.

They heat up to 16 oz of water in about 60-90 sec and tended to last about 5 years or so with fairly heavy use.

[ray goud]

Thanks to all for excellent suggestions. The dispenser idea is great, but the keep warm function worries me. It would be perfect for an office situation, or a home where multiple numbers are drinking hot tea or coffee all day. My experience staying in my daughter's place this spring is that that these kids are never home; they are out all day and half the night. They study in the library, eat on the fly. They just need a dependable sturdy way to heat water fast. As for large quantities, it seems pretty rare that more than three roomies are ever in the same place at the same time, so the 1.7 litres should be fine.

I think I am going with the Breville Ikon. The price is lowest on Amazon--$63 and ships free--and I can order it and clean it with vinegar before I take it up there to make sure it's all good.

No need to worry about the keeps-warm with the Oster unit; it is switchable off or on by the user. Hope you haven't already ordered from Amazon without looking at the Oster and saving $30.

Ray