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I have never bought a bad kettle. Maybe I'm just less particular about my kettles, but as far as I can tell, even the cheap £5 ones from ASDA meet all of these

I have never bought a bad kettle. Maybe I'm just less particular about my kettles, but as far as I can tell, even the cheap £5 ones from ASDA meet all of these requirements. I have had a Bosch Village Collection kettle for the last 5 years, which I bought for £20. Still works fine and frankly if it broke tomorrow, I can't really complain. I bought it because it was the cheapest 3kW kettle they had. Also my experience is the limescale filters don't work. If you want a nice cup of tea, you really need to pre-soften your water with a Brita jug and descale regularly. My water is 400ppm at the tap (London!) and the Brita jug takes it down to 150ppm. A monthly descale keeps the kettle nice and clean.

fanf2 6y ago
Do they have temperature control?
alisonatwork 6y ago
You have clearly never lived in North America, continent of pathetic kettles. It's hard enough to find one here that's electric in the first place, it seems people prefer to balance their kettles on the tops of stoves, like peasants. On the odd occasion you do find one that plugs into a wall, often it's like it was designed in the dark ages before they were cordless, and of course the cord is only about 6 inches long, so you have to unplug it to move it to the tap for a refill, then plug it in again. My current apartment's kettle doesn't even have a lid or a button, you have to fill it through the spout and it starts boiling immediately when you plug it in. After all that, it still takes about 27 minutes to make a cup of tea. Forget all these fancy lime scale filters and temperature controls, just finding a £5 one that actually worked would be a dream. Rant aside, apparently a large part of the problem is because North America uses 110v at the wall. Quick explanation here[0]. As mentioned in the linked article, many houses here also have a separate high voltage line for washing machines. Perhaps they should have a high voltage kettle line. [0] http://wordpress.mrreid.org/2012/04/16/why-kettles-boil-slowly-in-the-us/ http://wordpress.mrreid.org/2012/04/16/why-kettles-boil-slow...
- cwhiz 6y ago
  I’m sorry, but what? There are infinite electric kettles available. 27 minutes to boil water? Again, what? Seriously, have you ever been in North America? Just go into literally any big box retailer and find the 50 foot long shelves full of electric kettles. Or go to an online retailer, say Amazon, and find hundreds and hundreds of them. Virtually every major brand makes electric kettles, they all seem to work just fine, and they don’t take 27 minutes to boil water.
  - orra 6y ago
    > 27 minutes to boil water? Again, what? They're exaggerating. But your typical North American electric kettle is—ballpark—twice as slow as a European kettle. Your standard North American sockets provide half the voltage but not double the amperage, so they're half as powerful.
    - otterley 6y ago
      Not much we can do about that, I’m afraid. Most residential outlets are 15 amps, and to double them to 30 amps or convert them to 240V would require costly rewiring. And copper prices are sky-high these days.
      - snypher 6y ago
        I wonder if a kettle with a J1772 or Tesla port...
        cameronh90 6y ago
        What about a kettle with a giant battery pack that charges when idle and boils at 10kW when you press the button.
        kirstenbirgit 6y ago
        At that point one might as well get an instant boiling water tap system.
wolfretcrap 6y ago
I live in the norther part of India near Himalayas, water to my house has 200-250 TDS and I use RO system to turn it down to 1TDS then it's remineralized again.

fanf2 6y ago

Do they have temperature control?

alisonatwork 6y ago

You have clearly never lived in North America, continent of pathetic kettles. It's hard enough to find one here that's electric in the first place, it seems people prefer to balance their kettles on the tops of stoves, like peasants. On the odd occasion you do find one that plugs into a wall, often it's like it was designed in the dark ages before they were cordless, and of course the cord is only about 6 inches long, so you have to unplug it to move it to the tap for a refill, then plug it in again. My current apartment's kettle doesn't even have a lid or a button, you have to fill it through the spout and it starts boiling immediately when you plug it in. After all that, it still takes about 27 minutes to make a cup of tea. Forget all these fancy lime scale filters and temperature controls, just finding a £5 one that actually worked would be a dream. Rant aside, apparently a large part of the problem is because North America uses 110v at the wall. Quick explanation here[0]. As mentioned in the linked article, many houses here also have a separate high voltage line for washing machines. Perhaps they should have a high voltage kettle line. [0] http://wordpress.mrreid.org/2012/04/16/why-kettles-boil-slowly-in-the-us/ http://wordpress.mrreid.org/2012/04/16/why-kettles-boil-slow...

cwhiz 6y ago
I’m sorry, but what? There are infinite electric kettles available. 27 minutes to boil water? Again, what? Seriously, have you ever been in North America? Just go into literally any big box retailer and find the 50 foot long shelves full of electric kettles. Or go to an online retailer, say Amazon, and find hundreds and hundreds of them. Virtually every major brand makes electric kettles, they all seem to work just fine, and they don’t take 27 minutes to boil water.
- orra 6y ago
  > 27 minutes to boil water? Again, what? They're exaggerating. But your typical North American electric kettle is—ballpark—twice as slow as a European kettle. Your standard North American sockets provide half the voltage but not double the amperage, so they're half as powerful.
  - otterley 6y ago
    Not much we can do about that, I’m afraid. Most residential outlets are 15 amps, and to double them to 30 amps or convert them to 240V would require costly rewiring. And copper prices are sky-high these days.
    - snypher 6y ago
      I wonder if a kettle with a J1772 or Tesla port...
      - cameronh90 6y ago
        What about a kettle with a giant battery pack that charges when idle and boils at 10kW when you press the button.
        kirstenbirgit 6y ago
        At that point one might as well get an instant boiling water tap system.

wolfretcrap 6y ago

I live in the norther part of India near Himalayas, water to my house has 200-250 TDS and I use RO system to turn it down to 1TDS then it's remineralized again.