Definitely not capitalism to blame here, but the fact stands: despite an electric kettle being a very basic household appliance that is used everywhere, it is a

Definitely not capitalism to blame here, but the fact stands: despite an electric kettle being a very basic household appliance that is used everywhere, it is almost impossible to buy a product, that would reflect how long they have been around. Ideally, you would assume that todays kettles are the end product of decades of refinement and engineering and do their principal job well and last long. Well, they don't. Besides the points the author goes on about I have two primary issues: - Most kettles are not efficient. Stop the time they take to heat 1l of water from tap temperature to boiling. You get anything between 1:40min and +3min depending on your kettle. Mostly irrespective of price range. (Physical limit for the power plugs in my region would be ~1:30min). - Virtually all kettles have plastic that comes in contact with the water, specifically in their lid. While I am definitely not one to support fearmongering of "all these bad plastics" and "bad chemicals", I also believe this is a situation that should be avoided. We know that plastics in general but sometimes specifically in cheap products contain chemicals that are bad for our health. Now, at the lid of your kettle you condense boiling, distilled water which is quite perfect for chemical extraction. Even if I would trust the producer of my 20$ kettle to only use food-safe plastics that are even safe under long term contact with boiling water (I do not), I would prefer to have a lid from stainless steel. Now try buying that... Long story short: I think kettles (and toasters) would be a perfect start for an open hardware household appliance initiative. Spend some time and money on really engineering the shit out of some simple but ubiquitous household items and make the design freely available. Design kettles that do just one thing: boil water well. IMO this would be a boon for humanity.