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This roundup of electric kettles request is inspired by the fact that I want to buy an electric kettle and Amazon is daunting.So many options! So many reviews!
MAKE IT MEGAN-SIMPLE FOR ME, MEGAN! -Sarah
I hear your cries of frustration and I’m here for you! My favorite kind of shopping to do is virtual shopping for awesome products. So let’s dive into the wonderful world of electric kettles…
First I have to start with the electric kettle pictured above, that I was gifted by British friends with a note that said, “So you can make a proper cup of tea. Step away from the microwave!” And I love it! It’s great at making water hot and it looks great, so I keep it out and on display!
So here’s my roundup of electric kettles that’ll not only help you make tea, but will also help make you happy when you see ’em in your kitchen…
If you have awesome electric water kettle suggestions, you know what to do…
I have the Bodum kettle that’s above in orange, and I loooove it. It’s fast and it’s small enough that it doesn’t get in the way.
I was just going to say I have that bodum in red and I HATE it. Mine must be defective (it was a re-gift from my mother who didn’t need it or I would take it back) but it doesn’t turn off always and sometimes just randomly turns itself ON if we forget to unplug it.
I have a stainless steal one at work that I much prefer, though I don’t know the brand.
I have this kettle. I love it! We drink an enormous amount of tea. My favorite feature is the “keep warm” button, so if I don’t feel like getting up right away, no problem. It also has settings for different styles of tea, so your green tea is made with water boiled to just the right temperature.
How did I not know this was a thing in the world?!?!
It’s like all my dreams came together and made a little kettle baby!
Well… most of my dreams. There is a distinct lack of Sean Bean: Phone Sex Operator, but besides that.
Nevermind. My friend has reminded me that Sean Bean: Phone Sex Operator would need a nice sup of tea to sooth his throat after a long day at the office. And he would probably use this kettle.
YES. I have used that one basically every day since I got it last September, and it’s great. Sometimes my housemates use it to boil water faster for pasta too.
I was just shopping for one of these…TOO MANY OPTIONS! Which other one’s do people have?
I feel like I need one that keeps just a mug of tea warm instead of the whole pot.
They make little coaster things that stay warm so you can set your mug on it and it won’t go cold.
those glass ones are gorgeous.
We have the Capresso glass one and LOVE it. Beyond tea, it cuts down on time to boil water for pasta too.
What!? That’s freaking genius. You need (NEED! I SAY!) to submit a quick “great idea” post about how you use your kettle water for pasta-making.
Eh?
Boil water in kettle. Put pasta in saucepan. Pour boiling water over pasta. Turn on heat.
Doesn’t everyone do that?
Hell no. I sit there like a dumbass and wait. 😉
Well, you’re waiting either way. Just pick your favorite water-boiling contraption. 😛
Ahhhh – I just checked back into this post and you guys crack me up!
I like a LOT of pasta, so I generally start a small amount of water in the pot and set it to boil, and in the meantime, fill that Capresso up with water, let it boil, add it to the pot.. repeat as needed to get enough water at a boil. I still add the pasta at the end when the pot is at a boil — the electric kettle just speeds things up.
I never use hot water from the tap for cooking — I just don’t trust the pipes even though our home is pretty new.
Nope. I fill up my pot with hot water from the tap. The time difference between hot-tap-water-brought-to-boil and putting-on-the-kettle is negligible. 🙂
What a crazy world… 🙂
*PSA*
If you live in a home with an old water heater, NEVER fill your pots with hot water from the tap. Older water heaters used fiberglass insulation, and over time it degrades and seeps into the water. You do not ever want to drink water with tiny glass shards in it, it can cause anything from a sore throat to internal bleeding.
I lived in an apartment once where I could actually see the red fibers in my water. But usually it’s invisible, you may not even realize that your water is dangerous.
I used to do that, when I had an electric stove that was slow as hell. Then the kettle method was faster.
Now I have a gas stove, and it takes about the same time to boil the water in a pot on the stove as it does in the kettle (as long as there is a lid on the pot). I do start with hot tap water, but I would do that for the kettle too.
We received the Capresso glass one as a wedding gift and love it! Mind you, 1.5 years after purchase the shiny metal-looking stuff started to peel off and 3 years after purchase, the lid literally came apart (and off the kettle), but we still love and use it daily. I’m not sure if other options might be a bit sturdier for the long-run, but it’s handled once or twice daily use for 3 years and still functions just fine.
Also, using this for past is so smart!!!! Good tip.
I have the Capresso one and love it, though it is hard to get rid of mineral deposit stains (which are visible through the glass, but harmless. I think.).
I’ve had this Hamilton Beach kettle for nearly seven years at work – super fast, and looks as pretty as it did when I bought it!
When I had an electric stove, I used the kettle to preheat pasta water, too. With a gas stove, it goes almost as fast directly on the stove…
To get rid of the hard water mineral deposits, put undiluted white vinegar in your kettle, boil it, pour it out, rinse, repeat. (Really, you shouldn’t have to do it more than once or twice.) This works or non-electric kettles as well. Do this once a month or so. Just be sure to rinse the kettle well afterwards unless you like vinegar with your tea.
the water where I live is VERY hard. So every month we clean it using a 50/50 soak of water and white vinegar. Put the kettle on the boil with the solution inside just before you go to bed. Then rinse out in the morning.
Or if you’re in a rush, do what Barbara said 🙂
I generally do it after I look in the kettle as I’m about to fill it to make tea and… ewww, I can’t drink that. So, hurry I’m usually in it. 😉
I don’t even use the water out of the tap to make tea anymore, mine is that bad. It actually affects the taste of the tea.
I have an ancient and crappy little kettle I got when I first moved out. Seeing all these makes me have kettle envy.
In reality, however, I rarely make an entire pot of tea when at home (since I work 5 days a week and have a little teapot at work). The kettle we do have does work, for the most part, for when I need to use it. And… we have a Keurig. I can press a button and have water hot enough to steep tea. But I so very much love these kettles!
Ha! As a Brit, it would never occur to me that one would only boil a kettle to make a full pot of tea. I think most British and Irish (the Irish consume even more tea than us!) on a day to day basis mostly use the “fill the kettle enough to make a mug of tea” method. Then repeat multiple times a day. 🙂 I’m sure your tea is lovely, but I could never use a machine like that to make tea, because as a hardened tea drinker it’s very important to have boiling, not hot water. (This is a problem I face in the US when I visit – if I get a cup of tea it’s usually made with not-boiling water. All wrong! So I stick with coffee. :))
And for Australians!!!
In fact, it’s a bit thoughtless to fill up the kettle when you only want 1 cuppa. It takes more time and energy (costs) to boil 2 litres of water when you only want 1-2cups of boiled water. IMHO, I think it’s a bit rude :/
Yep. Only putting a cupworth of water in saves on electricity! Plus it boils faster!
My English mum and her American husband argued for years about whether the water boiling makes any difference – I don’t think she ever convinced him, but she seems to have finally worn him down.
Being both Irish and British (one parent of each, dual citizenship, that sort of thing…) and having lived in the US for a very long time, I have to say that the main difficulty finding a Decent Cup of Tea [TM] here is the fact that it’s tricky to find teabags that aren’t shite – and too often the people buying the tea for restaurants don’t know the difference. It doesn’t matter how you make it when you’re starting with something that’s almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. I almost always drink coffee when I’m out, but if I’m going to be away for a while – because sometimes it’s not your body that needs a cup of tea, it’s your soul – I bring my own teabags with me and that helps quite a bit.
At home I’m rather partial to Trader Joe’s Irish Breakfast tea, but it’s even better when a relative comes to visit and brings a suitcase full of teabags. 😀
I just wanted to let you know that although I agree with everything you said, what truly moved me to click the “THIS!” button is your Douglas Adams reference and the idea of your soul, rather than your body, needing tea.
Here’s a list of the temperature for different types of tea! http://www.erinstea.com/water-temperature-matter/
Agreed. With all due respect to Americans, it’s very hard to find a good cup of tea in your country. So many people drink “cold” or iced tea that’s it’s next to impossible to find good tea in a restaurant or even a coffee spot.
I too am one of those people who travel with tea (and coffee too, for that matter);
that way, I can almost always get my fix.
Yeah, you really have to find the shops that specialize in tea, but they exist (if they hand you a timer with your tea, they usually know more or less what they are doing 😉 ) The boiling water question – totally depends on the kind of tea. I pour boiling water over most black teas, but definitely let the water cool a tiny bit before pouring over a green tea or white tea to make sure the full flavor will come out (and you don’t get extra bitterness).
I’ve lived in three very different sized American cities in three very different parts of the country, and there were specialty and fine tea shops in all three cities making awesome teas. In fact, there was always more than one tea shop selling awesome teas, even in my smallish college town. In two of the cities there were local shops mixing their own herbal teas and creating their owns blends themselves.
In short, there is plenty of great tea in America, you just have to look for it.
I see the Brits saying “There’s no decent tea in America” is because our definitions are different. I’m sure all those fancy tea places are nice, but what British people (especially older ones) want is a well-made cup of bog standard builder’s tea with milk to be widely available.
Oh man… I need ALL THE KETTLES!!
The real tea related question here is have you tried tea out of a silk teabag? I will never go back to paper. You can taste the paper! Silk teabags are truly the epitome of luxury!
On the tea note — oddly, I have found a lot of really good teas at TJ Maxx’s. The sad part is, if you don’t buy every single box you see when you see it, the same thing won’t be there when you go back. And if you’re trying something new, you might not want to do that.
Definitely one of my favorite parts of my trip to Ireland last year was the ready availability of amazing tea! I agree that mediocre coffee is easier to drink than mediocre tea…
We splurged and got a red delonghi (?) kettle. Best purchase ever. When it followed by high thread count cotton sheets gifted from the wedding man thing was finally convinced to stop replacing cheap items with more cheap items. The final nail for the cheap and nasties was the cordless drill!
Thank you!!!!! I like tea, but my little sister is a HUGE tea drinker. The kettle/warmer combo is going to be a perfect Christmas gift for her!
I said it before, and I’ll say it again: I LOVE finding the perfect gifts for people. 😉
I have the little green Bodum (except in red) and love it; it only makes enough for a couple cups of tea rather than enough for pasta water (so it might move to my office so we can get a big one) but I love that it is really easy to use, and is light enough that I feel comfortable teaching my kids to use it to make oatmeal.
The “cup” markings on it, however, have no relationship to the size of the mugs we make my tea in, nor the cup measurement you use for cooking, which confused me for a bit.
This kettle was left behind by the previous tenants of one of my college homes, about 5 years ago. It still works splendidly, and it boils water faster than the stove. This thing is sturdy, dependable, and boils water so so so fast, I’m pretty sure it’s the ultimate kettle. I used it in college to make tea in my 2nd floor bedroom, and now my boyfriend uses it to boil water for his french press in the mornings.
However, I’m saddened to see how much this comment section has turned into hating on American tea, and making generalizations about how there is next-to-no good tea in the USA. There is plenty of great, frequently small brand and local, tea in America, being sold in quaint little tea shops and cafes all over the place.
…The comments here make me feel like I’m the ONLY person without an electric tea kettle. My family has just always used a kettle that you fill up and then put on the stove to boil.
I have never used an electric kettle…..is it truly a much-needed investment? I do like tea, I could see myself really liking something that boils faster and/or keeps the water hot in case I want a second cup.
Have I been doing tea wrong my whole life??? (Probably, since I’m an American.)
My mum researched her new kettle heavily when she bought it last year, using Which? (the UK version of Consumer Reports). That K-Mix one (made by Kenwood in the UK, but Delonghi in the US?!) got really high scores on energy efficiency (this means it boils fast, but also switches off quickly once boiling). It feels REALLY nice to pour, and compared to our stupid %&*^ing kettle, it’s really nice that the handle isn’t directly in line of the boiling hot steam when you pour! The Which? report said it was noisy, but this hasn’t been a problem even though at my mum’s house we spend all our time in the kitchen.
The only two beverages we consume in our house are water and loose-leaf tea (well, and alcohol 😉 ) We’ve been using this kettle for years and love it: http://www.adagio.com/teaware/utiliTEA_kettle.html
It has a dial for variable temperature that’s color coded for different types of tea.
My problem when I look for electric kettles is that it’s usually for my 93-yr-old MIL, who has a hard time lifting large and/or tall kettles, which most of them are. Once upon a time, I had a squat kettle that my own grandparents gave me (because Grandpa thought it made his tea taste funny) that was perfect for her, but that didn’t last her long (she must make 4-8 cups of tea a day), and when it died, we discovered the company only made the tall versions now. It was quite a task finding her one she could lift when it was half full of water!
This is awesome list ! These kettles looks cute and elegant.
Does anyone know if there are any electric kettles that have the alarm feature, like certain coffee makers, where you can go ahead and set them to heat up at a certain time? The one thing that sucks about drinking tea instead of coffee is that I have to wake up, wait for the water to heat, and THEN wait for the tea to steep. I’d seriously consider upgrading to an electric kettle if it solved that problem.
My friend has this: http://www.amazon.ca/Breville-BTM800XL-BREBTM800XL-Tea-Maker/dp/B003LNOPSG it has an auto-start feature so you could set it up to start brewing when you wake up.
WOW! So magnificent kettles! I adore each of them! My favourite is with “hello kitty”. Tell me secret, where can I get it! I live in Sweden and i can’t find even similar to these types! I use this store hardware.nu – but here only ordinary kettles! I will be very greatful ig you share with me some links where to get it in Europe! Thank you!