I really love my tea kettle.
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Sometimes, I do review of things shortly after buying them (like with the Luxi mattress), but my favorite thing is to own an item for a while and then write about it.
(I did that with my Vitamix, which I reviewed a good year after purchase.)
Anyway, I wanted to write a few words about my electric kettle, which I thought I didn't need and which I can't imagine living without now.
Mr. FG and the kids bought the Capresso electric kettle (recommended by Cook's Illustrated) for me 2.5 years ago on my birthday, and it's one of my most favorite small kitchen appliances.
Years ago, I remember hearing about electric kettles from my online European friends and I really did not understand the point of them. Why not just heat water on the stove?
But you guys, I am converted. Heating water in an electric kettle is SO SO SO SO much faster than heating it on the stove.
A stove heats the pot, which then has to heat the water. But in an electric kettle, the heating element touches the water directly and that heats the water up insanely fast.
It actually uses less electricity than a stove too, so, yay!
(Though I imagine it takes a while to recoup the $59.99 purchase price of the kettle.)
We mainly use the kettle for hot drinks...the girls and I use it for heating water to brew tea, and Joshua uses it to heat water for his pour-over coffee.
But I also use it to heat water for things like cooking pasta. I put the regular pot on the stove with a little water and start heating it up, and then start some water in the kettle. Once that boils, I pour it into the pot on the stove. Way faster than starting with cold water on the stovetop!
I've never owned a kettle besides the Capresso, but I'm really happy with this one.
It's fast, it's still going strong after several years of being used multiple times per day, it looks nice on my counter (unlike this one) and I love the the kettle part is glass, not plastic.
Also helpful: the cord is only attached to the base, not to the kettle, so when you lift it off the base, the kettle is cordless.
And the kettle automatically turns off once the water boils, which is a nice safety feature.
You can definitely get a plastic kettle for less than this one, but Cook's Illustrated says that plastic kettles can impart off-flavors to the water. So, I think it's probably worth it to pay more for a stainless steel or glass model. And as glass/stainless steel models go, the Capresso is pretty fairly priced.
(More money doesn't necessarily mean a better product. For instance, CI puts this $90 DeLonghi kettle in their "not recommended" category!)
Anyhoo!
I think the Capresso is really great, and I highly recommend it.
If the $59.99 is out of your price range, though, CI does recommend one cheaper model...this Hamilton Beach version is only $26.99 and their only quibbles are that it's easier to burn your hand on the steam due to the handle placement and that the lid is a little difficult to close properly.
Boy, I thought I was just going to say a few things about my kettle and here I am, 550 words later.
I am not brief via keyboard. 😉
P.S. Doesn't the kettle look a bit like it's levitating in this photo? I decided kettle photos are better if you can see the hand of the person pouring the water!
We've had ours since 2009 and it gets a workout! So much so that the lid is now detached from the handle. We do have to watch that when we are pouring the water. Mine was a gift from my son who spent 2 years in Germany where every day he'd see his roommates using this kettle. He was converted in very short order and we were too. It's been in near constant use and we can't imagine our kitchen without it. You know it's a fixture when your daughters put it on their wedding registries!
That's how I feel about my rice cooker. I couldn't imagine why I needed it, because I can make perfectly good rice on the stovetop, thankyouverymuch. Then, when I had excess credit at Sur la Table, I bought it as an experiment. Now I use it every time I make rice and it always turns out well.
I used to be a firm believer in heating up water in a pot on the stove! It wasn't until Mr. Picky Pincher and I got married that I became a tea kettle lover. He had an electric tea kettle, which I'll admit I thought was another useless kitchen gadget for a while. But boy howdy, do these things come in handy!
I use an electric kettle daily for making coffee, tea, boiling noodles, etc. It's awesome!
Hmm, I've always thought electric kettles were a pointless appliance, but you might be convincing me to think otherwise. I'm a huge tea drinker--what I typically do is heat a pot of tea in the morning and pour most of the water in a carafe, which I find keeps the water plenty hot for several hours, allowing me to have multiple cups per day without heating up the kettle on the stove (I think microwaved hot water tastes weird--I know it's more energy efficient, but I prefer my method!). My teakettle has seen better days, however--I'm contemplating purchasing a new one and I may have to rethink my options. Thanks for your review.
I love tea kettles too, but even our stainless steel ones break after a year (the lid won't stay shut, or it just breaks off). I either have a house full of very heavy-handed, careless people (my hunch!) or just have bad luck. Wah.
Anyway... saving this in Pinterest in case I decide to buy one, perhaps this model will last longer.
They are great. We received a electric hot pot in 1986 for a wedding gift. We used it faithfully for many years. Not as much now. But took it out to show the daughter when she asked for one for Christmas and still works great and efficient! Not cordless but great.
I've kind of wanted an electric kettle like *forever*, but I had been searching for a nice quality stainless steel electric kettle, with no plastic inside the kettle. The kind that is both rare and expensive. You're making me reconsider the concept of a glass kettle! Our stove in particular is extremely slow at heating up a burner. So slow that I'm considering adding a separate electric burner to put next to the stove top, even though space is an issue.
Do you have any experience with counter top electric burners?
I've never tried one of those! I feel like my electric flat-top stove is a little slow to heat up, but I suppose most non-gas stoves are that way.
I love mine and I use it to jump-start my pasta water all the time. I have an inexpensive Stainless Steel one that works fine. Yours is prettier, but I'd be worried about breaking the glass.
Wow! I had no idea that electric kettles were not commonplace everywhere... This is why the Internet is so fun haha. I'm in Australia and I've never known anyone not to have one sitting on their kitchen bench. We got a plastic one when we got married nearly 8 years ago and it's still going strong...
It's a bit different in your lovely country, since your power plugs are all 220v, whereas ours are 110 in the US. I have an electric kettle, and i find it very slow compared to the stove top. Maybe I don't have the right kind.
Wow... I am also from Australia and do not know ANYONE without a kettle !
Your article actually caught my eye when you referred to it as a "tea kettle" - for us it
is just a "kettle". This may stem from the fact that people use it to make both tea
and coffee. Many more people have coffee machines now but they would still always
have a kettle.
Merry Christmas to you
Jeanette in MELBOURNE
I have a stainless steel electric teakettle that I got several years ago. I wasn't sure I wanted to give up the counter real estate for it but I use it everyday. I go one step further and drink distilled water and use that and no deposits build up. I can't imagine life without it.
Yeah, I have exactly two appliances on my countertop...my Kitchen Aid mixer and my electric kettle.
I love that you love your kettle!
I'm in South Africa and like the Europeans, we don't know any different. That said, I do have a cute red stovetop kettle too but it's really just for show (!).
Back to the kettles - I've always had plastic ones and there is nothing funny tasting about the water. I'm a big tea drinker so ours gets plenty of use and still it keeps on going. This latest one of mine cost R130 about 12 years ago (less than $10) and it is in its third house with us. I keep waiting for it to break..... but it just doesn't. Yay for things that last 🙂
Oh wow! Your $10 kettle is doing amazingly well.
My family has always used an electric kettle for boiling water for tea. So much quicker than an on-stove kettle! I do enjoy the whistling sound you get with a stovetop kettle though. If you tend to get mineral deposits in your kettle (furry kettle, I call it), a good routine to employ is boiling a mixture of water and white vinegar and then letting it sit for a while before emptying, rinsing well and letting dry completely. And try not to leave water in the kettle after using as that contributes to mineral buildup and can affect how well the kettle performs 🙂
I have that exact same model and I use it all the time. I use it for the usual tea type things but I also use it like Diane C does to jump-start a large pot of boiling water. I fill my pot part way with water on a burner and then heat water in the kettle to add to the pot of water I'm heating. It really helps out plus I no longer boil a pot dry on the stove.
I'd heard good things about electric kettles, starting when I saw Rachel Ashwell steam silk flowers with her kettle to revive old ones she'd bought second hand. But, like many, I thought I didn't need one, although I had a secret craving for one. Now, Kristen, just look what you've done! Now I want one and everyone has already bought a Christmas present for me! Oh well, my birthday is in February -- maybe I'll be over the desire by then, or at least, I can put it out there as a present idea.
One of my girls swears by hers--not really swearing, but, you know, she loves hers.
I might think about getting one, but I hate more stuff on my counters...
However, I will happily pop over to your house and enjoy a cuppa with you 🙂
I hate stuff on my counters too! So I just have my electric kettle and my Kitchen-Aid out. Everything else is in cabinets/closets.
This puzzled me! Are kettles not a common appliance in the States?
I'm in the UK, and I honestly don't know a single household that doesn't have an electric kettle!
They are common like... having an oven is common! EVERYONE has one!
Yeah, they are definitely not as common as ovens here!
I'm laughing because I've never even heard of someone having one of these. And we just built our house/kitchen a couple years ago so I thought I was up to date! I never thought of not using the stove but now I want one!!
I love my electric kettle too! We were first introduced to one while we were serving as full time missionaries in Kenya and enjoyed tea time at a minimum of twice a day! I was convinced after one time of using it..sooooo much faster thereby getting to our tea or chai more quickly. 🙂 Mine is a moderately priced and plastic but has lasted about 8 years now!
This post is cracking me up. It's just totally outside anything I think about because I can't imagine any household without a kettle. I read a lot of US blogs but I didn't really believe it the first couple of times people talked about not having kettles.
Boiling water in a pan takes forever, microwaving seems really odd and you have to freshly boil the water each time or the tea won't brew properly. Can't imagine living without a kettle in the UK!
I have owned an electric tea kettle for 5 years and completely love it. Use it every single day and more often even in the winter. I didn't think it was necessary and wasn't that excited about it when gifted one in 2011. Boy did my opinion change! It is definitely my favorite appliance. I drink hot drinks every day and I am now on my third baby and have used it for all of them to warm frozen milk. I have a different brand than yours, but I agree to stay away from plastic. Thanks for this post, I couldn't agree more. 🙂
I had to pop over from the blog reader to chime in because yesterday my husband pointed out that the electric kettle I have him 6 years ago was probably the most used Christmas gift he'd ever gotten. We use it 2-3 times a day for press coffee, instant oatmeal, perfect hard boiled eggs and or boiling water for pasta as mentioned.
Ours is a plastic pitcher shaped number I got from the kitchen aid outlet for maybe $20 (at this point it's pennies or less per use). Like yours it lifts off the base and turns off automatically when done booling. We haven't noticed any issues with water flavor.
The glass is certainly more attractive, but given my track record (I broke the salt cellar only yesterday) I think I'd prefer a less breakable model.
I live in the US and love to drink tea, but I don't know many others who do. I had never even seen an electric tea kettle until I was in college. Most people I know drink coffee instead. I would say having an electric coffee pot is as common as having an oven in the US.
I love them and would like one eventually. My inlaws bought one (Europeans in the US) and it is so much better than them leaving the gas stove on constantly as someone is always making tea. I also bought one for my nephew at Tuesday Mornings (stainless steel) for $40 for his dorm room as he likes tea.
I was thinking about an electric kettle because I can plug it in, in the bathroom when I have a slow drain. Instead of carrying boiling water down the hall.
You won't need to plug it in the bathroom. You can boil the kettle in the kitchen and then the pot comes off the base, and the cord is only attached to the base. Wander with your kettle to your heart's delight.
I have the General Electric kettle and cannot imagine living without it now. Not only does it heat water so very quickly but while heating there are blue LED lights around the bottom which makes me smile! I'm glad to know that it is CI rated so highly - but you do have to make sure the lid is on tightly. We use it many times a day mostly for tea and pour over coffee.
I love my electric kettle for all the above reasons, plus one more. When making yogurt, I find that when I place my pan with 190 degree milk in the sink to cool off, because of heat transfer principles, when the milk is 120 degrees, the water in the sink should also be the same, right? But the water in the sink is always a little cooler than that. And since I need 120 degree water to place around my jars of yogurt in the cooler to perk, I heat water in my kettle to add to the sink water to bring it up to 120. Works perfectly every time. (Sorry for the meandering long comment!). =)
I also never knew how much faster an electric tea kettle was until I did a product testing and they gave me the tea kettle to KEEP!! Hurrah for FREE!!!
The reason Americans don't use electric kettles as much as Europeans is simple: Americans mostly drink coffee. The coffeemaker is the ubiquitous appliance here.
Something happened after that incident in Boston Harbor... 😉
Okay, true confession time here. No hate, please. I actually own two kettles, because erm, two houses. Posting just to say I have experience with SS and plastic and there's no appreciable difference. The plastic one gets used less frequently, but is much older and still works very well.
I think the tradition of coffee vs. tea is the main reason they are not ubiquitous in the U.S. Shocker alert to our international friends: nevermind ovens, we probably have more clothes dryers than electric kettles. Maybe this blog will help change that. A new Revolution! Go TFG! Changing the world, one electric kettle at a time. Radical.
Huh. Now that I think about it, I don't know a single household (here in the U.S.) without a coffee pot. Even the people that I know don't drink coffee very often have one just in case guests come over and want coffee...
Now I want an electric kettle, Kristen!
I don't think I know one person with a coffee pot. A coffee machine or a French press maybe, but not coffee pot (in the UK).
Another thing I don't understand? What on earth is a breakfast casserole? Why would you create such a thing?
Like Beth, most people I know have some sort of coffee machine or pot. Americans do love their coffee!
Here in the US, a breakfast casserole is usually an eggy sort of affair, often with sausage or other breakfast meat mixed in. I'm not much for them, but people do often like to have them for holiday breakfasts.
We love our kettle! In addition to hot drinks, we use it for hard boiled eggs. Not a single-use appliance at all 🙂
I've got one from ALDI. We bought it as an experiment and love it. I esp. like it when I need a bit of hot water for a recipe. I like the looks of yours, though and that it is glass not, plastic, but this plastic one from Aldi works great. Maybe a Christmas idea next year.
You've converted me!
Are you still liking your electric tea kettle? I’m looking to buy one and remembered that you did a review a few years ago on one. Just wondering how it’s doing a few years later.
Yep, I sure do! The one I linked to in this post gets used almost every day around here still. Highly recommend.
Awesome! Thanks!