Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I almost didn't buy this. I kept seeing horrible reviews. Just about every kettle I looked at had a bunch of horrible reviews, though. Smells bad. Stains. Nasty chemicals. Scaring the dog... After all of that bad news, naturally, I bought one. I've had it 4 days. Right out of the box, it smelled just like I would imagine a newly made product of plastic and metal would smell. It wasn't overwhelming and nothing rattled around when I gave it a shake. So I did the vinegar and water thing and let it rest for only about 2 hours (the instruction booklet calls for 5-7 hours, I think) because I'm lazy then filled, boiled and repeated twice with tap water alone. Keeping in mind the reviews, I had 1 cup of tap water boiling as a control and 1 cup from the kettle and when they were cool enough to drink, I tried both and detected no difference. None. I cooled a cup of tap and 1 of kettle in the refrigerator and again noticed no difference in taste. Well, this was disappointing. No warping of the lid and nothing came apart. I almost called the company to complain. The outside of the kettle was very warm after boiling the water. Thank goodness the kettle came with a handle which became only slightly warm so I didn't need oven mitts. We used to have a plastic Proctor Silex kettle that they're still selling here somewhere that worked fine for about 3 years then it got really loud towards the end of the boil and I decided on this. I like the 360 swivel on this one for some reason and of course, the light is very pretty if you need boiling water in the dark. But I'll never use it. My girlfriend, on the other hand, who knows nothing of my testing, uses this twice every morning for her fancy tea shoppe teas that have names like Margaret's Hope and Keemun. Women. ;) She loves the kettle and reports that the water tastes wonderful. I'll update if it malfunctions or causes my house to become haunted.