Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased this Kitchenaid electric kettle as a replacement for an old one that never really satisfied my expectations, and I'm very impressed with its overall performance, although a few improvements could be made. The product review here is meant to provide additional information on this kettle for particulars that are unavailable from manufacturer, to give my impressions of its features, and of course to show you a video demonstrating its performance under normal conditions. Pros: * The kettle has great aesthetics and is probably the best looking of all the different products I considered. I opted for the red finish and it's true to the product photograph. Owners of other Kitchenaid products will be familiar with the color and finish. The buttons and lighted displays are attractive as well. There is one blue digital display on top of the handle, which shows the temperature. When the kettle is turned on, the transparent water-level indicator illuminates in blue as well to show you that the kettle is running. * The temperature settings are well designed and useful. It offers six temperature settings: (a) 50C/122F, (b) 60C/140F (delicate tea), (c) 70C/158F (green tea, white tea), (d) 80C/176F (blooming tea, green and white chai tea, green tea), (e) 90C/194F (black tea, hot chocolate, oolong tea), or (f) a full boil at 100C/212F (red chai, herbal tea, instant soup, oatmeal, rooibos tea, or Yerba Mate). The different temperatures are easily selected with the plus (+) and minus (-) buttons on the handle, as shown in my photographs. * I really like the "hold temp" button, which keeps the water at the designated temperature for 30 minutes after it's reached. This is an important convenience, in my opinion. With my old kettle, I found that I often boiled the water and then got busy doing something else, with the result that I had to reboil the water when I finally got around to making my cup of tea. This Kitchenaid kettle keeps the water warm for 30 minutes and cuts out the need for re-heating with an interruption occurs. * The heating unit is concealed, not exposed, which makes the kettle easier to clean, quieter, and probably even safer. As far as I can tell, the heating unit is concealed beneath the unit that holds water and heats it through the bottom. By contrast, my old kettle's heating unit ran up the length of the pot and accumulated terrible lime and calcium deposits. * I think this kettle is very quiet compared to the competition. I'm comparing it to my old one as well as several other high-end kettles I've seen in action. It's audible enough that you can hear it heating, but only if you strain your ears. The sound of boiling water is louder than the sound of the kettle rumble. Anyone who has owned one of the roaring-loud kettles (like my old one) knows how nice it is to have a quiet kettle like this one. * It comes with a removable mesh filter that traps scale deposits from hard water. It's easy to remove to clean, and easy to place back in the kettle. * The lid is designed to flip up with the press of a button. I'm about six feet tall of average build and can easily fit my hand inside to clean with a sponge. This is a big improvement over my previous kettle, which was impossible to clean and consequently accumulated a lot of hard water buildup. Big hands might not fit, but average to small hands will. * The pouring spout is well designed and does not drip or leak. The cons: * It is not super fast at boiling water, but probably average. As my video shows, it takes just under 8 minutes to boil 1.7 liters (7 cups) of cold tap water (75F), averaging to a little over one minute per cup. The kettle is 1500W, not 1750W like some of the European offerings in this price range. I've always found that the 220V English outlets heat a kettle much faster than American 110V, but there's nothing we can do about it, and this kettle is about as good as they come for the U.S. market. * The kettle is NOT insulated, but gets very hot to the touch. I think an insulated wall of some kind would be a very nice touch and could appeal especially to people like me with small children in the house. * The default settings make the kettle read in Celsius, not Fahrenheit. Initially I changed the setting every time before when using (by pressing both + and - buttons at the same time), but then I learned that the default settings can be changed if you add two AA batteries on the bottom. Now it holds the Fahrenheit readings. I think Kitchenaid could improve this product by making Fahrenheit the default and Celsius the optional reading, but this is a minor complaint. Overall I'm very pleased with this kettle and look forward to getting better acquainted with its features. Although I hope Kitchenaid will make a few improvements, I can still highly recommend this product to you. I think it's well worth the price and will last for a long time.