How to choose an electric kettle? | Articles | Gadgets, gifts and accessories

An elec­tric ket­tle is a nec­es­sary ele­ment in any mod­ern kitchen. In addi­tion to being extreme­ly con­ve­nient, the device has many advan­tages over con­ven­tion­al ket­tles, such as faster boil­ing and a wider range of func­tions, many of which are very use­ful in the house­hold. How­ev­er, with so many dif­fer­ent mod­els to choose from, choos­ing the right one for your home can be tricky. It is in order to sim­pli­fy your task that we decid­ed to pick up a few rec­om­men­da­tions for choos­ing, from which you will learn what you should pay atten­tion to and what func­tions var­i­ous ket­tles have.

1. The vol­ume of water in the ket­tle

Elec­tric ket­tles avail­able on the mar­ket today come in a vari­ety of capac­i­ties, but gen­er­al­ly range from a liter to two. In most cas­es, you will find mod­els that are 1.5 liters in vol­ume, and this is usu­al­ly more than enough for one or more tea par­ties.

For one per­son with small requests, for 1 or 2 stan­dard cups of tea, in most cas­es, a liter mod­el will suf­fice. How­ev­er, if you like to invite guests, or have tea with the whole fam­i­ly, pay atten­tion to keep the vol­ume as large as pos­si­ble. It is advis­able to stop at a mod­el in which you can pour 2 liters of water.

2. How long does it take to boil water

Anoth­er point that buy­ers of an elec­tric ket­tle must take into account is the speed of its oper­a­tion, that is, the time it takes to boil a full ket­tle of water. After all, this is why we choose an elec­tric, not an ordi­nary mod­el.

In most options, boil­ing will take 3–4 min­utes, but there are faster mod­els. You can find out the exact time costs by pay­ing atten­tion to the char­ac­ter­is­tics and pow­er of the device.

Be sure to note that some elec­tric ket­tles are not scale-proof. Scale, in turn, increas­es the amount of time it takes to boil. There­fore, when choos­ing, check to see if it is pos­si­ble to reduce the like­li­hood of scale for­ma­tion and try to take pre­ven­tive mea­sures that are much more effec­tive than sub­se­quent clean­ing or buy­ing a new device.

3. The pres­ence of the option of main­tain­ing the tem­per­a­ture

If you like always hot or warm tea, or are among the fans of spe­cif­ic drinks, so you strive to get water at a cer­tain tem­per­a­ture, then be sure to make sure that the ket­tle has the abil­i­ty to main­tain the tem­per­a­ture of the water. Many mod­ern mod­els are able to main­tain a cer­tain water tem­per­a­ture for a peri­od of 30 min­utes to an hour, which is very con­ve­nient for the user. In order to clar­i­fy the avail­abil­i­ty of this option, just look at the list of func­tions that the ket­tle has.

4. Auto-shut­off or pro­tec­tion against boil­ing with­out water

Anoth­er, per­haps very impor­tant fea­ture that many mod­ern mod­els have con­cerns the secu­ri­ty of the device. The name of the func­tion speaks for itself: if the ket­tle is emp­ty and there is no water in it, it sim­ply will not turn on. What you should pay atten­tion to is the fact whether this func­tion exists and works cor­rect­ly, because a num­ber of man­u­fac­tur­ers claim that it is avail­able, but in real­i­ty it does not work as it should. There­fore, when buy­ing, it is rec­om­mend­ed to check the device and espe­cial­ly this func­tion. Fail­ure to do so may pose a fire safe­ty haz­ard.

5. No wire or dis­con­nect­ed wire at the base

The next point con­cerns main­ly cas­es when you need to eas­i­ly pour water or move the ket­tle to anoth­er room. Most, but not all, mod­els have either a remov­able base or a detach­able cord. If you come across that rare case when the wire is fixed on the ket­tle, it is best to find anoth­er option.

But even if the wire is fixed to the base, you will need to pre­vent the pos­si­bil­i­ty of water get­ting on it. Many mod­els are equipped with a spout that pro­tects against acci­den­tal spills. So in this case, man­u­fac­tur­ers care about your safe­ty, but this does not mean at all that you can com­plete­ly for­get about cau­tion.

6. Min­i­mum amount of water to boil

Some­times you need to boil a small amount of water, for exam­ple, for one cup or for some oth­er task. For such cas­es, you will need to pay atten­tion to the min­i­mum amount of water at which the ket­tle will work. Usu­al­ly, this num­ber is spec­i­fied in the instruc­tions, so if such a func­tion is fun­da­men­tal­ly impor­tant to you, be sure to find out before buy­ing.

7. Choice of tem­per­a­ture

Some mod­els, more advanced and there­fore more expen­sive, are equipped with a con­ve­nient tem­per­a­ture selec­tion func­tion. This func­tion allows the user to select a spe­cif­ic tem­per­a­ture to which water should be boiled. It is espe­cial­ly suit­able for lovers of rare and spe­cial herbal teas, as well as tea cer­e­monies. Although this func­tion is not fun­da­men­tal for most, it can be use­ful to many. If you are one of those who are inter­est­ed in it, pay atten­tion to its pres­ence when choos­ing a ket­tle for your home.

8. Han­dle com­fort

The han­dle is one of the most impor­tant ele­ments of the ket­tle, so it should not only be com­fort­able, but also non-slip. This is an impor­tant fac­tor, con­sid­er­ing that with a ket­tle we will have to deal with hot water, so any mis­take and acci­den­tal fall can lead to very dis­as­trous results. Most mod­ern mod­els of elec­tric ket­tles are equipped with ergonom­ic han­dles with anti-slip coat­ing.

Anoth­er point is whether the han­dle of the ket­tle heats up. In most cas­es, the man­u­fac­tur­er takes care of safe­ty by cre­at­ing a han­dle from spe­cial mate­ri­als that do not heat up. This must be indi­cat­ed on the pack­ag­ing or in the descrip­tion of the ket­tle. The most impor­tant thing is not to for­get and check the pres­ence of this char­ac­ter­is­tic.

9. Open and closed heat­ing ele­ment

In terms of design, you should def­i­nite­ly pay atten­tion to the heat­ing ele­ment of the ket­tle. In terms of per­for­mance, there is no dif­fer­ence between closed and open ele­ments, but the closed ele­ment is gen­er­al­ly less prone to scale for­ma­tion. This will affect already with pro­longed use, but you need to take this into account already when buy­ing. Exposed heat­ing ele­ments are also com­mon but will like­ly need to be cleaned more fre­quent­ly.

10. Ket­tle pow­er

Be sure to pay atten­tion to the ener­gy con­sumed by the ket­tle. If elec­tric ket­tles have one draw­back, espe­cial­ly com­pared to con­ven­tion­al ones, then this is it. Man­u­fac­tur­ers of mod­ern mod­els, how­ev­er, have begun to pay more atten­tion to this issue, so today you can find more effi­cient, faster ket­tles that con­sume less ener­gy due to the speed of oper­a­tion. Make sure that the wiring can han­dle the load.

Models of electric kettles

Xiao­mi Smart Ket­tle Blue­tooth

This teapot from Xiao­mi is not just cut­ting-edge, it is smart as it comes with a range of spe­cial fea­tures. Its body is made of food-grade polypropy­lene, and the design main­tains a lacon­ic style with a min­i­mum of ele­ments. The spout of the ket­tle has a spe­cial shape designed to pre­vent splash­es or sud­den shocks of the water jet. The water in the ket­tle boils in 5 min­utes, and the inter­nal ele­ments, includ­ing the lid and tem­per­a­ture sen­sor, are made of stain­less steel. This mate­r­i­al is safe for health and pre­vents the appear­ance of plaque and scale.

Safe­ty is also tak­en into account when cre­at­ing a con­nec­tor for the wire on the stand: it has a spe­cial design that reduces the risk of elec­tric shock even if water gets inside the stand.

The ket­tle is also equipped with a tem­per­a­ture selec­tion func­tion for boil­ing, which is car­ried out through a mobile appli­ca­tion by syn­chro­niz­ing with a smart­phone via Blue­tooth. In the same appli­ca­tion, you can select the option to main­tain a cer­tain tem­per­a­ture for a long time after boil­ing. The Xiao­mi Smart Ket­tle Blue­tooth Smart Ket­tle is the per­fect choice for any mod­ern home.

Delonghi KBOV 2001 AZ

Anoth­er name for this teapot is Icona Vin­tage. The teapot got it thanks to a styl­ish vin­tage design that com­bines ergonom­ics and retro style. The corus is made of met­al and has an enam­el fin­ish. The water indi­ca­tor is locat­ed under the ket­tle han­dle. Icona Vin­tage has a vol­ume of 1.7 liters and boils in min­utes.

The ket­tle is equipped with a hid­den heat­ing ele­ment — a spi­ral, which reduces the risk of scale for­ma­tion. The fil­ter, which is also equipped with a ket­tle, also helps in this task. Its pow­er is 2000W.

Delonghi KBOV 2001 AZ is a qual­i­ty choice for those for whom the capa­bil­i­ties of the device are no less impor­tant than its appear­ance.

Bosch TWK 1201N

Reli­able and durable, this ket­tle is made of an all-met­al body that does not pro­duce unpleas­ant odors and is safe dur­ing the boil­ing process. When water boils, the ket­tle auto­mat­i­cal­ly turns off, just like when acci­den­tal­ly turned on or if there is no water inside. The vol­ume of the teapot is 1.7 liters, so there is enough water to make tea for the whole fam­i­ly. The deliv­ery of the ket­tle is sta­ble, but allows the body to rotate 360 ​​degrees. The ket­tle is easy to use and has a wide mouth. Inside there is a disc heater, which is extreme­ly easy to clean. The lid of the ket­tle is blocked dur­ing boil­ing. The cord is attached to the stand, so the ket­tle is portable, and its weight is very low, mak­ing it easy to lift the Bosch even when it is full

Gem­lux GL-K101SS

One of the most eco­nom­i­cal options, which at the same time is dis­tin­guished by qual­i­ty and dura­bil­i­ty, is the Gem­lux ket­tle. The body is made of envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly and safe for health stain­less steel, and the base and han­dle of the ket­tle are made of plas­tic, which suc­cess­ful­ly resists heat. The heat­ing ele­ment of this ket­tle is closed, while it pro­vides quick boil­ing of water and is easy to clean. The ket­tle is equipped with a dry-start pro­tec­tion and is able to rotate 360 ​​degrees when the plat­form remains sta­tion­ary. In addi­tion, Gem­lux pro­vides an auto­mat­ic shut­down func­tion when boil­ing. The vol­ume of this teapot is 1.8 liters, so it will be enough to make enough tea for fam­i­ly and guests. Styl­ish and mod­ern, this ket­tle is avail­able at an incred­i­bly low price.