1.7-Liter Insulated Electric Kettle – Fast-Boil Stainless Steel Hot Water Heater for Home or Office

I replaced my 50 year old made in Germany Chef’s Choice kettle, whose plastic lid had finally begun to disintegrate, with this Dash kettle. I’ve had it for nine months now and used it daily — usually more than once– to boil water for my morning, afternoon, and evening tea. And occasional coffee. I’m giving four stars only because I haven’t used the array of temperature settings. I was taught that the water to pour over my tea leaves must be boiling and boil this kettle does, very quickly, too. Our water is very hard and I was buying purified water for the old kettle once I figured out that it was cheaper than boiling the scale out with quantities of vinegar twice a week or more. If your water is hard, you might check other reviews on its cleanability. The directions were pretty good but there’s nothing like experience — that of other users. (For those who would cavil at my buying water, our well water is also now loaded with nasty things from spray and fertilizers and very unsafe to put into a human body.) One glitch: there’s a widget in the lid that controls the way the kettle pours, so you can pour at any angle without dribbling. A tiny rubber piece popped out and the widget doesn’t always line up properly, so that the stream of water splits (but still doesn’t dribble). And if like me you warm your teapot with boiling water, be aware that the kettle won’t turn on until the temperature is down to 203 degrees F. In hot weather I may have to wait a few seconds with the lid off after I pour the teapot warming water back into the kettle. (Remember, I buy water.) The kettle is heavy compared to my old single-walled kettle– but the outside stays cool. You don’t have to lift it with one hand. It keeps water hot for a long time. The covered buttons (switches?) show no signs of failing (not necessarily a given in this day of shoddy goods). It is rather hard to see where the water level is if you can’t get directly over the mouth of the kettle, but overfilling it and getting the base wet doesn’t seem to hurt anything (I do wipe off the puddles before I turn the kettle on).

I bought this for my van so I would keep from using the house one. I like how it’s insulated and I can put it away and the water is still plenty warm for tea hours later while not on the heating base. Awesome for driving/stowing. I think since it’s insulated it heats so much faster than our house model. The temp control is what it is. Pretty similar to our house one. Also even though it is sealed, Keep in mind it can’t fully seal otherwise it would be a pressure cooker. It fell over once and didn’t really leak till we found it and put it upright. Better than if our other one fell over, water would have been everywhere. If your looking for a cool to the touch kettle, fast heating and still easy to clean its perfect. Update after a year: Still works great. We heat it up the first time and then store kettle in the cabinet. Stats perfectly warm for hours. Still happy