Getting back into the flow of review writing - just need to make sure I keep up with the reading now...
Getting back into the flow of review writing - just need to make sure I keep up with the reading now x New review added 23/2/09
Member since:09.07.2007
Reviews:72
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Tea is the only thing that is keeping me alive at the moment - I don't seem to be sleeping much and I'm not eating much (don't worry I'm not ill - just busy). Over the last few weeks we've noticed that our faithful old breville kettle was starting to die in as much as it wasn't cutting out - great for steam cleaning the tiles but not so good on the kettle or our electric bill! And finally today it gave up the ghost and I had to hold a little ceremony for it as I put it on the ever growing pile of items to be taken to the local tip.
It was sad as it had lived with us for 4 years and expired just as I was gagging for a brew which compounded the misery but I was not downhearted for too long as I logged onto the Argos site to see my lovely new kettle staring at me, begging me to rescue it from the massive warehouse it was living in and give it a new and loving home. And that kettle was a Breville Spectra everchanging illuminated kettle. So in my desparation for a cup of tea I walked over to Argos and purchased this kettle for £44.99.
This kettle has everything our old kettle had but is new and improved by the looks of things. It is still a 1.7 litre capacity and it still has a fast boil 3000w element and it is a very similar shape. It sits on base with an enclosed element and it can be moved around 360 degrees. It is stainless steel but instead of having a lid you pull off, it has a little button to press on the top to lift the lid. The on lever is just underneath the easy to hold handle. One thing we loved about our old kettle was that it was well balanced
and I have to say that this kettle is the same. It isn't as heavy because there is less stainless steel in the body but it is equally as well balanced.
So why isn't there as much stainless steel in the body? Well because simply the stainless spout and the about one fifth of the body is now plastic. That isn't quite as bad as it sounds though because the reason there is plastic there is because of the everchanging mood illumination. The what I hear you say! Well put simply this kettle is a bit funky and creates mood lighting in your kitchen. If it isn't careful Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber will add a song into Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat about his Amazing Technicolour kettle!. In fact it claims to be the first stainless steel illuminated kettle - it is quite a loose claim as it still needs plastic to do it!
The internal chamber of the kettle is illuminated and the plastic glows different colours even when it isn't in use (as long as it is plugged in of course). Yes indeed when it is standby it goes from green to yellow/orange/brown to lilac/purple to red to blue/turquoise and back to green again - essentially red, green and blue. How is this achieved? According the the instruction manual this is achieved by LEDs (if I may be a grammar and spelling pedant this instruction manual leaves alot to be desired!) which are designed to work for the lifetime of the kettle. Hopefully this will be for a few years then! It tries to reassure us that the amount of energy needed to power these LEDs is very small and is nothing compared to the energy used by a light bulb. What it doesn't do is tell you whether it is a 11W or 150W lightbulb! There is only one way to turn this off and simply that is turn it off from the wall. I am sure once the novelty of mood lighting in my kitchen wears off I will be turning it off from the wall (just have to remember that I've done that when I am screaming at it to boil and nothing is happening!).
I have to say though this lighting was very exciting when I first switched it on and having read the instructions I filled the kettle with water to the maximum level and boiled it 3 times to make sure that any nasties left in there from when it was made were eliminated. So what did I notice? Well first of all lifting the lid with button on the top was very easy but looking inside there wasn't much room at the top because the spout (which is more triangular in shape than our last kettle) is quite big, then you have the filter behind that and there is an addition button on top of the kettle which activates the "keep warm" system which I will talk about in a minute so that seems to have cut down the amount of space at the top of the kettle. That said it is also easy to fill to the kettle through the spout so it's not that much of a problem - more of a little gripe. What is a little more than a gripe though is that the lid doesn't seem to quite fit properly - it seems a bit cheaply made. It closes and it doesn't leak steam but it isn't quite as well made. Maybe it's because there is more plastic on it and our old kettle was all metal but it bugs me especially given that this isn't a cheap kettle - it's not the most expensive either but I would have expected more. What I do like about it though is that you can physically see the water level - there are no balls floating on a gauge - you see if you've overfilled it and you can see it boiling which is quite fun (I am sad I know).
So having filled the kettle (not quite as easily as our old kettle mind) I switched the kettle on. It started its illumination sequence at blue - fairly sensible as the water is cold and then as it boiled it went through the colours (except for green) until it was boiling when it turned red - again fairly sensible. And then once it cut out it went green to indicate that you could now use it. How fabulous is that? And the best bit is you can hardly hear it boiling because of the quiet (or quite as per the instruction manual) boiling feature which is seemingly caused by an innovative Whisper boil feature (isn't that the same thing I ask myself?). This isn't as good as it sounds though because the hardness of your water and the amount of scale in it will affect the noise of the kettle as it does with any kettle. But considering the water is as hard as concrete round here and it was brand new I was quite impressed but it does seem like an over-egged selling point to me. And filled to the maximum it boiled 1.7 litres in 2 minutes (yes I did time it!)
Now for all the kettle has funky lights and is quick and quiet it is just a kettle but what I have never seen on a kettle before is a keep warm feature. As previously mentioned the button for this is on top of the kettle and simply it keeps the kettle warm after you boil it (it doesn't gently heat cold water). It keeps the water at a temperature of 77 degrees. Now this is no good for tea making but I guess it is quite handy when you're cooking and you need warm water or....actually I don't know what it is good for. I mean I suppose if you have a family or you want instant coffee all morning then it could be quite useful. It says that you can keep the function on for 12 hours. It doesn't say how much more energy it uses though. I expect it is more environmentally friendly to keep it warm rather than keep boiling the kettle but it's only 1.7 litres so again it seems like a function too far. It works but I'm not sure it's worth it.
Now to my big gripe - it's not great at pouring. Pour it out slowly and carefully and it is fine but if you want to fill a pan with boiling water or want to get your brew made as quickly as possible and therefore pour it more quickly it splashes and it runs down the body of the kettle. You have to pour it at almost exactly 90 degrees to pour it out successfully - any more than that and you are running the risk of scalding. A kettle is designed to boil water and is inherently dangerous once it has done so and as such it should deliver the dangerous water safely into my cup. This one does that but more care than usual is required. I know you should always take care but more especially so with this product. I would say if I had kids that were old enough to start using a kettle I would possibly wait a bit longer before I let them use it. Perhaps it's just me being over cautious and not used to it yet but I would have expected it to pour better.
So do I like this kettle and would I recommend it? Well if you want a fabulously funky talking point to share with friends when they come round then yes. If you want to be able to hold a conversation on the phone in the kitchen whilst the kettle is boiling then yes. If you really wanted to keep your water at 77 degrees then yes (but why would you?). But if you want a kettle that pours safely and is as well made as you would expect it to be for the money then I would suggest you look elsewhere. Considering I have always been a fan of Breville kettles I would perhaps be a little less inclined to automatically buy one next time.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Some great gimmicks but that pouring problem would bug me, I think.
HotBabes 13.06.2008 14:19
This looks really nice, like the illuminating feature. x
frankiecesca 13.06.2008 01:28
My friend had a kettle exactly like this so sure it is probably the same one!! She paid that for it too and I remember thinking 'omg!! how much?!'' Good review! x
This smartly moulded 3000W Breville Spectra Stainless Steel Illuminated Jug Kettle has a ... more
colour changing light, great for a modern kitchen as a funky conversation piece, yet it still retains some elegant style.It gives you the option of a fast boil if ...
Postage & Packaging: £3.95 Availability: In stock. 3 working days
Jun 12th, 2008
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very helpful by (97%):
