Haden 11394

I am really pleased with this little kettle and I love its traditional looks. We bought it secondhand in a house clearance but it has had very little use and still looks like new. It was bought specifically for the use of two adults and it does a great job of boiling water quickly. It is used in the kitchen of a small studio apartment which forms part of a very old house and it fits beautifully into its surroundings. I list below some of the features it has and why I like them, as well as some of those it does not have.

Appearance: It is highly polished metal with a stainless steel look and it is very glossy and shiny. It is a round sort of pudding shape. The lid has a black knob on it and the handle in also black. The kettle sits on a round, black 360 degrees rotational base which means you can place it in any direction you like. This also makes it ideal for left handed users like my partner.

Capacity: Although the kettle looks small it actually holds a maximum of 1.7 litres (about 3 pints of water) which I think is pretty average for a kettle.

Electrical specification: The maximum wattage is 3000 which means it boils pretty quickly. Usually rapid boil kettles are more noisy than slower ones but I do not notice it being particularly noisy. It does not have a flexible thermostat which I understand some kettles do have. There are no different temperature settings.

Cord type: This is a cordless kettle which means that the base unit is connected to the electricity supply rather than the kettle. There is a storage space in the base unit to store the lead if you wanted to. I can’t imagine anyone being particularly bothered about doing this unless they were super tidy or packing it up for some reason. Although, thinking about this, perhaps people with small children may want to store the lead so that they don’t reach up and pull it off the work surface - I don’t know - our children are grown up!

Safety aspects: The kettle has boil dry protection so that you can’t burn it out if you don’t put in enough water. It automatically shuts off and switches off. It will safely boil when full or for small amounts. It does not have a water level gauge. I have had this feature on other kettles but have never bothered to use it so it is not important to me. It also has a cool touch handle which means you don’t burn yourself when it has boiled lessening the chances of a nasty accident. The lid fits very tightly and no hot steam escapes from it. It feels a good weight rather than flimsy but it is not too heavy for ease of use. As a safety note you should have electrical goods tested when buying second hand.

Water filter - It has an anticalc filter which is removable and washable. It is used in a very hard water area so this is very useful. I have never forgotten the time when I put white vinegar into our old kettle overnight to clean off the limescale (this works brilliantly!) but then forgot about it and made an early morning cup of tea with the dirty vinegary water - yeuk! I always think that water tastes better when limescale is filtered out.

Element: This is concealed so the kettle is therefore easier to clean. Limescale seems to particularly stick to elements.

On/Off switch: I have found that many of my past kettles have had flimsy switches and it is sometimes difficult to tell if they are turned on or not. This one has a very robust black switch that you press down to turn on. It does not have an illuminated light to show that the power is on and I guess this is a feature that some people may like.

Spout: The kettle has a largish, round spout and pours well. It is also big enough for you to fill it straight from the tap which lessens the chance of burning yourself if you have to fill it up again soon after it has boiled.

Reliability: It has been easy to use and is very reliable.

Price: I bought this second hand for £3. I have done a search on the internet for the purposes of this review and I see that it is still on sale in a lot of on-line shops so I do not think it is an old model. Most of those put the price at £29.99. I would recommend it but I would also think for this price it could have a light to show whether it was on or off.

Note: I did not get a users manual with it so cannot comment on this feature. I had to put something as the Ciao form did not give me the option of leaving this out so I have put 'fair'.