People always look amazed when I tell them I have a Porsche, although they look a bit peeved when I tell them it is a kettle! Back in the late 90s Siemens decided to produce a new ‘designer’ kettle – and who better to get to design it than F.A. Porsche.
The plan that Porsche came up with was a modern jug-kettle design in brushed stainless steel and navy blue plastic. But whilst the design is stylish, it does not loose out on functionality.
The base unit is a short, dumpy cylinder in stainless steel the same diameter as the kettle, which itself stands on dumpy feet. The electrical connector to supply power to the
heating element is raised up, thus preventing water reaching the electrical contacts (unless you submerge it of course!). The base also serves to hide any excess cable as underneath it hides a reel around which the power cord can be stored.
The kettle itself then locates snugly onto this base (another advantage of the raised connector). The design is simple, yet modern – the plain stainless steel cylinder is interrupted only by the words ‘Siemens’, ‘Design by F.A. Porsche’ and a rather stylish silver honeycomb effect water level indicator, which shows the full range of water levels from 0.25 to 1.5 litres. The top of the kettle and the handle is finished in a navy blue plastic which has a slight roughness to it making it very easy to grip (it also means that finger marks don’t show up so clearly). The top has three separate buttons on it – the on switch (red), the off switch (black) and a button which sits flush with the top of the kettle which pops the lid open by pivoting on its central axis allowing the kettle to be filled. When turned on a small orange LED illuminates on the top, and turns off again once the water is boiled (a useful feature considering the kettle is so quiet you can’t always tell whether it has boiled or not). Overall a very stylish looking piece of kit – and I’m not the only person to think so – it won the ‘Industrie Forum Design Hanover’ design award in 1998.
The lid, once popped open, can easily be lifted out to grant access to the innards. A filter, which is supplied with the kettle, can be placed in grooves in the spout so as to prevent any lime-scale being poured out. The floor of the kettle jug acts as the heating element in this model, thus permitting easy cleaning, even in areas with hard water. The kettle also has a number of safety features – it turns itself off when the lid is popped open, and it has an internal circuit breaker which trips if the kettle overheats. A friend of mine discovered this second feature by accident when he turned the kettle on with no water – the kettle clicked off more loudly than usual, and wouldn’t turn back on again for a while. But after about 5 minutes it gave another loud click and was working again as good as new.
As with all products involving input from Porsche, this kettle is FAST! By that I mean that it’s 2000W power and large heating area allow this kettle to boil water faster than any other kettle I have ever encountered – quoting from its time-trials this morning 0.5 litres takes 68 seconds, and the full 1.5 litres takes 152 seconds.
So what about durability? Well I’ve had mine for three and a half years now and it looks and operates as good as when it was new. The brushed stainless steel and plastic is both east to keep clean and does not easily mark
Complaints about this piece of kit? All I can think of is the price – it retails for around £100, which in anyone’s book is not cheap for a kettle. It has to be purchased not just for its functionality, but also for its design that really does look fantastic in a modern kitchen. Of course you can shop around a bit to bring the cost down – I got mine through the Siemens employees discount scheme which brought it down to nearer seventy quid including delivery.
I would thoroughly recommend this kettle, although only buy it if you want something eye-catching and a bit special for your kitchen – no kettle should cost this much simply for the purpose of boiling water in my opinion. And if you’ve got plenty of cash, they also produce a coffee maker, toaster and blender in the same style.
very helpful by (100%):
