Comments on: How can I find the perfect – green – kettle?

By: Medeea

Medeea — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:57:20 +0000

Ours is Morphy Richards (all plastic). We have it for over 3 years…still going strong.
The annoying part with it is that it spills when pouring the water.
A few tips: to make it efficient, remove the scale by boiling a solution of water and vinegar. It stinks, but it works! And you don’t add other chemicals in your kettle.
This kettle doesn’t have cup measure, but I think this can be easily adjusted by measuring the water with the cup you actually use.

By: Veronica Lowe

Veronica Lowe — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:47:15 +0000

I have used a whistling gas kettle for the last 15 years. Only 2 kettles in that time. Gas in UK costs a third the price per Kwh of electricity. Even if you use slightly more gas you are still saving money. I bought one with the largest base I could find, measure half a pint with a measuring jug for one cup, and it’s boiled in 2 minutes.

By: jean o'donnell

jean o'donnell — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:04:09 +0000

Trying to find a good one-cup kettle which does not drip when pouring, and not to heavy to handle for a senior person.

By: Alice

Alice — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:05:19 +0000

BTW most electric kettles have a minimum fill level of about 2 cups of water, meaning that if you regularly make only one cup of tea at a time you have to either boil twice as much water as you need every time, or shorten the life of your kettle by underfilling it all the time.

Hence the genius of the Philips one which will safely boil only one cup at a time.

By: Alice

Alice — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:57:48 +0000

Ooh ooh ooh I know I know!

I recently replaced my stove-top kettle with an electric one, and figured it would be more efficient if I got one I could boil one cup at a time in.

It was amazingly difficult to find the right kettle, especially ‘cos I didn’t want to spend loads of money on one, but I eventually went for the Philips “One Cup” and it’s great.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4222932.htm

Boils INCREDIBLY fast (40 seconds for 1 mugfull) plus it has a concealed element, i.e. the bottom of the inside of the kettle is flat and the coiled up heating element is below that, so when it scales up you can realistically descale it and scrub the scale off the bottom, which you can’t do very well with a normal element.

Descaling keeps it efficient, and this kettle also has a limescale filter in the spout which helps too. I really really like mine, and I promise I don’t work for Philips (or Argos)!

By: Mary Horesh

Mary Horesh — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:45:48 +0000

I try and get a kettle that has a cup measure on its side so you can fill it up for the exact amount of water that you boil, as I think that is the is that we boil a whole kettle when we only need a third.

So try and find a kettle with a minimum level that is about 2 cups of water.

I have had experience with eco kettles where they measure the exact amount of water into the recess, but I find them over complicated and it works perfectly well with a standard kettle to put in the amount you need.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:36:07 +0000

I can’t claim that it’s particularly green/eco, but I’ve had this kettle http://www.brita.net/princess.html a fairly long time (3+ years), so I guess that sort of does make it fairly green. Maybe the filtered water helps it keep going?

By: louisa

louisa — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:18:08 +0000

Our last electric kettle started leaking around the water level thing so this time we’ve gone for one without a water level or any other fancy features/design elements which may be points of failure – it’s just a plain metal jug. I think we’ve had it about 2 years now so I guess we’ll see over the next few months whether the choice was actually beneficial.