[Closed] Why are kettles so terrible?

I have a cheapo one that's been going fine for about 10 years - I wish it would die as it's hideous, but it seems strangely indestructible.

bosch is your friend.

You forgot to mention that most of them don't even pour properly, let alone well - given that the main task is heating water and pouring it - the pouring tends to be bloody crap a lot of the time.

We had one that met an untimely end at my hands at 3am in the morning doing a bottle for the baby - it pour ed boiling water all over my feet for the last time, and I smashed it to bits on the slate floor.

Only saw one Bosch and it was lots of stupid swooping [url= http://www.johnlewis.com/bosch-private-collection-kettle/p230855956?kpid=230855956&s_kenid=12e40d2c-e8ed-f149-e386-00002f55b079&s_kwcid=ppc_pla&tmad=c&tmcampid=73 ]shiny plastic.[/url] I'm not looking for suggestions by the way. Bought a Kenwood. This is just a discussion about how kettles are rubbish and why that might be.

Yes pouring can be an issue. What is that about? The old kettle routinely dribbled water down the side of the cup.

I love my kettle! It boils in seconds if it's only a cupfull, pours perfectly, looks nice, durable, non-rattly. I don't get it? It's a Russell Hobbs heritage one.

I love my kettle! It boils in seconds if it's only a cupfull, pours perfectly, looks [s]nice[/s] like a handbag, durable, non-rattly. I don't get it? It's a Russell Hobbs heritage one.

ftfy

I had one that would let steam out right by the handle, in such a way that if you held it at the top of the handle to pour it, you'd be scalded. Great design feature.

This is just a discussion about how kettles are rubbish

Ours is awesome not sure what make it is mrs rocket bought it 3kw thermonuclear boil pours/refills easily AND it has a blue light inside

our last Kenwood was appalling - it would leak steam from the on switch in the handle, the paint chipped really badly and fell into the water and it discoloured such that it turned pink from red - all after a few months of ownership.
"we" replaced it with another Kenwood with selection criteria being limited to 'does it match the toaster?'. surprisingly it's fairing a lot better and given that it gets used every hour during the day it's fairing a lot better.
both were about £60 which is absolutely ridiculous.

My rattle free kettle:

[img] [/img]

Ours is awesome not sure what make it is mrs rocket bought it but it boils in minutes pours/refills easily AND it has a blue light inside

Mine's got a red light, and everyone knows red ones go faster.

Bottom end of the product design food chain.
All the good guys work for Samsung and Apple - the bloke who got a 2:2 from a tin-pot Polytechnic now works at Russell Hobbs.

I don't get hand driers that don't work. There are good and bad examples of kettles - some might be unreliable, some might be a bit drippy, some might be ugly but at the point of design and manufacture they are still fundamentally a kettle and can boil a quantity of water. Apart from the dyson air blade thing (and seemingly in spite of it too) theres an entire industry making hand driers that aren't hand driers. Even companies that only make one thing, and sell it all over the world and call themselves "world dryer" don't make machines that dry your hands.

I can't understand the mindset of being at the pre-production prototype - testing it, being well aware that it doesn't really work - then instead of going back to the drawing board going into mass production instead. The distributors and retailer taking them even though they demonstrably don't work, and people buying them, and they don't work, and not just sending them back.

I love the ones that have a motion sensor that can't sense your hands where the air is blowing - so you wave your hands under - its blows - you move your hands to the blower - it stops.

I love the rip-off of the dyson one with a blue light and digital countdown so that have a timer telling you it takes exactly twice as long to dry your hands as the dyson does.

I found myself impatiently waving my hands under a hand dryer a few weeks ago -under and around it like a David Copperfield magic trick, trying to trigger the sensor, before the guy behind me kindly pointed out it was a paper towel dispenser.

it has a blue light inside

Sounds like our Dualit one. Our last one had to be thrown out because the turning-off bit got unreliable. In the olden days you could take them apart to adjust this, but it seems that now they're totally undisassemblable so you have to throw them out even thought they're 99% ok.

agreed really, our shiny DualIt was, in fact, not well built; now on a John Lewis own brand one which is 'OK' but rattles and doesn't pour well.

It's possibly the cordless aspects of them that cause problems -- my easiest kettle I've had for years and years, Russell Hobbs with plain on/off switch on rear, pours very easily in a smooth manner. It's the one in my office, the kitchen has the wobbly cordless one..

Anything by Braun. They should know.

Or Russell Hobbs K5 or similar
[img] [/img]

Great minds, kcal

I've been boiling water in a pan on the stove for the last few weeks, suprisingly it makes better tea for some as yet unkown reason as the kettle is in the boot of the missus car (long story, involving lazyness). Tempted to get a camping/aga kettle and bin the electric one.

All the good guys work for Samsung and Apple - the bloke who got a 2:2 from a tin-pot Polytechnic now works at Russell Hobbs.

The guy who designed the iPhone went to a North East Poly (I can't rememebr which, Sunderland?)

You know, I've very nearly started this thread myself several times recently.

I've been through all manner of 'branded' kettles that have turned out to be pants. They pack in, leak, or otherwise fall apart.

My current one is a Wahl one, celebrity endorsed by James Martin (for ages I wondered why a kettle would be endorsed by a hairdresser), and it's been about the best I've ever had. But it too is on its last legs, the lid doesn't snap shut any more, meaning the steam leaks and thus fails to trip the auto cut-off. Quite what I'm going to replace it with I've no idea.

Time was you could solve problems like this by throwing money at it to avoid buying crap, but it seems now that brand and price is no indication of quality.

Last cheap plastic one lasted six years and was fine.

Mrs S insisted we needed a new one.
We got one of these:
[img] [/img]

It was unstable and rattles.
Now on the third. 😐

Another cheap plastic one next time.

We're currently 'running' this rather funky red number.
It's well good, and boils much hotter than other kettles 😉

[img] [/img]

The base is dead stable and the button has a really satisfying clunk sound, which is very important.

You know you have a happy life when your biggest issue is a slightly shonky domestic appliance 🙂

The old kettle routinely dribbled water down the side of the cup.

How can this be the kettle's fault and not yours?

I honestly have never had these kind of problems. I had one kettle fail once, it just stopped working. And rattly? What? You're supposed to make tea with it not drive to London in it.

I get annoyed with the "min fill" mark on the side of our kettle - follow that and you ending up boiling enough water to fill a bath!

Stove top kettle, no elements, nothing to go wrong, it even whistles

No go faster red light though. 🙁

Great designers come from all backgrounds - the Motorola RAZR lead hardware designer went to Bradford as was taught by my Course Director - Nik Hills, a wonderful chap, gifted and intelligent, worked for Electrolux and then in Medical Design, finally left that to teach Design at Bradford.

Ives is talented, but less groundbreaking that many would believe.

Check this out:
[img] [/img]
1958 Braun Transistor Pocket radio VS iPod

Still love the iMac and the G3/G5 Towers though. The iPod Shuffle is a rare foray into design that is not dependant on sight. How do you use a radio or iPod based on a touchscreen if you're blind? My DAB radio is useless if you can't read the screen. Anyway, rant over 🙂

No idea what ours is (and CBA going to check - though it's whatever was one of the cheapest at the time we bought it), but it works fine at boiling water, not rattling and not dribbling. To be fair it did stop working at one point when some bit of the contacts in the base stopped working, but I'd fixed that with a soldering iron by the time mrs aracer came home with a new one (from Argos, which made things easy). I don't see the problem.

How can this be the kettle's fault and not yours?

The reason it dribbled is because water stuck to the underside of the spout. Frankly the insinuation that I can't pour a cup of tea is insulting to my manhood and I'll see you outside right now.

I've been boiling water in a pan on the stove for the last few weeks, suprisingly it makes better tea for some as yet unkown reason

It's a basic cognitive bias in humans which makes us think that things we have expounded more effort on are intrinsically better.

Got a Asda Smart Price white one 3 years ago, to replace Rowenta fancy one that refused to switch off when boiling, turning kitchen into a sauna .I have since got 2 others for mumsy and work,although they now cost £1 more than the first one I got (but on reflection £4.99,and the same for the Smart Price toaster seems more than reasonable).Recommended.(Keep your reciept and pay separately)

We've got a Philips one that we got as a toaster/kettle combo from Argos. It was fairly pricey but boils quickly, doesn't dribble water, is quiet and looks OK (as far as kettle aesthetics go!). Only thing wrong is I stuck my finger through the removable filter thing trying to clean it. Not sure that's the fault of the kettle though.

Funnily enough, the toaster that came with it is also pretty good. Consistent, with a decent gradation to the scale so you don't go from anaemic to burnt in a 3 degree twiddle of the the dial and toasts quick enough that it doesn't turn the bread into some kind of over-sized crisp-bread.
The LEDs on the buttons on one side stopped working after about 6 months, but it still works as it should.

It's a basic cognitive bias in humans which makes us think that things we have expounded more effort on are intrinsically better.

Nope, its better, Ive trialed it. I think it's hotter or maybe still contains more disolved air as the tea seems to brew much quicker.

Or it's a plastic kettle. Can't you get iffy flavours from plastic kettles sometimes?

On my original point, I accept that most kettles are broadly functional, but why, when spending £80 or £100 are you still getting crappy plastics and flimsy lids?

Does it just not factor into the buying decision for most people? Am I in the minority in looking for build quality and for want of a better term, 'product design' i.e. unobstructed lid, low footprint etc?

Ives is talented, but less groundbreaking that many would believe.
Check this out:

I wouldn't say that's conclusive proof he copied the design, he may never have seen the earlier one...

[quote=thisisnotaspoon ]Nope, its better, Ive trialed it.

Double blind?

Nope, its better, Ive trialed it. I think it's hotter or maybe still contains more disolved air as the tea seems to brew much quicker.

Double blind test? 🙂

IIRC tea is not meant to be made with boiling water - it should actually be slightly cooler.

I had a Breville cordless plastic one with a blue light, it was awesome, it boiled in seconds, and had a stay hot switch on it that periodically reboiled the water to keep it hot, great for tea marathons, and cooking.

Then the Mrs moved in, decided it didn't match the toaster, and bought a matching kettle and toaster that look great but are awful, cheap tat. The kettle doesn't pour well, and they're made of stainless steel which always looks smeary.

Footflaps, Dieter Rams [Braun's lead designer for a good long time] and Johnny Ives are total buddies:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/8555503/Dieter-Rams-Apple-has-achieved-something-I-never-did.html

I'm not saying he "copied" it, but I [i]am[/i] saying he has taken the design language and fiddled/ran with it.

[url= http://gizmodo.com/343641/1960s-braun-products-hold-the-secrets-to-apples-future ]Further reading...[/url]

Expensive (£80) and louder than I'd like, but it's well made (as far as kettles are concerned) looks nice (as far as kettles are concerned) and has 4 temperature settings...useful if you drink green/white/herbal tea, or real coffee. It has a 'keep warm' setting too, which gets used more than we initially thought it would!

[img] [/img]

Then the Mrs moved in, decided it didn't match the toaster, and bought a matching kettle and toaster that look great but are awful, cheap tat. The kettle doesn't pour well, and they're made of stainless steel which always looks smeary.

Sounds like the toaster that Mrs. mogrim bought - lovely and shiny in the shop, but shows up every fingerprint. It's also a two slot toaster, which means you can't stick long bits of bread in it. And it's too quiet, so you have to keep an eye on it to see when the toast has popped up. Bah. Had it for years now and the bloody thing won't die, either 😡

I've been boiling water in a pan on the stove for the last few weeks, suprisingly it makes better tea for some as yet unkown reason
It's a basic cognitive bias in humans which makes us think that things we have expounded more effort on are intrinsically better.

Or it could be the lack of limescale? My in-laws always use a pan for this reason when making tea, and periodically replace their Nespresso machine when the descaler is no longer cutting it for them.

I find our Breville Ikon good, and it's 6 year's old. Anyone know if the Sunbeam Cafe series is any good? It would match our toaster.

Rusty I had a look at that Sage one, although the non variable temp version. Never heard of the make though, and was wary of the Heston Blumenthal branding. Plus wasn't paying £80 for a standard kettle.

The packaging was shouting about the soft-open lid eliminating the 'problem' of flip-up lids throwing hot water up. Who opens the lid on a freshly boiled kettle?

Footflaps, Dieter Rams [Braun's lead designer for a good long time] and Johnny Ives are total buddies:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/8555503/Dieter-Rams-Apple-has-achieved-something-I-never-did.html

I'm not saying he "copied" it, but I am saying he has taken the design language and fiddled/ran with it.

Further reading...

Theres no doubt or secret theres some intended homage to Rams - its not so much the radio - its Ram's turntables that the iPod references

[img] http://modculture.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451cbb069e201310f93ccec970c-800wi [/img]

there used to be lots of little Braun references in the interfaces in Apple stuff to - like the calculator in earlier iOS releases

[img] [/img]

Its a good thing too as Ram's work was all but forgotten about

I concur.

Never heard of the make though

was wary of the Heston Blumenthal branding

I believe they're made by Breville.

From what I can gather, Sage is the original Breville company (Australian) competing with Breville UK (American), which they'd sold off previously.

Blimey, I had a conversation with the neighbour last night about kettles, as she's just bought a stove top one and said it tastes better but she doesn't know why. My answer was pretty much word for word this:

[b]grum[/b] - Member
It's a basic cognitive bias in humans which makes us think that things we have expounded more effort on are intrinsically better.

I used the example of Vinyl over CDs over MP3s.

I see it as a return on an investment. If you invest nothing you appreciate the return less.

In answer to the 'why are kettles crap' question, I think the safest answer is 'planned obsolescence'.

There's a great documentary about planned obsolescence kicking around on the internet somewhere. Interestingly in the 50s it was actually proposed to US congress that the lifespans of goods should be legally limited in order to ensure capitalist consumerism could actually work. Manufacturers actually wanted laws to force people to dispose of and replace goods after a set time.

Obviously it wasn't passed, but that doesn't mean it's in the interest of any manufacturer to build products that never need replacing.

Or it could be the lack of limescale?

Id do a double blind but My gf likes it really weak, and I always end up making it so not much chance of a fair test.

Obviously it wasn't passed, but that doesn't mean it's in the interest of any manufacturer to build products that never need replacing.

but those that can be repaired do earm a place in the hearts and minds of people.

(I know the whole 'built for manufacture' thing but we need to rediscover repair again)

In answer to the 'why are kettles crap' question, I think the safest answer is 'planned obsolescence'.

Hmm.. not exactly. I think that in different markets people value different things, and in kettles a large majority of people value low price over anything else, because (quite rightly) it's perceived to do one very simple thing only so why spend a lot on it?

So if most pepole are buying cheap items then the market for quality is probably too small to be worth bothering with.

TBH the number of things that cannot be repaired is actually quite small, I reckon. You can't repair electronic ciruitry of course, but that's an inevitable consequence of how it has to be made as much as anything else.

So if most pepole are buying cheap items then the market for quality is probably too small to be worth bothering with.

your consumer choice is given to you by consumer goods companies. they know far more about telling you what you want and convincing you of what you need than you know about what you think you actually want.

I'm not sure that's always true to be honest. Companies will respond to demand, certainly, and there is a circular element to it as well, but there is a lot that happens outside of that too.

Otherwise nothing new would ever be brought to market.

yeah, I was being a little facetious as the main buyer in our house is a retailer's dream due to her [s]gullibility[/s] lack of cynicism...

As something that (generally) lives on the worktop, a nice-looking kettle is actually worth spending money on. It's also something that you will use several times a day, so working well is important.

Yes. Something you use a lot should be a pleasure to use, not a chore or an eyesore. In the area of kettles this seems - to me at least - hard to come by. Maybe I'm just a nutcase.

I'm trying to remember who wrote it, but there was a sci-fi (I think) writer who wrote in a newsletter about the objects we use everyday and how they should be well made and a pleasure to use.

It's similar to William Morris' thoughts on only allowing things that are useful or that you consider to be beautiful into your home. Or, what Kevin McCloud writes about important objects to spend money on in a home - the things that you touch every day, like door handles and taps.

[quote=molgrips ]You can't repair electronic ciruitry of course, but that's an inevitable consequence of how it has to be made as much as anything else.

Eh? Of course you can, and I have. I found the full service manual for our broken DVD recorder online and having checked the voltages at test points against the specs I have a replacement component waiting to fit. It just takes a bit more specialist knowledge.

[quote=molgrips ]there is a circular element to it as well

The kettle?

Kettles, terrible?

I bought a kenwood stainless one about 5 or 6 years ago. Came with a toaster. Neither have gone wrong. The kettle doesn't rattle. It doesn't dribble when you pour it. It's got a see-through strip so you can see how full it is. The toaster successfully turns bread into toast.

I've never had Kenwood down as an aspirational brand, and I wouldn't suggest they have Miele build quality, but they seem to have completed the task of making and selling a water boiling / pouring device quite successfully.

Maybe 5 or 6 years ago it could be done. Now in the age of austerity, no longer. Now it just needs to look good in a photo, and boil some water without killing you. That's what we've got and by God we better be grateful.

But yes the Kenwood we bought seems ok. Steam still escapes a wee bit at full boil. You can see it condensing on the cheap-looking chrome lid.

I have a replacement component waiting to fit

What component? You've replaced a surface-mounted capacitor or chip on a pcb? That's hardcore. Or do you mean a module? Not everything's modular of course.

molgrips » there is a circular element to it as well
The kettle?

That gag is far higher quality than your average kettle 🙂

I'd quite like one of these (and all the rest of their stuff) - but will have to win the lottery or sell a kidney first.

[img] %3Fw%3D1128[/img]

Grum that is a case in point. We have a Kitchenaid mixer which is a Rolls-Royce of an appliance. That kettle is obviously designed to capitalise on that reputation but when you see it in the flesh it's a lightweight, cheap-feeling disappointment which they're asking about £110 for. I love the gauge though even if it is a stupid gimmick.

ORLY? Only ever seen the mixers which are things of great beauty.

grum - Member
It's a basic cognitive bias in humans which makes us think that things we have expounded more effort on are intrinsically better.

[i]I see it as a return on an investment. If you invest nothing you appreciate the return less.[/i]

I believe this wholeheartedly and although we're talking about domestic appliances, I think the above largely explains the immense dissatisfaction and lack of value we have in this age in the ' first world'.
Imho

I used to have a Brevelle "cafe series" kettle, a cylinder that had no visible element, boiled in seconds, had a great lid, was the prefect kettle. Then after about 4 years it broke, they stopped making them. life would ever be the same again.

That Kitchen Aid one is awesome.

We had a cool one in the kitchen at work with a groovy purple light somewhere, but it lasted approximately 3 weeks before it was dribbling from its rear end (the kettle) and had to be put down. OP is right, so many of them are tat.

I'm trying to remember who wrote it, but there was a sci-fi (I think) writer who wrote in a newsletter about the objects we use everyday and how they should be well made and a pleasure to use.

Trying to remember who this was was killing me. Thanks to @RichStwit on Twitter, I know it was Bruce Sterling - [url= http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/03/15/viridian-design-and-rethinking-our-relationship-stuff ]Viridian Design[/url].

Try this one ...

[url= http://www.labourandwait.co.uk/collections/kitchen/products/japanese-kettle ]Labour and Wait[/url]

[img] ?v=1370954998[/img]

I have one and it's wonderful.

[quote=molgrips ]What component? You've replaced a surface-mounted capacitor or chip on a pcb? That's hardcore. Or do you mean a module? Not everything's modular of course.

It's a through hole switcher IC (from the power module). I don't think I've ever replaced a SM component in a commercial product, but could be wrong as I certainly could if I needed to. I've made my own SM PCBs and populated them by hand and have a fair stock of SM parts - far from impossible to do by hand, though it does take a bit of specialist knowledge as I said before (and to be fair a lot of commercial SM parts are finer pitch and smaller than I'd choose to use). Modules are dead easy and most people should be able to manage that.

Labour and Wait

There are some wonderful things on that site.

Ooooh.......a Kitchenaid kettle, i've been waiting on Kitchenaid to do a kettle for ages as i have their coffee bean grinder and toaster which have worked faultlessly for the past 7 yrs so i guess i'd better try and accidentally drop my existing kettle on the floor, it doesn't switch off so it's a pain the arse to use and a good excuse to kill it off.

Brought a nice shiny Bosch lasted about 9 months so I brought a cheap £10 ASDA kettle till I get something better and that was 2 years ago and it's still going.

We've had our kettle for over 7 years and I've worked from home for much of that time so it's been pretty heavily used. Boils v fast because it has an easy to read gauge so you don't overfill it and a spout cover so very little steam escapes. Copes well with the moderate local limescale too (it's hard water but only as hard as someone playing a hard man on TV, not a real hard man).

miketually - Member

Labour and Wait

There are some wonderful things on that site.

I am going to order these from them ...

[img] ?v=1332247714[/img]

[img] ?v=1378201108[/img]

[img] ?v=1327056211[/img]

"we" replaced it with another Kenwood.... surprisingly it's fairing a lot better and given that it gets used every hour during the day it's fairing a lot better.

can I please withdraw my previous statement as the handle now has a crack in it and water is pissing out of it...

We don't use a kettle of sorts.
We have one of these.

[img] [/img]

It maintains the temperature of the water, and we just press a button and the water comes out.

if water isn't pouring properly it may be the case that you have calcium deposits around the spout which if removed would fix the problem.
stainless kettles, toasters etc. can look better for longer if you wipe 'em over with a dab of veg oil.
HTH.

[img] [/img]

Guaranteed for a decade, silicone handle and works like a charm. Wesco make some lovely, solid things and these can be recycled easily should it somehow come to an early demise.

I once bought a cheap kettle from a local shop in the local town. It was one of these ones were the handle also fills up with water. Except the handle would leak, when it started steaming! It was probably the worst design flaw I've ever come across in any product.