Household appliance review -- Eco kettle.

When I last visited my parents, my mum gave me an Eco kettle, she just thought I might like it, as a spare for when my current kettle expires. Mum had been sent the kettle for free, as part of an environmentally friendly package (also included CFL bulbs and a plug power saving device) from her electricity supplier. But mum thought the kettle looked too complicated and had never used it.
Although I don't intend to use the Eco kettle until my current kettle dies, I thought I would have a play with it.

The purpose of the Eco kettle, is to save energy. It achieves this, by making it easy to boil just enough water for however many cups of tea you require.
Initially you fill the water reservoir and then pressing a valve on the top of the kettle transfers the quantity of water needed to the boiling chamber. So if you normally have just one cup of tea at a time, it could be ideal, as you only need to fill the kettle once and then just depress the valve each time you want to boil a cupful of water.
The kettle holds enough water for about eight cups, or if your a mug person like me, about five mug fulls.

While the Eco kettle will undoubtedly save energy, it does have a few drawbacks. It is pretty big and takes up quite a bit of worktop space. It's also rather heavy, weighing 1.25KG empty, which is 2.5 times the weight of my current kettle. Also the valve button takes a fair amount of force to depress, not ideal for pensioners, or people with weaker fingers.

Overall the Eco kettle isn't a bad idea and seems to be well made (if rather over engineered). But it is only really suited to people who primarily make one, or two cups of tea at a time and don't mind the weight and valve pressure. For everyone else, it would be easier to not fill their current kettle as much and save energy that way.

Personally, I will eventually use it, but I will probably just fill the boiling chamber down the kettle spout, rather than messing about with the reservoir and valve button.

http://www.ecokettle.com/

Rob Goldfish Web Site

Copyright 2007 Rob Goldfish.