The IQ Kettle

I seriously considered getting this Kettle. It had all the bells and whistles, was exactly what I needed, etc. Until I learned that the plastic “water level” on the sides of this kettle are made with poly-carbonate – not BPA free. That’s very disheartening. How hard is it to use safer alternatives? I’m not usually one to fuss about BPA, but I do avoid warming/heating plastic with it. So on a kettle that will DAILY reach 212 degrees? Too much risk for me.

Sad.

Yay!! My new kettle is here!! This is the first electric kettle I’ve ever bought and it is exactly what I’ve been looking for! I love that it’s simple and easy to use. It’s sleek and stylish. And most importantly, the pre-set brewing temperatures are exactly what I like to use to brew various types of tea.

I used to enjoy the laborious, time consuming ritual of boiling water on my stovetop, pouring it into a cup and adding a thermometer, waiting till the water reached just the right temperature and then adding the leaves, then waiting some more for the tea to steep, and finally FINALLY having a finished ready-to-drink cup of tea. Well, now that I have a baby…ain’t nobody got time for that!

Now with just the click of a button, I can have water that’s just the right temperature for my cup in no time at all. This thing boils water FAST! It also lets off a lot of steam so I don’t recommend putting it directly underneath your cabinetry. I do wish it kept the water warm longer than 20 minutes but that’s not a huge dealbreaker.

I’d say that’s my biggest critique of this kettle. The keep warm function isn’t entirely logical or intuitive to use. If you lift the kettle off the base, it automatically shuts off the keep warm function. You can press it again but it goes off within a couple minutes. So I guess you have to reselect the temperature each time you lift it off the base? That’s silly. Still, it’s better than what I’ve been doing. I’ll take pressing a button over my old routine any day. This kettle rocks! Now I just have to resist the urge to buy one for the office…

This is a lovely kettle! It’s efficient, simple, and durable. Plus, you can’t beat the price for the quality you get! I particularly enjoy that it has different temperature settings.

For those who say they’re worried about the small amount of BPA plastic on the inside, I believe I read a statement from the company saying that it was in fact BPA free.
The only drawbacks I have for this kettle are that you need to heat at least two cups of water each time, (I’d prefer to only heat the amount I need so I don’t pour too much water in my pot for the amount of tea I’m using), and that I occasionally can’t hear the “ready” alarm go off. A longer cord would be nice as well, though I can see how on a countertop shorter cords are more pleasing to the eye.

Overall, this is a stout and useful kettle!

I adore this kettle! I was looking for something to heat my water for tea in my college dorm room since I wouldn’t have a stove. I got this as a gift from my grandmother and it’s been wonderful. Not only can I heat my water to the perfect temperature to make anything from white tea to oolong to black tea, but my roommates can also boil water for tea bags and all of us can use it for, of course, Ramen. It heats the water incredibly quickly and the hold temperature button can be really helpful if I’m steeping my leaves again. I use it all the time. The cord is very short, but I’m definitely able to overlook that. It’s truly very wonderful and well worth the money.

Because I don’t have a few hundred to drop on a kettle, I had to settle for Breville’s variable temperature model, instead of the magic brewing basket model I wanted (and even then, this had to come to me as a gift). However, it is worth the price: this is a durable, quality kettle that is straightforward to use and simplifies tea making tremendously. It allows you to brew a pot at the perfect temperature for white, green, oolong, french press (loose) tea, and also includes a straightforward boil setting. It also has a “hold temperature” function. No more holding a candy thermometer into the spout of a boiling kettle, trying not to get a steam burn, when you want a cup of oolong! If you drink anything more complicated than bagged tea, I recommend this model.