Why are kettles so terrible?

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

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

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

I concur.

Never heard of the make though

I believe they’re made by Breville.

was wary of the Heston Blumenthal branding

Yeah…no more than a celeb’ chef tie-in to try and add some kudos to what is pitched as a premium brand, I guess. It certainly won’t turn you into a 3* chef 😀

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:

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 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?

Could be, but we do de scale the kettle quite often and the pan is pretty fury after a few weeks use.

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 gullibility 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.

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.

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.

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

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 – Viridian Design.

Try this one …

Labour and Wait

I have one and it’s wonderful.

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 …

“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.

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.

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.