We recently underwent a bit of an office refurb and with it we got some nice new, shiny gadgets in the kitchen. The Breville Hot Cup was one such gadget which we got to replace are old kettle, which was on it's last legs.

The first thing I thought when I saw it out of the box was I wanted one for home. I thought, like a lot of the Breville products, it looked great. It was sleek and stylish and hoped that it wasn't more style than substance like so many of these modern kitchen appliances are.

Taking it out of the box it was very straight forward to assemble and the instructions were good if you feel that they are required. The Hot Cup was up and running in around 5 minutes.

As the Hot Cup replaces the need for a kettle any comparisons that I draw when reviewing this will be against the kettle, a device that has served me so well over the years and it's the product most people will be looking to replace if purchasing this I would think.

The Hot Cup is slightly bigger than your average kettle, Dimensions (W x D x H): 17 x 27.7 x 28 cm and weighs around 2kg. There is a 2 litre capacity water tank, which lights up blue when the water is heating. The water tank is removable which makes refilling nice and easy. The water tank is quite heavy and an elderly person might find it quite awkward to refill compared with your bog-standard kettle.

There is a small tray which you sit your cup on, which also collects any water if there happens to be any overflow or spillages. There is a manual stop switch which you can press if the cup size you have selected dispenses too much water for the size of cup you have, which is a nice little feature but I think essential for this gadget.

There is a small chrome dial on the top of the Hot Cup which controls the amount of water that is dispensed. It can take a good bit of fiddling to begin with to find the right setting for the cup that you have. I also found that if you don't have enough water I find it is a bit of a chore to top up your cup.

I found that the first 10 to 15 uses of the Hot Cup that this dial wasn't very accurate. However, the more you use if the more accurate it has become. There are 9 settings on the dial and I tend to use the 1 from maximum. You would not fill anything larger than you're average mug, probably something along the size of a medium Starbucks mug.

There is a 3Kw heating element and it boils the water required for a cup in around 20 to 25 seconds, which I think it nice and quick. There is a good sized chrome button on the top of the Hot Cup which you press to begin boiling the water.

One thing that I prefer about a kettle over the Hot Cup is you can easily micro manage with a kettle. By that I mean if you have taken your tea bag out of your cup and find that there isn't quite enough water in the cup you can easily top it up.

On the whole, this is a good product in my view. Not an excellent one. The water boils quickly and the product is energy efficient as it only boils enough water for the amount needed for your one cup. I like the micro management a kettle offers too much to swap my kettle at home with one of these. It's also a little expensive at £50.00 for me. Also at home I prefer to make a pot of tea rather than a cup and this product is only designed for one cup at a time.