Time for Tea? It won't be de-Long-hi. (Delonghi KBE3014-1)

Member Name: fergusa

Product:	Delonghi KBE3014-1
Date:	29/06/09 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Stylish, fast boil.

Disadvantages: Not as durable as I'd like for the price.

We bought this kettle and the matching toaster 2 years ago when we had our kitchen redone. Not cheap at £50 from John Lewis, but I thought it would be worth it for a good brand name like Delonghi. This model/range is also called Argento.

**The Look
The kettle is a lovely matt cream colour with a silver spout and silver lid with a black sphere knob on top. The handle is black with a cream insert and the water gauge is behind this handle. The kettle is cordless and sits on top of a circular black charging plate.

**The features
There is a built in filter that sits behind the spout. This is a really handy feature if you have hard water as it is quite a fine mesh so it will stop the little bits going into your tea. The water gauge is a fairly standard feature but gives you the min and max fill and between 0.7 and 1.5 litre marks. The maximum capacity of this kettle is 1.7 itres.

It is quite a powerful kettle, the element is within the base (so you cannot see it if you look in the kettle) maybe this speeds up the boil time??. A full boil takes under 2 minutes which I think is pretty quick.

**The durability
This is my disappointment with this kettle, bearing in mind we have had for 2 years and have used several times daily, but even so a £50 kettle should last a bit longer in my opinion.

The kettle looks at first to be very durable but 3 thing in particular have happened to ours.
1. We live in a hard water area and I have to descale the kettle every two-three weeks to keep in tip top condition. This has not been a problem but what has happened is that limescale collects around the rim where the lid fits on. The only way to remove this is to gently scrub with a cloth but even being very gentle has worn away the cream enamel leaving an uneven line around the rim.
2. The limescale filter is a very fine mesh which makes it very efficient, however it also makes it a bit fragile and I had to replace the first one after a year.
3. The lid is a very tight fit, mine has given in to being pulled and has cracked on the base of the black knob. Still works just looks tatty.

So, overall, it's a stylish kettle with a fast boil but I've been a bit disappointed with it's durability. Maybe I'm asking too much for a kettle to last longer than a couple of years???

PS please ignore the installation, picture and sound ratings below - it wouldn't let me not rate them although they're clearly not relevant.

Summary: A bit disappointing.

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