I've always had bad luck with certain kitchen items, fortunately it's not with sharp items such as knives, which is good. The kitchen items I am always having terrible trouble with, breaking them quicker than cricket ball going through a glass window, are mainly toasters and, my dreaded kitchen 'nemesis', the humble water boiling device that is called the kettle.
So over the years I have owned, used and broke more kettles than Harrod's shop has sold, which has cost me a small fortune trying to keep my household happy with that fresh cup of tea and coffee, or even those dodgy cappuccino's that taste like powdered paint with a dash of sugar.
I have tried out many brands, Bosch to Breville, Morphy Richards to Swan and even a certain shops own brand, which turned out to be as reliable as a politicians promise. I also tried out a certain sleek looking kettle with a very well known brand on it which I hoped would last longer than I was used to. That brand was the famous Russell Hobbs one with the actual Kettle being the 18267 Regency.


What does it look like then..?

As I said it is pretty sleek, for a kettle, with its lovely 'brushed' stainless steel look to it and a solid black plastic handle which can be easily grabbed and comfortably held, then there's a water indicator level behind a clear plastic window which runs down the side.
As for the size it is 220mm deep, 166mm wide, 260mm high and weighs in at a mere 1.25kg, holding a maximum of 1.7litres of water.
The lid, which slopes slightly forwards, pops open with the push of the button on the upper section of the handle.
The handle is black moulded plastic and feels solid in the hand, with a well placed thumb support near the top to give that extra firm grip.
Then there's the spout, which isn't the biggest, in fact it's pretty slim really, so the easiest way to actually fill the kettle is buy actually lifting the lid.

And finally there's the base which the kettle sits on and lets it become a cordless kettle. This base is circular with a little 'nobble' sticking out of the middle which the kettle sits on and gets its power from.
The kettle can then spin a full 360° which makes it capable of being lifted by either hand without any wires or snagging getting in the way.
The mains cable is quite a good length and can be wound around the underside of the base so that you only need to release the right length you need.


What about working it then..?
Well, it has one sole purpose in life, that is to boil water, and to do this you just press the little clear plastic switch which lies just below the handle. This then sets the thing in motion and, due to the 3kw of power, the kettle comes to the boil faster than a rabbit being chased by a whippet.
During the boiling process you can actually see the water as it bubbles away when you look through the good size clear water indicator.
The element is what they call 'hidden', which basically means that it is hidden underneath a metal sheet in the bottom of the kettle so that you can't see it.

NOTE:
For safety it does have a 'boil dry cut off switch which means that it will cut out if there is no water inside the kettle or, in the way mine went, the water boils away as the steam escapes from every orifice so that the kettle doesn't switch off automatically.

CAUTION...
Do show caution as the casing gets very hot indeed and if you touch it you will get very sore fingers, which can be painful, believe me. But as the handle is well constructed and a great size there's no real problem with picking it up and scorching your knuckles.


My Opinion...

This was a fine kettle in its opening days and did do me a fair few months of water boiling, but once it started to go wrong it went downhill fast, almost as fast as when I physically threw it right down my garden in a fit of temper.

When it worked it worked well, bringing a full kettle of water to the boil in a couple of minutes, then keeping the water slightly heated so as to continue in its speedy boiling technique.
But, as with all new kettle, the initial metallic taste was as horrid as ever, lasting for quite a few full 'boils' indeed.

I do have to say that when it begins to boil you'll know about it because of the noise it makes, which does get a bit load, although not that excessive but I did have to raise my voice if I'm talking to someone in the kitchen.


Sadly though, when it started to fail on me, as I said, it failed fast.
Firstly I found was that the filter itself just began to not sit right at all, seeming to be too much of a gap near the bottom of it. This would allow limescale passed the filter which, in some areas of the country could make your brew a bit 'nasty' tasting.
Then, after a while, it seemed to be taking a bit too long to actually stop boiling, but with a bit of fiddling with the filter, basically pushing it further into the kettle so the gap corrected itself, the kettle cut off kicked in. Although after to many filter pushes the kettle decided to actually continues boiling for what seemed like forever, in fact, if I hadn't turned it off, it would have boiled forever, which, for a kettle like this, is not too good at all. That's why I ended up getting shut of this one and grabbing myself another.
Then I noticed that the steam was actually coming out of the lid area itself a lot more than it used to, and not just the spout, which I thought wasn't right at all, and was more than likely the reason for the kettle not automatically switching off when it was boiling. But when the actual lid began to push out of its housing when the kettle boiled I realised that it was time to call it a day and buy myself another kettle, but this I was quite used to by know as, in my life, even the most sturdiest of kettle just doesn't seem to last in my house.

As for the price, well, I think I paid about £30.00 for this when I bought it a while ago which, for the quality and speed of the way it worked wasn't too bad at all. But for the time it lasted me I can't honestly say that I'm that impressed at all.
But as I said, for some reason I have always had this uncanny ability to break kettles by just looking at it whilst it is still on the shelf in the shops.


© Blissman70 2012