==TESCO JKL09 ILLUMINATING BRUSHED STAINLESS STEEL JUG KETTLE==

Early last year, 2010 my kettle packed up and so had to get another one. It was my wish then to upgrade but still staying within my budget. The good thing is that Tesco super stores have quite a selection of kettles so I combined the kettle hunting with my weekly shopping at my local Tesco. I decided to go for a metal version since my previous one was plastic. After some deliberation, I settled for the JKL09 model which good looking and within my budget as well.


==KEY FEATURES==

According to the manufacturer the kettle:

Is Cordless, has a Lime scale filter and Water level indicator and is a Rapid boil kettle (boils water quickly).


==MY OPINION==

==Visibility and Packaging==

The kettle comes in a box and is well illustrated with pictures which resemble the actual kettle in the box. The packaging is basic but good with all the safety and sturdy features to ensure the contents don't fall out whilst maintaining easy opening of the packaging.

The user manual is enclosed in the box with the kettle and is really for reference only as no assembly is required, once unpacked, the kettle is ready to use.


==Availability and Price==

Available from Tesco superstores and Tesco direct
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.207-7301.aspx

Got mine at that time for around £18.00 and double club card points as well at the time.


==Ease of use, Performance and Safety==

The kettle is fairly presentable. The main body is predominantly metal, brushed stainless steel with black plastic base, handle and lid. An oval shaped clear plastic water level indicator for clear visibility is located on both sides of the kettle. This is ok as it caters for both right and left hand people. The illuminator light illuminates blue when heated up. The on/off switch is located on the handle and is quite a convenient size, and easy to use. The lid is opened by pressing a black round button located on top of the lid. My experience with this kettle after a while this button sometimes jams and opening the lid becomes a bit of a fiddling business.


The kettles capacity is 1.7 litres which seems to be a standard size for most kettles. Inside the kettle has a lime scale filter, which seems standard with all jug kettles, has a hidden element which is good for the efficiency of the kettle. This very different from my previous plastic kettle which had an exposed element and with time lime scale deposits accumulated on the element. This resulted in reduced efficiency of the kettle and increasing the time it takes for the water to boil. The illuminating kettle is fairly easy to clean as there are no protruding bits inside. A hidden element is therefore ideal in this case.

The kettle boils up quite quickly but produces a bit of noise which is not as annoying as other kettles. The base stand allows the kettle to be rotated 360 degrees (360 degrees base), which is handy because it means you can slot the kettle over the base from any angle and it will still work.


**The main hazard I found on this kettle was the malfunctioning of the lid. The lid is supposed to stay closed while the water is heating up and once the water has boiled with the lid still closed, the kettle automatically switches off. This is a build in mechanism with a lot of the jug kettles. The problem I had with mine was that the lid at times would pop open so the kettle would continue boiling forever as the mechanism to switch off the kettle would not work with the lid open. On one occasion, I found my kitchen all steamed up as the kettle was just boiling nonstop and at that point the water level in the kettle was a bit low as well as the water was also evaporating, very dangerous indeed! After that occasion I really used to press the lid really hard just to make sure it was properly closed. This worked once in a while but didn't solve the problem. I also had to explain the tricks with this kettle to the other family members who seemed to be ok for a while but afterwards everyone just got fed up with this malfunctioning lid and we had to get a new kettle.

The kettle was more than a year old and I had also lost the receipt so there was no plausible recourse to Tesco on this one.


==SUMMARY==

This kettle needs to be massively improved as it is a safety hazard. I noticed recently on Tesco Direct that the Product has been discontinued but I have also seen the kettle in my local Tesco.
Manufacturer may have finally accepted the deficits on this kettle.

My rating for this kettle is 2 stars out of 5 and I would not recommend it to anyone.


Thank you for reading and rating.

© hildah11 Dec 2011