I have a friend who doesn't own a kettle; a strange but true state of affairs and I can, to a point, see her reasoning.   She doesn't drink hot drinks, makes the most wonderful gravy in a pan on the hob and lives directly opposite an excellent cafe where she pops for a take away tea for her visitors. She doesn't need a kettle. However, when she asked me to spend a few nights with her I was adamant I wasn't going to traipse to the cafe for my morning cuppa, and equally I wouldn't expect her to do it for me as she has her own health problems that prevent her being very active in the mornings.

I decided to take a kettle with me so bought this Tesco Value cordless jug kettle on one of my shopping trips - costing just under £7 I reasoned that if she gave it to the charity shop immediately after I'd gone it wouldn't matter as it was so cheap. However, it didn't even get to that stage as after using it over the long weekend I was so disappointed I returned it to the customer services desk of my local Tesco, for a refund as the last thing I wanted was another of these appalling kettles!

It is available in white and aesthetically, while its never going to win any design awards, it is a reasonably attractive kettle. It has a rather more squat appearance and looks decidedly shorter in comparison to the kettle I have at home, it will hold 1.7 litres of water and has a thick 'window' running up the height of the kettle to enable me to check how much water I have poured into it.  Unfortunately this window filled with condensation after my first use of the kettle and therefore it has been rendered useless, as this condensation refused to clear even after the kettle had sat unused overnight.

The kettle boils relatively quickly considering the very low price, I am not terribly impressed with the boiling aspect however for reasons I will explain. The problem is that this kettle boils extremely loudly and at the end of the boiling cycle this becomes so loud that conversation is restricted if you are standing near the appliance. This isn't really too much of a problem, but I feel the kettle doesn't boil water thoroughly, despite the fact that it sounds like it is doing a good job. As boiling point is neared I can hear it reaching a 'rolling boil' but when I come to make my tea with this water I find my drink isn't as fresh or clean tasting as when I use my own kettle.

I'm not sure why this is, surely water is either boiling or it's not, but I can tell that although there are copious amounts of steam and the water is audibly boiling it does not produce an adequate boil for a fresh cup of tea. It's very strange, and not a situation I have ever encountered before in my sixty years of kettle use.

On other matters, the kettle fits snugly on the base and is easily to fill either through the spout or the hinged lid which opens to a fairly wide angle. The white design means it would not look out of place in any kitchen and I feel it has a much crisper, cleaner appearance than the colourful kettles that are so fashionable these days. The power lead is adequate at just under 1 metre, there is unfortunately no cord storage facility on the base so be prepared for a swirl of cord on your worktop unless you happen to place your kettle further away from the plug socket.

Another thing I wasn't terribly happy about was the fact that the sides of the kettle become incredibly hot while it's in use, dangerously hot in fact. This sounds like I am exaggerating, but after boiling the kettle twice in a row the plastic sides actually felt slightly softer - this could, of course, be all in my mind but there was a definite (if subtle) change in the rigidity of the plastic which I did not like at all.

Even at the extremely low price I cannot recommend this kettle, it is very poor quality and really kettles aren't so expensive these days so you are not saving a huge amount anyway. The only impressive aspect for me is the fact that it pours beautifully with a smooth and dribble free flow, although personally the negative points were far too numerous for me to have wanted to keep the kettle.