Steamy activities in my kitchen (Breville Lightning Kettle)

Member Name: freediveheaven

Product:	Breville Lightning Kettle
Date:	17/09/06 (451 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast and looks good in operation

Disadvantages: Water marks on the opaque section.

After a number of year my once immaculately white kettle was beginning to look like it belonged on a building site and as it was a hand me down that I have had ten years of service from I could not really complain so I decided to use some of my hard earned Amazon vouchers to buy a stylish funky little model and to get a kettle at the same time.

The Breville Lightning electric kettle certainly looked the part in the pictures and when I got it out of the box I was very pleased with my choice. Now I do not use my kettle much so I wanted something that did the job but more importantly looked cool and initially I was impressed. I opted for the stainless steel body colour, rather than the white one in the picture, and the kettle has a stylish ergonomically designed handle with a black rubber grip. There is an opaque plastic section underneath the handle with black markings on which allows you to see the water boiling and also the water level. It is marked off indicating the number of cups each water level will deliver and naturally there is an upper marker which you should not exceed otherwise water may splash out of the spout when boiling temperature is reached. The kettle sits on a round base of the same colour within which is wound the plug flex.

The really stylish feature of this kettle though is the fact that when you switch the kettle on the opaque plastic lights up a rather attractive blue colour which was for me the reason I got it. Not while it is boiling the kettle looks really cool however my only fault with this is that when it is not in operation and the blue light is not illuminated the water marks are clearly visible on the plastic section and it looks a bit messy. To be honest it is one of those kettles best hidden away until it is time to use it and then produce it with a flourish, flashing lights and all.

In terms of operation this kettle is the bees knees, it is a little loud when it is in full swing but it certainly lives up to its name in the speed that it heats the water. The kettle holds an impressive 1.7 litre of water and the fast boil 3000w element will have that bubbling away in no time at all. The element is concealed and easy to clean although so far I have not needed to do this as I have only had it a few weeks and it does not get that much use.

The other feature that I really like is that fact that it has a stay warm button which when operated will keep the heat of the water at a constant temperature of about 77 degrees according to the manual. This is ideal for those lazy Sunday mornings spent with the newspaper sipping a hot drink and means that you are not constantly having to turn the kettle on and off as it works really well. There is a small light illuminated on the top of the kettle when you select this option.

The kettle will rotate a full 360 degrees on the base allowing operation with either hand without having to reach across yourself and it comes fitted with a removable anti scale filter which in an area like mine is a necessity. It is easy to fill the kettle either through the spout or if you prefer the lid which is button activated.

The kettle has a number of safety features, it has a boil dry fail safe device in case the automatic shut off does not work when it reached boiling temperature and there is a manual off button as well. Also should the kettle be removed from the base accidentally without being switched off there is an automatic switch off function that comes into operation.

I paid £38.99 for my kettle from Amazon however I may have got the last one as they no longer stock it.

I would certainly recommend this kettle for its ease of operation and the fact that it works so fast however my only disappointment is that it looks a lot better when it is in operation than it does when it is standing idle.

Breville
Pulse Home Products Ltd
Middleton Road
Oldham OL2 5LN

Thanks for reading and rating my review.

Summary: Good kettle with some stylish features.