Customer Reviews

Braun WK200B AquaExpress Electric Water Kettle

5 star:		(105)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Before ordering this item, I spent half a day reading just about every single review of every electric kettle on Amazon.com. Why? Because my husband HATES change and will look for any excuse to decide he hates something I've bought.

This is the first electric water kettle I've ever bought, but we nearly burned down our house last month by accidentally leaving my beloved Chantal kettle boiling on the stove as we left the house for two hours. OOPS!

So I read every review and tried to anticipate his every concern. The Braun has a separate heating element, so you don't have to unplug the whole thing to tote the kettle to the faucet. The heating plate doesn't require you to position it "just so" to work. The lid opens fully for ease of filling. There is an on/off switch and the all-important "boil-dry" auto-off feature.

The first thing my husband did was check to see how easy it was to pour hot water from a full kettle without spilling or splashing ... it passed with flying colors! In fact, he hasn't been able to come up with a single complaint about this kettle.

I like the fact that it boils water much faster than a kettle on the stove, and that it turns off once the water reaches a full boil. I even over-filled the pot a bit the first time, but no boiling water splashed out.

If Mr. Picky likes it, you probably will, too!

This kettle is attractive and well thought out. The swivel base is handy for left and right-handed households. Also, the two-sided power light and water level indicators allow you to put the kettle in different positions on the counter. Bought this and returned a cheap West Bend model after 2 days.

I owned this in Amsterdam. I promised myself, when back in the States, to get the exact one. I've had the US version for almost 2 years and I can't imagine not having one.
It is just as easy for left handed as for right handed people.
Easy to fill, clean and pour.
Boils in a snap!

I saw something like this in Ireland at a Bed and Breakfast where they were making tea. I couldn't believe how fast it boiled water. Then, I recently saw this item here in the U.S. and thought it would be perfect for my mother-in-law who loves tea made with boiling hot water. I think she was a little skeptical at first but was amazed that it boiled about 2 cups in about 2 minutes. The automatic shut off is great. And, if you aren't ready for your tea just when it boils, it will shut off, you can leave it and then when you are ready, it boils up again in just seconds. She also loves that it is cordless so that she can fill it up and wash it easily without having to worry about the cord.

Boiling water seems like such a menial task, and yet is can be annoying when you want hot water and have to stand there waiting for it. Whether you have a kettle on the stove or a cup of water in the microwave, it seems like it just drains precious minutes out of your day. Sure, you could put a kettle on the stove and walk away to do something else, but you still have to be on standbye to run and shut it off when it starts to boil/whistle. The answer; use an electric water kettle, which will boil water in just minutes and will shut off automatically. However, after trying several different makes and models of electric kettles, it just seems like they are built of cheap quality materials. Sometimes they would not shut off when the water boiled. The paddle-style power switch broke right off of a few models. Most required that you add at least 2 or 3 cups of water or else the heating element would not be covered. And most of them gave a slightly tainted flavor to the water, adding a hint of plastic taste to my coffee and tea. We decided that we had to stop buying the inexpensive kettles and began searching for something that was quality built and would last.

Enter the Braun WK200 series AquaExpress Electric Water Kettle. I didn't even know that Braun made electric water kettles until finding this model here on Amazon. I read a plethora of rave reviews for this kettle and decided to give it a try. Sure, it had a rather high price tag but most folks seemed to feel that it was worth the money.

I had our new Braun WK200B kettle setup in less than 5 minutes. The power base has built-in cord storage clips, so you only need to pull out as much cord as you need to reach the nearest outlet. Even fully extended the cord is rather short and extremely stiff. After cleaning out the kettle with warm, soapy water, I filled it to its maximum 7-cup mark, placed it on the base and hit the power switch. Within seconds the kettle started to make a hissing sound that indicated the water was heating up. Within just a few minutes the water was boiling and the kettle prompty shut itself off. The wide spout provides easy, splash-free pouring. The spout even has a small filter in it, to remove impurities from your water. After pouring out all of the water I was pleased to see that the heating element is fully concealed, which makes cleaning this kettle a snap. The element plate is also very low, which means you only have to put in a little over a cup of water in order to cover it. There is a handy water level window on both sides of the kettle, which makes it easy to see just how much water is in the device. There is also a red pilot light on both sides of the kettle, close to the base, which lets you know when the unit is heating water. There are two buttons atop the handle; one which is the power switch and the other is to pop open the top for filling the kettle. One of the handiest features is that the kettle can be placed on the base with the handle in any direction. That's right, you don't have to line anything up. There is a little nub in the center of the base unit that just pops into the center of the kettle underside, allowing the kettle to rotate a full 360 degrees. And of course the kettle has a 4-way shutoff feature, which powers the unit off when the water boils, if the unit is out of water, when the lid is opened, and when the kettle is lifted off from the base unit. This makes the Braun WK200 series AquaExpress one of the safest kettles on the market today. The unit is well balanced, even when full of water, and I have noticed that the water remains very hot inside the kettle for quite some time, well after the unit has shut itself off.

Although I have already mentioned some of these, here is a summary of features for the Braun WK200B AquaExpress Electric Water Kettle:

- 1500 watts
- 7 cup/1.6L Capacity
- Easy-Read Water Level Indicator Windows (both sides)
- On/Off Pilot Light (both sides)
- Easy Water Filling Through Spout
- Fully Concealed Internal Heating Element
- Four-Way Safety Switch Off (when dry, when boiling, when lid is opened, when lifted off base)
- Handy Cord Storage Under Base
- Washable Filter In Spout
- Extremely Easy To Clean
- Rated Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 11.4

My only real complaints about this model are with the power cord. It is very short (only 24 inches) and extremely thick and stiff. A slightly longer, much more flexible power cord would have made this electric kettle perfect in every way. One other thing to note is that the exterior of this kettle becomes very warm to the touch when water is fully heated. It will certainly not burn anyone but it is warmer than I expected from a non-metal type product like this. Still, all of these imperfections are minor compaired to the high build quality, fast performance, wonderful safety features, and stylish looks of this great product. Braun is known throughout the world as a manufacturer of high quality products, and the WK200B electric water kettle is no exception. I highly recommend this product to anyone that is looking for a safe, easy to use electric kettle that will save you the time and frustration of waiting for water to boil. Now you can just push a button and go about any other task, knowing that the kettle will safely shut itself off when the water begins to boil. I am definately glad that I stopped buying those cheap quality $20 kettles and bought my family the Braun WK200B. It was a wise investment and worth every penny.

This product broke within about 5 months of the purchase date, after rather light usage. Apparently the problem was with the heating element: the light would turn on, but the water would not heat. That in itself would not have been so terrible if I got it serviced, repaired, or replaced within some reasonable time. But the amount of time this process is taking, the constant phone calls we have to make to check on status, to complain, to explain our case over and over again, the apparent indifference of Braun service people, all that makes it a very unpleasant experience and makes the value of this $50 appliance highly questionable.

It took a week for them to find my shipment of the defective product (they said they had not been processing shipments for a week); it took the technician only a couple of hours to determine that it cannot be fixed and could only be replaced, but it's taking over one month now for them to initiate a replacement, and even that is taking numerous phone calls on my part.

Seems to me that if this was a good quality appliance which would break very infrequently, and if customer satisfaction was important to Braun, they would do something to expedite the shipment of the replacement, or at least would return my phone calls. Why not issue me credit so that I could go and buy the stupid thing myself?? Or, why not FedEx a replacement a few days after they had received the faulty appliance and identified the problem?

The only good thing is that I bought it on Amazon.com, so my receipt and the model number is always handy whenever I need to call Braun or Appliance Sales and Service (which happens quite often).

I don't think I'll buy another Braun product, or at least a Braun product in this category. (I said that to the Braun service people, they did not seem to care. They were very polite but they seemed to be reading off of a script).

Having moved to the US from the UK, I was worried about finding a decent rapid boil kettle, but once again, Braun came through with the goods.

I *love* this kettle and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I know it's more expensive than some of the other models on the market, but "you get what you pay for". I've bought cheap kettles in the past and have had to replace them every year, which makes it more expensive than splurging on the one really nice one.

I love Braun products and find them very reliable. I also have the professional stick blender - both from the UK and the US.

This was a Christmas gift, of sorts, and it gets used 5x daily. It is a GREAT gift, the next best thing to one of those hot water dispensers on the sink.

It is NOT insulated, though, so you will end up running it more often. However, it is so fast when it's half full, you don't even have the tea bag and honey out of the cupboard before it shuts off. OK, maybe not that fast.

My wife told me, "this is the best gift you've ever gotten me." I'm not sure how to take that, but I think it means she likes it a lot.

My problem was identical to the other complaint. My kettle's light would toggle on/off and would not operate after a few months of use. I was told by Braun to send in my defective kettle at my own cost. After 2 MONTHS of calling Braun and listening to their lame excuses, I have not received a replacement. I am simply disgusted by my experience with Braun and want others to know about Braun's despicable customer service. If anyone else has a similar Braun experience, I urge you to write about it to warn others NOT to buy Braun products.

Just got this unit and love it. Got sick of going back and forth to the microwave to heat water for my tea so decided to finally purchase and electric kettle to keep at my desk. After reading reviews I finally decided to pay a little extra to get this unit. Part of the reason for going with the more expensive unit was because my coworker had a cheaper one and stopped using it because it was so loud. When the water boiled the unit would vibrate and make a lot of noise as the water boiled. This unit does not have that problem. Item is sturdy and well made and pretty quiet. Another advantage of this unit is that there are no coils so cleaning is a cinch. This unit is very easy to use and I would definitely recommend it.