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Product Description
Amazon.com Product Description
A great gift idea for that tea-lover on the list, this variable-temperature kettle brings water to the perfect brewing temperature for a variety of favorite beverages, including the four major types of teas and French press coffee. Simply fill the kettle with up to 2 quarts of water and return it to its 360-degree stainless-steel directional base. Then make a selection from its clearly marked push-button control panel. The kettle's five pre-set brewing temperatures include 175 degrees F (80 degrees C) for green tea, 185 degrees F (85 degrees C) for white tea, 195 degrees F (90 degrees C) for oolong tea, 200 degrees F (93 degrees C) for French press, and 212 degrees F (100 degrees C) for boiling water and making black tea. A "Hold Temp" button keeps the heated water at the selected temperature for 20 minutes, so it's ready for that second cup. For added convenience, the "Hold Temp" function can be activated anytime--before, during, or after reaching the chosen temperature. The unit comes equipped with a 1500-watt heating element for fast results, as well as boil-dry protection with auto shut-off to prevent the kettle from heating without water inside. Other highlights include a stay-cool easy-grip handle, a nondrip pour spout, clear water-level indicators on both sides of the kettle--great for left- and right-handed users, a removable scale filter, and brushed stainless-steel housing. Adding both style and function to any busy kitchen, the electric kettle measures 7-1/2 by 9-1/2 by 11 inches.
Product Description
The Variable Temperature kettle allows the user to heat water to specific temperatures that achieve perfect taste profiles for the four major types of teas and French press coffee. 5 Pre-set brewing temperatures include: 175F for Green Tea; 185F for White Tea; 195F for Oolong Tea; 200F for French Press: and 212F for boiling and black tea. The European stainless steel design make it a beautiful table statement.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
173 of 178 people found the following review helpful
I am relatively new to the tea scene (my wife and I started drinking Teavana teas about a year ago) and as such I have been searching for a really good kettle. I wanted an electric kettle because of their ease of use as well as the extra features some of the nicer kettles offer. After an exhaustive search I decided upon the Breville SK500XL Ikon Stainless-Steel Electric Kettle based in no small part to the excellent reviews it has received on Amazon and other sites.
I went to a few stores to examine it in person and compare it to about ten other electric kettles that the different stores carried but nothing seemed to come close to the design and quality of the Breville. So after finally making my decision, it was simply a matter of time before I made my purchase. I am very glad I waited as within 2 weeks this new Breville kettle was released. While still substantially costlier than the SK500XL, the BKE820XL has a number of features and design improvements that made the extra cost more than worth it. These include:
- Multiple temperature settings (different teas require different temperature water for an optimally brew) with 20 minute hold
- Improved water level indicators now on both sides (the single water level indicator on the SK500XL is behind the handle which makes it hard to read)
I've only had my BKE820XL a few days (I purchased it from a local store) so I cannot speak to its long term reliability yet, if it is anything like the SK500XL, I don't expect to have any problems.
Oh yeah, and the tea I've made in the last few days is easily the best I've ever brewed! Yay!
UPDATE 1/2/2009: I've had the BKE820XL for over a month now and I still love it! The only thing I've found that I would critique is:
- After you are done boiling water for the day, you need to either dry out the lid by hand or leave the lid open for a few hours to let the water evaporate (from the lid where it collects). I am concerned that not doing this might lead to issues down the road.
Even with that, I am still overjoyed with my purchase (which I use at least 5 times a week) and highly recommend it to anyone in search of a quality electric kettle.
UPDATE 3/12/2009 - Nothing much to report except that my wife and I are continuing to use our kettle mutliple times a week and are extremely happy with it. It has a permanent place on our counter! :)
UPDATE 09/26/2010 - Just wanted to pop on and provide a quick update. We have had this kettle almost 2 years now and have yet to have any issues with it (fingers crossed). We have used it at least once a week (if not a lot more) pretty much without fail and are still very happy with it. At this point if something were to go wrong with it, we wouldn't hesitate to purchase another one. Highly recommended. :)
UPDATE 09/30/2010 - A commenter chastised me a bit for not mentioning the BPA controversy in my review. As I mentioned in my reply to her, I would caution everyone to be sure to read the actual scientific papers or publications that are as unbiased as possible. I find a great source for all things scientific to be Arstechnica.com. They have a great way of breaking down complex topics in ways that non-scientific types (like myself) can really understand and absorb (see this BPA article as an example: [...]).
If you don't want to wait for a conclusive link between BPA and health issues (of which there has not been one to date that I am aware of), I can completely understand and sympathize. If I had an infant I would definitely be doing all I could to minimize their BPA intake. Still, with that said I would ask that anyone concerned by this or other health issues please try to represent the facts in your arguments and not the hype; this allows others to make their own, informed decisions as well.
UPDATE 09/04/2011 - We've had our Breville almost three years now and have yet to have any problems with it. Most of the negative reviews seem to be in regard to the potential BPA issue which I've already posted my opinion on (both above & in the comments to this review) however a few have mentioned actual mechanical issues. Perhaps they use theirs more than we do (we use ours at most once per day but probably more realistically about 3 to 4 times a week on average) or maybe they just received a lemon (or perhaps ours is the exception, I couldn't really tell you). I have noticed recently that the lid sometimes stays shut while the water is still hot; I don't know if it has always done this and I never noticed before or if it has recently started to do this, either way I look at it as a design element (to help keep me from spilling hot water on myself) but perhaps it is a design flaw? Regardless all I do is tap on the lid once or twice while pushing the button and it opens right up. Other than that it works just as well as the day we bought it (I still don't have a decent thermometer so I couldn't tell you how accurate it was new or used but the water still seems as hot...for whatever that is worth).
UPDATE 04/09/2012 - Well I am sad to report that, after almost 4 years of service, our Breville appears to be on its last legs. Over the last few months we've started to notice some faulty behavior that I suspect is indicative of our unit's impending death. Here are the issues that have started to plague our kettle:
- Kettle does not shut off at the proper temperature: this is happening more and more - we mostly use our kettle for coffee these days and I use the second highest setting (195 degrees) for our Chemex. The issue is the kettle doesn't always shut off at 195 degrees but will go to a full boil instead. I do not know if it would eventually shut itself off or if this is a true safety issue as I've always notice the issue right away. This is not a huge issue (provided the safety shutoff is still working, which is unknown) as much as an inconvience but it does not bode well for the kettle's future.
- For the first time this morning, the Breville shutoff prematurely. I turned the kettle on, set my temperature and the temperature hold and walked away. When I returned (less than 5 minutes later), the kettle had shut off and the water was nowhere close to the 195 degree that it was set to. I was unable to get the kettle to heat up the water to the 195 degree setting as it would (by the sound of it) start to heat up but then before the water was hot enough, it would shut off. The water never got to the correct temperature and the kettle never shut off. It seemed stuck in a repeating cycle. I eventually set the kettle to its highest setting (205 degrees) and the kettle started working again.
To me these issues seem to indicate that the kettle is having issues with its electronics and not with the actual heating unit itself (but obviously this is purely speculation on my part based on my anecdotal evidence). Being that this is the only "high end" kettle we've owned, I don't know if 3+ years is a normal or acceptable lifespan for a tool such as this. I know it only comes with a 1 year warranty but for the price, I had hoped it would last at least 5 to 10 years but perhaps that is unrealistic? Being that my wife and I are mostly coffee drinkers these days, we probably will replace this kettle with gooseneck spout type kettle (like this Bonavita: Bonavita 1.0L Electric Kettle BV3825B) instead of another Breville. Overall I'm still a fan of our kettle and will be sad to see it go.
I believe my original score of 5 stars still stands though I'd change it to a 4.5 if Amazon allowed 1/2 stars.
I went to a few stores to examine it in person and compare it to about ten other electric kettles that the different stores carried but nothing seemed to come close to the design and quality of the Breville. So after finally making my decision, it was simply a matter of time before I made my purchase. I am very glad I waited as within 2 weeks this new Breville kettle was released. While still substantially costlier than the SK500XL, the BKE820XL has a number of features and design improvements that made the extra cost more than worth it. These include:
- Multiple temperature settings (different teas require different temperature water for an optimally brew) with 20 minute hold
- Improved water level indicators now on both sides (the single water level indicator on the SK500XL is behind the handle which makes it hard to read)
I've only had my BKE820XL a few days (I purchased it from a local store) so I cannot speak to its long term reliability yet, if it is anything like the SK500XL, I don't expect to have any problems.
Oh yeah, and the tea I've made in the last few days is easily the best I've ever brewed! Yay!
UPDATE 1/2/2009: I've had the BKE820XL for over a month now and I still love it! The only thing I've found that I would critique is:
- After you are done boiling water for the day, you need to either dry out the lid by hand or leave the lid open for a few hours to let the water evaporate (from the lid where it collects). I am concerned that not doing this might lead to issues down the road.
Even with that, I am still overjoyed with my purchase (which I use at least 5 times a week) and highly recommend it to anyone in search of a quality electric kettle.
UPDATE 3/12/2009 - Nothing much to report except that my wife and I are continuing to use our kettle mutliple times a week and are extremely happy with it. It has a permanent place on our counter! :)
UPDATE 09/26/2010 - Just wanted to pop on and provide a quick update. We have had this kettle almost 2 years now and have yet to have any issues with it (fingers crossed). We have used it at least once a week (if not a lot more) pretty much without fail and are still very happy with it. At this point if something were to go wrong with it, we wouldn't hesitate to purchase another one. Highly recommended. :)
UPDATE 09/30/2010 - A commenter chastised me a bit for not mentioning the BPA controversy in my review. As I mentioned in my reply to her, I would caution everyone to be sure to read the actual scientific papers or publications that are as unbiased as possible. I find a great source for all things scientific to be Arstechnica.com. They have a great way of breaking down complex topics in ways that non-scientific types (like myself) can really understand and absorb (see this BPA article as an example: [...]).
If you don't want to wait for a conclusive link between BPA and health issues (of which there has not been one to date that I am aware of), I can completely understand and sympathize. If I had an infant I would definitely be doing all I could to minimize their BPA intake. Still, with that said I would ask that anyone concerned by this or other health issues please try to represent the facts in your arguments and not the hype; this allows others to make their own, informed decisions as well.
UPDATE 09/04/2011 - We've had our Breville almost three years now and have yet to have any problems with it. Most of the negative reviews seem to be in regard to the potential BPA issue which I've already posted my opinion on (both above & in the comments to this review) however a few have mentioned actual mechanical issues. Perhaps they use theirs more than we do (we use ours at most once per day but probably more realistically about 3 to 4 times a week on average) or maybe they just received a lemon (or perhaps ours is the exception, I couldn't really tell you). I have noticed recently that the lid sometimes stays shut while the water is still hot; I don't know if it has always done this and I never noticed before or if it has recently started to do this, either way I look at it as a design element (to help keep me from spilling hot water on myself) but perhaps it is a design flaw? Regardless all I do is tap on the lid once or twice while pushing the button and it opens right up. Other than that it works just as well as the day we bought it (I still don't have a decent thermometer so I couldn't tell you how accurate it was new or used but the water still seems as hot...for whatever that is worth).
UPDATE 04/09/2012 - Well I am sad to report that, after almost 4 years of service, our Breville appears to be on its last legs. Over the last few months we've started to notice some faulty behavior that I suspect is indicative of our unit's impending death. Here are the issues that have started to plague our kettle:
- Kettle does not shut off at the proper temperature: this is happening more and more - we mostly use our kettle for coffee these days and I use the second highest setting (195 degrees) for our Chemex. The issue is the kettle doesn't always shut off at 195 degrees but will go to a full boil instead. I do not know if it would eventually shut itself off or if this is a true safety issue as I've always notice the issue right away. This is not a huge issue (provided the safety shutoff is still working, which is unknown) as much as an inconvience but it does not bode well for the kettle's future.
- For the first time this morning, the Breville shutoff prematurely. I turned the kettle on, set my temperature and the temperature hold and walked away. When I returned (less than 5 minutes later), the kettle had shut off and the water was nowhere close to the 195 degree that it was set to. I was unable to get the kettle to heat up the water to the 195 degree setting as it would (by the sound of it) start to heat up but then before the water was hot enough, it would shut off. The water never got to the correct temperature and the kettle never shut off. It seemed stuck in a repeating cycle. I eventually set the kettle to its highest setting (205 degrees) and the kettle started working again.
To me these issues seem to indicate that the kettle is having issues with its electronics and not with the actual heating unit itself (but obviously this is purely speculation on my part based on my anecdotal evidence). Being that this is the only "high end" kettle we've owned, I don't know if 3+ years is a normal or acceptable lifespan for a tool such as this. I know it only comes with a 1 year warranty but for the price, I had hoped it would last at least 5 to 10 years but perhaps that is unrealistic? Being that my wife and I are mostly coffee drinkers these days, we probably will replace this kettle with gooseneck spout type kettle (like this Bonavita: Bonavita 1.0L Electric Kettle BV3825B) instead of another Breville. Overall I'm still a fan of our kettle and will be sad to see it go.
I believe my original score of 5 stars still stands though I'd change it to a 4.5 if Amazon allowed 1/2 stars.
315 of 362 people found the following review helpful
First, this kettle is gorgeous! I bought it for it's beauty and easy to use variable temperature and the fact it had a viewing window to easily see how much water was inside. Before I used it, I emailed Breville to find out what type of plastic the viewing window was made from. The response I received was a defensive email about how polycarbonate and BPA are safe for food contact and this kettle is safe. I've been reading the research on BPA and polycarbonate for years, so they didn't share anything new with me. I would have preferred their response to simply state "polycarbonate" and then offer to provide me with more information if I had any concerns.
Regardless, they weren't going to change my mind. I don't feel comfortable with polycarbonate around my boiling (or close to boiling) water and in this day and age where BPA is a huge uproar, I am super surprised that Breville came out with a brand new kettle containing polycarbonate. I would have loved to see this kettle have a glass viewing window and lid, that would have been super! Especially with the price point they are selling this at. Having it be a "toxin free" kettle with no plastic would have been a great marketing move.
I did reply and thank them for the information and politely told them I would be returning it due to the polycarbonate, but that if they came out with a version that had glass instead of polycarbonate, I'd snap it up in a second. I received no further reply from Breville.
Regardless, they weren't going to change my mind. I don't feel comfortable with polycarbonate around my boiling (or close to boiling) water and in this day and age where BPA is a huge uproar, I am super surprised that Breville came out with a brand new kettle containing polycarbonate. I would have loved to see this kettle have a glass viewing window and lid, that would have been super! Especially with the price point they are selling this at. Having it be a "toxin free" kettle with no plastic would have been a great marketing move.
I did reply and thank them for the information and politely told them I would be returning it due to the polycarbonate, but that if they came out with a version that had glass instead of polycarbonate, I'd snap it up in a second. I received no further reply from Breville.
45 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Despite the 1-star review, which I will get to in a moment, this Breville kettle gets 5 stars for performance and aesthetics, both of which are addressed in detail by others in their reviews, so I will not repeat. It gets 4 stars for durability - I have had the kettle for about 2 years and it still works great, however less than a year in, the inside bottom developed several dozen small white spots. I have tried more than once to remove these with baking soda but they persist (I never boil anything other than Brita-filtered water).
Now, why the 1 star? As some others have commented, Breville kettle uses plastic material for the water-level windows on both sides of the kettle - not BPA free. Even plastics that have no BPA still leach chemicals into water at boiling temperatures, so the use of plastic instead of glass in a kettle is truly not acceptable any more.
Here are some numbers, to support this potentially serious issue. I recently purchased ZeroWater Water Tester ZeroWater ZT-2 Electronic Water Tester, which measures the amount of dissolved particles in water (with very consistent and accurate results; highly recommended, may change your water drinking habits). We are fortunate to have relatively clean municipal water, its reading came in at 47 TDS (typical range in the U.S. is 51-200), which Brita pitcher gets down to 35 TDS. After boiling Brita-filtered water in this Breville kettle, the TDS reading went UP from 35 to 90 TDS! The same Brita-filtered water boiled on the stove in a non-stick pot went up from 35 to 43 (after boiling for 3 minutes). In a steel pot, the particles' reading went up from 35 to 47. The particles concentration goes up, in large part, due to evaporation of some of the water by steam, thus leaving a higher concentration of heavier (non-evaporating) particles in the pot.
I repeated the test a few days later. The absolute readings were +/- 3 from the above results, but the conclusion was still very much the same - using Breville kettle to boil water adds chemical particles to your drinking water. You have to decide for yourself - are the satisfying performance and stylish looks of this kettle worth adding significant unnecessary and potentially harmful plastic particles into your body.
Now, why the 1 star? As some others have commented, Breville kettle uses plastic material for the water-level windows on both sides of the kettle - not BPA free. Even plastics that have no BPA still leach chemicals into water at boiling temperatures, so the use of plastic instead of glass in a kettle is truly not acceptable any more.
Here are some numbers, to support this potentially serious issue. I recently purchased ZeroWater Water Tester ZeroWater ZT-2 Electronic Water Tester, which measures the amount of dissolved particles in water (with very consistent and accurate results; highly recommended, may change your water drinking habits). We are fortunate to have relatively clean municipal water, its reading came in at 47 TDS (typical range in the U.S. is 51-200), which Brita pitcher gets down to 35 TDS. After boiling Brita-filtered water in this Breville kettle, the TDS reading went UP from 35 to 90 TDS! The same Brita-filtered water boiled on the stove in a non-stick pot went up from 35 to 43 (after boiling for 3 minutes). In a steel pot, the particles' reading went up from 35 to 47. The particles concentration goes up, in large part, due to evaporation of some of the water by steam, thus leaving a higher concentration of heavier (non-evaporating) particles in the pot.
I repeated the test a few days later. The absolute readings were +/- 3 from the above results, but the conclusion was still very much the same - using Breville kettle to boil water adds chemical particles to your drinking water. You have to decide for yourself - are the satisfying performance and stylish looks of this kettle worth adding significant unnecessary and potentially harmful plastic particles into your body.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Pretty, but...
I have tried so many Tea Kettles and I finally splurged, convinced that Breville would get it right... Read more
Published 6 days ago by Susanne VetteMoseley
Easy to use. Lasted three years.
Since I make tea 5-10 times a day I liked the temperature controls, the swivel base, and the thumb-controlled lid; together they allowed the whole operation of filling it and... Read more
Published 12 days ago by Bob K.
Good Deal
This kettle has had some mixed reviews, but although it is somewhat complicated to understand, it does work very well. Read more
Published 1 month ago by JFM
Worked great for a while
This is an expensive pot that would be a good value - if it worked! I enjoyed using this for about a year, and I'm assuming most of these reviews are based on use for shorter... Read more
Published 1 month ago by D. DiPietro
Tea made Easy
I saw this kettle in a friend's house (she received it as a wedding gift) and instantly loved the idea of the various temperatures. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Nataliya N.
In pursuit of an electric kettle
Being English and a tea drinker i hate when the time comes to buy a new electric kettle, we seem to have more choices in the old country but to my surprise i have found a good... Read more
Published 2 months ago by katie
Almost the perfect kettle
This kettle is fantastic, beautiful design and does a great job of getting water to any temperature desired. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Señor Entertainment
Stopped and cannot be fixed
This kettle stopped working after two years and cannot be fixed. It does not turn off any more. And the whole base has to be replaced for 95 dollars. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mark B. Anstendig
Great kettle, high-end
This is a great kettle - best one I've found to date. If you drink a lot of tea, this is the one to have. Looks/feels very high-end.
Published 3 months ago by Brett
use everyday
I love this product! At first I wasn't sure I really needed the variable temperature options, but I do. Read more
Published 5 months ago by SKW
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