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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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
150 of 154 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
New tea snob in the making thanks to this excellent kettle,
By
This review is from: Breville BKE820XL Variable-Temperature 1.8-Liter Kettle (Kitchen)
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).
282 of 325 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
The viewing window and lid are polycarbonate,
By Mama G (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Breville BKE820XL Variable-Temperature 1.8-Liter Kettle (Kitchen)
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.
31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Plastic parts leach chemicals into water,
By A. Thompson (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Breville BKE820XL Variable-Temperature 1.8-Liter Kettle (Kitchen)
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.
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