Customer Reviews

Chantal Stainless 1-4/5-Quart Swan Teakettle

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this after my enameled kettled rusted out and chipped on the inside. So I was looking for stainless, something with a handle that did not require a pot holder, and I was struck by the design of this kettle. It has a satin finish, a heavy handle, and a reinforced bottom that sits well on the burner. I am a big tea drinker so I use it a lot and admire its design. The problems: The whistle is soft and does not always work. It does not always work because the cover doesn't always fit well and steam escapes around it. Also once it boils and you want to put up some more water the cover doesn't always come off when the pot is hot. (My husband the industrial engineer says it has to do with the materials expanding with heat, etc.) It is very well made and elegant though.

Absolutely fantastic. I bought the Chantal Swan tea kettle yesterday and have spent the last day making up excuses to boil water just so I could use the thing. It's very stylish (I can see why it won the design award). The "stay cool" handle really does stay cool -- no need to use a potholder to pick the kettle up. And the whistle is great. It's a different whistle than in Chantal's higher priced "classic" tea kettle line but, in my opinion, it's MUCH better. The Swan whistle is slightly harmonic but not as loud or shrill as the whistle in Chantal's classic tea kettle.

Speaking of Chantal's classic tea kettle, that actually was the first kettle I bought yesterday. Terrible. The whistle was loud, shrill and annoying and the handle was much too hot to handle without a potholder. I exchanged it the same day for the Swan. Now I couldn't be happier.

Bonus: The Chantal classic kettle is $100 but the Swan is only $60. Save yourself $40 and get the better kettle.

One negative about the Swan is that it dribbles a bit of water out of the spout as the water boils. Not a big deal on my stove but this is why I gave it four stars instead of five. Nevertheless, I highly recommend the Swan kettle.

First the good points: the kettle is hefty stainless, it feels good and sturdy; the design is nice looking. Now the bad: the whistle is low toned, like a loooong tooooooot on a tugboat, but much-much-much softer, sometimes nearly inaudible; like a previous reviewer, mine drips from the spout when boiling; and the worst of it is you need two hands to pour - one to hold the handle, the other to lift the spout lid. With my old kettle the thumb of the hand holding the handle could push a lever and lift the pouring lid, while with this one the lever is too far away and you need to lift the pouring lid with your other hand. Also the lever is too near the escaping steam making for a hot thumb. I will be returning mine tomorrow.

On first day of use the whistle fell out of the spout. The plastic of the whistle had melted. Who knows what toxins were released? We're going back to $7 kettle and will return this to Macy's. It's pretty. But what a rip off!

I use my swan often. I adore the round design and sound of the tooting whistle blowing. At first I thought I heard an emergency alarm. Now I love the novel, soothing tones. The kettle is the perfect ornament to my kitchen. Surprisingly, it darkened slightly, but shines perfectly enough to catch the eye. When I need room on my stove, I can fit the kettle in tight spaces. Since I live in a tiny tony neighborhood, I love receiving compliments about my tiny teaball kettle. The only gripe I carry is about the lid. I have exchanged it numerous times because the metal strip adorning it falls off if the lid sticks (when cool) and smacks the handle. I've learned to be more careful, but the lid shouldn't be so easy to knock about. Nevertheless, I'm a loyal fan. I love the handle too. It doesn't burn your hands unless you make contact with the strip of metal, which isn't difficult to avoid.

I researched over fifty products online, and in my locale, from most expensive to run of the mill. Chantal's little kettle falls squarely in the right spot. The swan teakettle is a brilliant design and unique in the market of teakettles.

Great looking and seemed to be of high quality but out of the box there were problems that got worse over time: kettle leaked when the water boiled; it didn't whistle all of the time; due to the spherical design there is not a lot of flat surface for the bottom and on our gas stove it was often unstable until you adjusted it to sit 'just so'; the stainless stained and we could not get the stains out of the brushed surface; then lid started to fall apart after some time. In the end we asked to return it. I gave it two stars since the cost to quality/endurance ratio just was not very good in my opinion.

Love It:
Love the way it looks. Very cool. Looks great on my stainless steel cooktop.
Love the harmonic whistle tone.
Love the wide opening for refilling (if you use a water filter pitcher, this is important!)
Love how fast it heats up.
Love that the handle stays cool, no need for a pot holder (well, not for the handle anyway)

Hate it:
Hate how the hot water splashes when you open the spout. Condensation builds on the spout and "burps" out when opened.
Hate that you risk burning yourself to open the spout. The spout cover extends for your thumb to press on it, but even though the cover itself stays relatively cool to the touch the steam escaping the whistle holes is just below your thumb. Ouch! Must use a pot holder for safe opening.

Until it breaks I'll live with it. It was too expensive to throw away and it does look great. But I won't purchase again (bought on another site with no reviews, had I been smart enough to purchase on Amazon I would have known better! Lesson learned!).

We liked this kettle, but the whistle cap broke off fairly quickly and it does not appear that there is a replacement cap.

I purchased this Chantal Swan style kettle a few years ago, and I use it daily. Not long ago, I realized that the whistle was not working, and upon close inspection, realized that a pin holding the whistle top to the shaft was broken. I removed the black plastic whistle part by sliding it out of the metal spout, and found that the plastic interior of it was partially melted as well! Bad news from the manufacturer - they do not sell the replacement part any more, even though you can find it on their website. So, dear consumers, I cannot recommend this product. It's too much money to ride on a plastic part that's low quality and cannot be replaced, and they do not stand by their claim that "it will last forever" if they don't stock parts for older styles! It's also very difficult to clean the stainless exterior without a lot of scrubbing with a powder (Bartender's Best Friend works best) because the finish holds dirt and "carmelizes" it on the surface. I would recommend getting an enamel finish if you like your kettle to look shiny long after you've purchased it.

This is my second one because I burned the first one :) Can you say chic! I like it because it's chic, quick and it whistles. Have been a Swan Teakettle owner for two years.