Customer Reviews

Chef's Choice M677SSG Cordless Electric Kettle-Stainless Steel Gray

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I grew up in Europe with electric kettles so I think I know what to expect. I had to return the M677, as it took too long to turn off. I called their customer service and they said it should take an average of 12 seconds to turn off. The average for mine to click off was 1 minute and 15 seconds (timed only after coming to a vigorous boil with steam escaping). It didn't matter if it was full or not. Only once did it click off in less than one minute. Once I came downstairs and it was still boiling away, I was not sure for how long it was boiling so I decided to return it.

Giving them the benefit of the doubt (their customer service was good - a real human picked up in a few seconds), I replaced it with a model M678 which is a little larger, and its average click off time is 35 seconds. It still feels like it's too slow to click off and most of the time I flick it up manually, but at least I feel I can trust it to turn off if I leave the room. (My old dead Russell Hobbs would have switched off in 15 seconds, but I can't seem to find them anymore in the US at least.) On the other hand, the exra boiling time does mean the water if very hot; I would often bring the Russell Hobbs to a second boil so it would be hotter!

The M678 is a bit wobbly on its base, and wobbles a bit when its boiling, but the M677 was stable. All in all, the kettles look good but feels cheaply made with inconsistent quality control. But after scouring all the other reviews, it seems like these models were the best of the bunch.

At least I could count on Amazon to take back a defective product without any hassle. I'm glad I bought from them and not another vendor now (Amazon even reimbursed the shipping, which I didn't expect).

I've owned this kettle for over five years now and have never had any problems with it. It's very portable. I constantly tote it back and forth from home to work.

I see only three shortcomings that keep this from being a GREAT kettle. Otherwise I have no serious complaints and would recommend this kettle.

The metal sides become very hot.

The cord's a bit finicky. It's hard to wind up out of the way, and once you do, it just unravels again.

The spout's overlarge. It's really easy to dump two cups of boiling water all over the place just trying to fill a small teacup. It's not so much a problem, as it is just plain annoying. You have to be really careful when filling smaller cups.

We have had this thing for most of a year now, and have used it every day to make a big pot of green tea. Here are some tips on doing that.

We bought a 2.2 liter pump thermos. Yes, this kettle is 1.7 liter, but wait. Every day we throw in 5 bags of green tea and a little less than a cup of cold water. Careful how you rip off the string so you don't open up the bags; we find that holding the staple between finger and thumb while pulling the string keeps the bag intact. We somewhat overfill this kettle (no sign of a problem ever) with water to the middle of the circle you'll see on the inside, bring that to a boil, and add it to the thermos.

With green tea you do *not* want to add boiling water, because it makes the tea bitter. But the bit of cold water you put in first brings the temperature down just enough, and adds enough volume that it fills the 2.2L container. That's one day of tea for the two of us -- imagine the antioxidants! Note that the tea darkens throughout the day, so that by the end it is more like oolong tea.

We have done this 200-300 times now, and all is well. This is hugely more convenient, and faster, than either heating water in a microwave or heating water on the stove. And it doesn't heat up the house like the stove does. We try to avoid ingesting foods/liquids heated in plastic, so stainless steel was a must for us even though it added a lot to the price.

Sounds like some other folks have had reliability problems -- it may be that heating full loads is the best case for kettles like this, since there's no chance of the element being exposed and overheating.

-- An update --

This thing is still going after several years. The only problem is that the button which opens the lid doesn't always work. It's no big deal -- I can just pull the lid up with my hand -- but of course it would be better if it just worked! :^)

Hi,

If you are like me and is considering purchasing this product so you don't boil water in any sort of plastic container, then beware:

Though this kettle is entirely stainless steel on the inside as well as the outside, there are two little holes on the inside, near the handle, where the water goes through for the water indicator. Unfortunately, these two holes are insulated (waterproofed) with some sort of rubber/soft plastic substance, and the water indicator itself is made out of plastic rather than glass.

Besides that, this kettle does its job very well and I think most of the other reviews already pointed out the goodness and flaws of it.

UPDATE 02/19/2010:
This kettle is still going strong and survived 2 house moves with no problems. Seems pretty durable. I found I actually wished it can boil more water than the 1.75L, as it is a very convenient kettle, and, of course, the outter shell being too hot during water boiling, like the other reviews mentioned.

I received my Chef's Choice M677SSG Cordless Electric Kettle-Stainless Steel Gray as a gift and have used it for almost two years at minimum daily and up to four times a day without any malfunctions (no boils overs except the first time I overfilled it and no lid problems at all).

I appreciate the automatic turnoff when the water is finished heating (no more forgetting the kettle on the stove). I clean it weekly with vinegar due to hard water, but otherwise the kettle requires no maintenance. About once a month, I clean the outside steel surface carefully with steel wool and voila, it looks like new. Features include a clear water level meter located on the kettle to ensure appropriate fill level; a mesh on the pour spout to filter mineral deposits; and the power cord attached to the base unit upon which the kettle sits instead of on the kettle.

Definitely one of my most useful and appreciated appliances.

I really liked ours, however, the heating element contacts do not seem to be heat resistant. This can be a problem when you want to use the kettle for heating water.

Even after a few months the heater contacts stopped working unless the pot was "clocked" just right relative to the base. Over time the range of locations that were "right" became narrower. Now, they just don't work. (And yes we did use and care for it according to the manual.)

I would say that it could be used for a cold water pitcher but the lid does not really open wide enough to fill with ice easily. In fact getting liquid water in can be a bit tricky.

I was seeking an electric kettle specifically without any plastic in contact with the heated water (due to dioxins released from heated plastics) and all the kettles at my local store were entirely plastic (drinking heated plastic steeped water everyday is insane! I can't believe these kinds of products are even sold.) So I came to amazon, found this (supposedly) stainless steel one which seemed generally liked and not too cheap, and lo and behold inside is a plastic bolt, leading to the outside water level gauge! What a brilliant piece of engineering! Ruin the entire design by tacking on a useless feature (I already know a good way of finding out the water level: LOOK INSIDE. Do I need to keep track of the water level as its boiling? Thank you thats very informative that the water level did not change the entire time the water was boiling. Here I'm pouring some out now, I am very curious to know whether the water level changed! (nameless epitath)). Now I am spending tomorrow at work lunch break TAKING THIS USELESS THING BACK and mailing it away, rather than drinking delicious invigorating tea. Thanks Chef's Choice International.

I have a simple but very practical stainless steel kettle that I use on a daily basis and love. Unfortunately, when I went to buy a second kettle for my office, I could not find it online. I saw this Chef's Choice kettle and it looked similar so I tried it, even though I thought the price was a bit high. Now I am sorry I did. While the unit does heat water fine, there are a couple of critical design flaws that are simply unacceptable in my view.

First, the handle, while looking kind of cool and curvy is not at all ergonomic. When you lift the kettle up the unit rotates down in your hand, as if it is trying to pour itself out. This is not so good when you are carrying a kettle of scalding hot water.

Second, the lid is made out of metal, which not surprisingly gets very hot after each use. If after one use you go to make a second pot, the only way to close the lid again is to push down on the hot metal. I kept thinking there must be some other way, but alas there was not. I wonder if the engineers every actually tested this product?

Finally, the unit just had an overall flimsy feel to it. It was hard to pinpoint, but it was apparent enough to lead me to decide to return the unit. If you are looking for a good electric kettle, keep looking. The only good thing about this kettle is how it looks. If you want something to sit on your kitchen counter, try it. But if you want to actually use it to make hot water, this is not the kettle for you.

The safety shut off valve does not work properly in the following way:

1) Pick the kettle off the base after it has started to steam, but before the safety valve has shut it off automatically (caused button to pop up).
2) Replace kettle on base.
3) Water starts to reboil but valve will not shut it off now.

I've tested this 3 times on my model and it always behaves the same way. This is unsafe. Also, the kettle looks and feels very cheaply made. I would absolutely not recommend it.

This kettle worked well, although noisily, for about nine months. Then it just quit. The indicator light would glow when turned on, but the water was ont heated. I would not buy this model again.