Customer Reviews

Hamilton Beach 40870 10 Cup Electric Kettle - Stai Kitchen

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Researched electric kettles no end without finding a good buy with good performance. Picked this one up at Costco, trusting in the return policy.

I've had no thought of returning it: Heats fast, and the hot water has no taste or smell. Base is light but stays put--it's no effort at all to set it on the base or lift it off.

Cons:

* The metal outside gets hot. Fortunately, you have no reason to touch it. The handle is large and comfortable and your knuckles are protected from accidental brushes, so the heat of the metal is not likely to matter.

* The trigger on the top of the handle opens the lid. A minor annoyance: this usually flings a few droplets of water about. If you use the trigger to open the lid just after boiling, though, those droplets will be very hot. Fortunately, there's no reason to do this unless you're starting another kettle-full just after finishing one. When you're pouring normally, you'll be pouring through the spout and the top needn't be open.

So after spending a little over a week searching for a suitable kettle I have definitely found the perfect match. I recently received a 6 cup teapot and wanted to keep it in my room along with an electric kettle to replace going into the kitchen and brewing cup after cup of tea.

My criteria
- Stainless steel with as little plastic contact as possible.
- Hidden heating element.
- Simple functions, the less bells and whistles the less to break
- Good spout
- Inexpensively priced.

What I like about this kettle:
- It met all my criteria.
- After brewing and discarding 4 kettle fulls there is no discernible aftertaste.
- No plastic contact inside, there is a plastic water level but it isn't in direct contact with the largest body of water in the kettle. Also, the tube for the boiling shut off is made from stainless as well, not plastic which is really nice.
- Is real metal not just plasticy coated metal imitator I saw on a few of the models.
- The inside bottom is a stainless plate with the heating element underneath making clean up easy.
- The outside bottom is plastic and gets warm not burning hot so it can be placed onto a surface.
- Slides onto the base easily.
- Auto shutoff works well.

What worries me: I say worries because it isn't a problem right now but may be a few months down the line.
- The lid opens with a button which if it breaks could potentially be a problem, not to fill the kettle as the spout provides adequate room to fill it with, but to clean it.
- After two brews i took the little filter out. I am using it only to heat water and only with filtered water so to me it seems unnecessary.
- The switch at the bottom, it doesn't seem flimsy per say but it does seem to be a little loose, its not a push button so I worry it may give out.

Duh, or common sense things that people seem to have an issue with:
- It gets hot. Yes. It's supposed to. Since the body is stainless steel, which is a good conductor of heat, it will be hot. The handle provides ample room to grab though.
- It will be heavy if completely full. Yes, water in larger amounts does get heavy. The kettle itself isn't much heaver than a standard coffee carafe so it should not add much to the overall weight.
- It can be a bit loud. Its boiling water, the kettle doesn't have any sound or heat insulation so yes you will be able to hear it. Honestly for me its not really a bother. The kettle sits on its own table next to my desk and I find it kind of soothing. Plus if I am heating water for green tea or white tea I can listen in and shut it off before it comes full boil.
- Along those lines, if you leave water in it for some time yes the water will cool. It is not a warmer nor is it a thermos that will keep it to the same temperature all day.

Overall:
I am very satisfied with this product. I have already recommended it to several people and it has been serving me well. Its not a fancy appliance so it does its job and doesn't require a tremendous effort on my part which was exactly what I was looking for.

I bought one from Costco. It works perfect. There is no rubber smell. I have a very sensitive nose when drinking my earl grey tea. Performance so far is just as good as the Cuisine Art that we keep upstairs which tends to break down after a year of use. We will see which one will lasts longer without breaking down.

In fact, I picked this up from Cosco today, sure that once I got it home and used it, I would be just as disappointed in the smell and tainted water as I have been with the last 9 Chinese-made electric cordless kettles with top brand names. And I knew I could then march it back to Cosco for a full refund ($19.99). So far, so good. Light stainless, nothing elegant or expensive about this, but as long as my water makes an untainted ccup of tea I'll be impressed & happy.

After lots of research, I opted for this one. I drink hot tea every day and wanted an easy and safe way to make hot water, without using the microwave or turning on the stove. This electric kettle did the trick!

PROS:
- Kettle can be removed from heating base and carried around.
- Wide, sturdy handle for easy carrying and pouring.
- Very minimal if any dripping while pouring, really great pouring design.
- Heats water very fast.
- Automatic shut-off once water reaches a boil, very nice feature.
- Very simple switch for on/off and red indicator light tells you it is in the process of heating.
- Minimal plastic, mostly stainless steel parts that touch the water.
- Metal mesh filter inside pouring spout to catch mineral deposits. I don't really have a need for it, but some might. Can be removed.
- Kettle can be placed at any spot on heating base, no need to line anything up.
- Heating portions are internal to reduce corrosion and damage.
- Boil-dry prevention; it won't allow the unit to turn on the heating element if it detects kettle is empty.

CONS:
- Measuring indicator is behind handle, so not the easiest to read while holding.
- Product guide states minimum water to boil should be no less than one liter. This is excessive for some of my uses, but not a big deal.
- Uses a lot of power fast to quickly heat up that amount of water, actually tripped the breaker!
- Lid is spring-loaded so when you push the button, it flings open and if the water is hot, it will fly back on your hand or arm. Though there is no real reason to open the kettle up when it has boiling hot water in it, it could be dangerous especially for kids.
- Small opening makes it more difficult to clean, though you aren't to put anything other than water in it so only minimal cleaning is required.

OTHER
Noise: You can hear the kettle heating the water, and it sounds much like a kettle on a stove. There isn't a whistle, but you can hear the water boiling. When it shuts off, there is a 'click' as the switch flips off. I like that, lets me know it is done.

Heavy: Remember, the more water is in it, the heavier it will be. You can't touch anywhere but the handle because it is too hot (and stays hot for awhile). The handle is sturdy and thick enough to pick up the kettle, but if you have weak hand/wrists and it is full, BE CAREFUL. Use a potholder if you need to touch the other side for balance.

Overall: I'm happy with my purchase. You can easily spend a lot of money on an electric tea kettle, but I don't see the need to, this one from Hamilton Beach does a fine job.

I've had this for about a week now, so I can't say anything about longevity, but I just wanted to point out that you can boil less than the minimum amount of water, and it seems to work fine. The heating element is on the bottom, which is flat, so as long as you have enough water to cover the entire bottom it should be OK. I've been boiling as little as one cup at a time (my morning routine), and it boils quickly and shuts off automatically as usual. No signs of overheating or malfunction from doing this, that I can detect.

Also, to the people complaining that the top flicks hot water on them when they open it while the kettle is hot... just put a finger on the lid when you release it, so it doesn't flick back at you! Not so hard.. :)

This kettle is pretty bad. I'm returning mine after less than a month of use because the filter screen on the pour spout is already rusting out. Why anybody would make component out of steel that is in constant contact with water is entirely beyond me. Beyond this, there are quite a few flaws that put this kettle many pegs below my old Braun kettle (which has been in service for 6 years, but has been relegated to office use):

* The outside of the kettle is thin, uninsulated metal. Heat escapes almost immediately, since it's essentially a giant heat sink. Plus, it's pretty easy to burn yourself. This is forgivable, since a stovetop kettle would suffer from the same problem.
* What an awkward place for an on/off switch! Why put it in the inch-high space between the counter and the handle, and only centimeters from the boiling-hot steel surface?
* Opening the lid splashes hot water back towards your hand. I burn myself nearly every time I use the thing. When making coffee or green tea, I like to make sure that the water isn't too hot for the beverage by waiting for the bubbles to subside. Since there's no window into the kettle, I have no choice but to open the lid for a visual inspection.
* The power indicator is only on one side of the kettle. This is minor, but it's a little annoying to have to remember to align the kettle in order to see if it's still on or already finished.
* It's slow. I haven't timed it, but it takes a long time to boil water compared to my older kettle, or even the stove.
* You are supposed to boil a minimum of 1.0L of water (the gauge doesn't go any lower than this). This is especially annoying since it takes so long to heat up the additional unneeded water.
* It had a really bad chemical smell at first. I noticed other reviewers commenting on the lack of smell, so it may be a manufacturing issue. The smell mostly went away after a dozen cycles or so.
* The gauge is in liters. As an engineer, I'm a big fan of metric, but it's a little obnoxious in my kitchen since nearly everything is measured in ounces/cups.

Most of these sound like nitpicks (and they are), but they are quite annoying after having a kettle that suffered from none of these issues. I would highly recommend spending a few extra dollars for something nicer.

Bought this at a warehouse store and while the price was great, the design is awful when you analyze it.

(-) The unit is quick to boil but boils on full boil markedly longer than my Krups unit. Will this be a problem in the future?...

(-) The scale filter (which pops off too easily int the water!!), measure meter inside and lid is also plastic. If you have health concerns on "Made in Chine" plastics (as MANY kettle consumers do!), this stainless steel/plastic hybrid is not for you.

(-) The flimsy lid is too small so you can't clean it easily.

(-) The steel is uninsulated so you'll BURN your hand quite easily if you touch it.

(-) The teeny little dot of a light failed after Day 1.

(-) The bottom base is flimsy and doesn't secure the unit too well.

(-) The springy lid pops back open with force so hot water can scald you if you aren't paying attention.

For the price I paid for it, I can't complain, but I'm returning it as it's not soundly designed compared to my old soundly designed German Krups kettle.

If you're a college student with little dough, maybe you can live with its shortcomings but the plastic stuff touching the water in one way or another leads me to search elsewhere.

I wanted to get a kettle but couldn't decide whether I wanted something for the stovetop or something that sat on the counter. Finally, ended up picking this item up because it was stainless, operated at 1500 watts, and held a large amount of water. Plus, the unit is portable, so you can use it outside the kitchen.

So far, I have no real concerns. I do concur with one other reviewer that flipping the top open after boiling will cause hot droplets to leap from the top, but I only did that because I was breaking in the pot by boiling consecutive pots of water. A liter of water took about 4 mins, 1.7 liters took about 8 mins. Don't know if that's good or bad. I know I can microwave a cup of water in about 1.5 mins.

Can't really compare the speed to other electric kettles. No worries about plastic taste which I read in reviews of other products. I would note that there's no signal (i.e., whistle or bell) to let you know the cycle is complete. While you won't have to worry about leaving the water boiling, thanks to the auto shut off, you will have to remember that you did boil water.

This product is particularly poorly designed. We ordered it last week, and within an hour we had repacked it for return. The kettle is poorly balanced - it gets too front-heavy when filled with water. Combine that with a poorly designed handle and you've got a kettle that's actually hard to pick up. The handle is way too thick for easy grasp. The hand they show on the cover holding the kettle was either from Photo Shop or a 6'3'' person. For a normal person, it is hard to get your hand around the handle, there are no grooves for easy grasping and the texture of the handle is smooth, so again hard to hold when filled with water. The "water level window" is not a really a window - it only starts measuring water when you have 1 liter of water. So until the kettle is very full, the window doesn't register anything. If you're only boiling for 1-2 cups of tea, there is no measuring at all and you have no idea how much water you've got in there. Poor design!! We ordered it because we wanted to replace our old plastic Melitta Express Kettle with a good stainless steel kettle. But this was not the one! At least on our Melitta we could see any water level through a clear window and it was easy to pick up. Frankly, we don't understand how this Hamilton Beach model is a "bestseller." Maybe there are more 6'3'' people out there who like to do weight lifing than we are aware of.