Hallelujah! Critical Mother-in-law APPROVED! I bought this electric tea kettle for my MIL to use when visiting, because during her last visit, I caught her microwaving water in a mug for FOUR MINUTES to make TEA! The mug cracked, of course. Her explanation for going overboard: MY water doesn't boil as hot as HER water. Yes, she's one of THOSE mother-in-laws. If that lady doesn't get her ritual morning tea and toast, it could be catastrophic for EVERYONE. I haven't been able to solve the mystery of why the same brands of butter, bread, and tea are inferior at my house (as opposed to hers), but surely I can get this lady some hot water for her tea without her or any unsuspecting soul getting blasted in the face by an exploding cup of water, when the microwave door is opened (the toaster is a story for a later date). She doesn't like stove kettles and it's just as well, because I have a glass stovetop built into my kitchen island. There'd be a fire when something got set on the hot burner that blends in with the countertop. I searched Amazon & thought about an electric kettle that was clear(so she could SEE the water was indeed boiling), but we already established that "boiling" doesn't mean anything to her- not to mention the spout looked like it could dribble. I finally decided on this kettle. It has various temperature setting buttons ranging from 180 degrees to 212. It even has recommended uses labeled under the according temp (180 for green tea and white tea, 195 for Oolong and airpress coffee, 200 for black tea or French press, 205 for herbal tea or pour overs, or the BIG GUN 212 for BOIL). Plus it has a "keep warm" setting. I thought MAYBE since it SAID only 200 degrees needed for her black tea...that MAYBE pushing that highest button "BOIL" might give her some satisfaction. Be warned, that if this is for a gift for someone in your own household, you will need to specify to "hide contents" at the gift option in checkout, because it came in its product packaging. It was packaged very well, very straightforward simple directions on one sheet of paper and in English, easy set up, very attractive design, easy to operate. Its all very well thought out. It's not complicated at all. Even my MIL had the patience to work it, and believe me, she'd find any excuse NOT to use it. She never griped once. It's a skinny spout that pours away from the side of the pot. Absolutely no dribbling, splashing, or lid coming off while pouring. The lid kind of snaps into place. It doesn't fall off at all but isn't difficult to purposefully TAKE off. It doesn't have a rubber seal or anything so you can't turn this thing upside-down, completely side-ways, or shake it wildly. I safely walked into living room to pour a "warm up" for someone's tea, and since the spout is a goose neck that starts out low but curves up almost to level of lid, and the max water fill line inside is a safe distance away from the top, there's not much worry about splashing out if held upright while walking across kitchen or whatever. I can easily pour this one-handed. It's a very gentle, directed, and SAFE pour without taking forever to fill your cup. It's so directed and precise that you could fill a soda bottle without spilling a drop. Outside of pot does get hot so must use handle. But it's lightweight and fits in the hand well. There's a "thumbprint grip" on handle, to help control. Simple to set back on top of the base- without having to look to see if anything is lined up, and no flat base for it to slip off of...you can tell when it's on because the piece that sticks up from the base is a couple inches in diameter and sticks up about an inch to fit inside the corresponding indentation on bottom of kettle. When pot is replaced you can just let it sit and it will eventually turn off, or you can push "keep warm" (holds temp for 30 mins)or choose a different temp, or turn off. The pot stays hot for a while so you could walk away for a while and it still wouldn't take any time at all to heat up to temp again even if you don't don't press keep warm setting. The next time the unit is turned on, it will automatically be at that last used setting. If the pot is turned off, when u lift up the kettle to fill with water and set it back down again, it automatically wakes up. The last used temp button will glow, and all you need to do is push "power." The temp and power buttons are BOTH lit while in process of heating water. It'll heat up and beep when done. It is a beep that won't wake up the whole house. It's easy to tune out (not always a good thing) so keep an ear out for the beep. The power light will turn off and the temp button will stay lit after it has beeped. So if you miss the beep, you can easily tell. It won't keep boiling if you miss it. The max fill line inside is actually a metal tab that sticks out so you can easily see it. It's a 4 cup pot but that's using the smaller mugs. It'll fill 2 big latte cups or 3 of my midsize mugs. You could use to add to Ramen noodle cups, etc. Any part of the kettle that touches the water is stainless steel. The only non-metal parts I see is on very top knob on outside of lid, grip part of handle, and part of the base (like the non-conductive handles on some stove pots). Despite my being a coffee drinker, I actually love this pot and have chosen tea over coffee many times now. I ended up trying it out on a blooming flower tea to give it a test run before MIL came. It worked great because it got hot enough to open the flower and the spout is small enough that I can add more water without destroying the flower. It's easy to keep clean. Any fingerprints wipe easily off. I was originally planning on keeping it in a cupboard or in the box between MIL visits, but I love to use it and it looks very sharp on my countertop. I'll be giving these as gifts this Christmas. The company seems to have good customer service, and part of the proceeds go to Wounded Warrior Project and pediatric healthcare in Uganda. My ONLY disappointment is that it's not made in USA. That surprised me. It's a veteran-inspired company so I expected it to be made in USA.

Great looking device with easy to use selection buttons on bottom. A bit small, maxes out at 3 Cups of water.

This is a product I bought on a whim not thinking I would love it but I do! I Enjoy a cup of tea every night. This heats it up in less than a minute! The temperature controls are so handy.
So happy I made this purchase and it's beautiful sitting on my counter.

There are two main reasons I've not given this kettle five stars:

1.) The water does not boil before settling down to the preset temperature, which renders the temperature buttons useless for making tea properly - I have to boil it, then wait and watch a thermometer;
2.) The keep-warm feature is only an hour? What? An hour goes by in the blink of an eye some days, and if I'm drinking a big mug of tea in a thermal container, it may well last beyond an hour. The keep-warm feature may be great for folks who want their next cup soon, but not for me.

"Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?"

The Nitty Gritty

Let's start at the top and work our way down, shall we? In this case, the "top" is before we even have the kettle arrive - price. For a quick-boil kettle, I found $59.99 to be fair. The kettle is well-made, it boils quickly, and most of its features are either "fine" or "quite nice" (other than the two mentioned above.)

It arrived well-packaged and in working order. I ran a couple of batches of water through to cleanse any remaining manufacture detritus, filled it to the mark, and waited. It took only a few minutes to boil the full liter of water, at which time the kettle whispered, "Psst! Your water is done!" If anyone in your home is sound-sensitive, this kettle will not startle them; in fact, they likely will never hear it at all unless they're in the same room. Two very quiet little beeps and that's it. There are pros and cons to this - I have a coffee maker that can be heard six counties over, which is bad news for anyone asleep in the house. The down side being, if I get distracted, I could easily not remember to fetch my tea before the one-hour keep warm cycle shuts off (I never said I wasn't a space cadet.)

The kettle's construction is definitely solid, and I very much appreciate the tightly-fitted lid which doesn't go skittering off if one looks at it oddly. I've burned the ever-loving crap out of my hand when I wasn't paying attention to where the steam vents were situated in relation to my skin, but that's on me.

The neck is indeed slender and provides a wickedly precise pour with nary a drip going astray. Not much to remark upon there, but it's basically perfect.

The base... meh. I have mixed feelings here, because if one were to breathe heavily on a button, it considers itself pressed. The merest glancing brush of a fingertip (or draping sleeve, as the case may be) might change your temperature setting without your realizing it (although it does beep when a button is pressed - louder than the "your water's done" beep, oddly enough.) The power coils are hidden under plastic on the base but are exposed on the bottom of the kettle itself. I don't imagine that's a huge safety concern, but it just seems inelegant given the overall quality of the product otherwise.

Apart from the rather vexing issue of not boiling before keeping at temperature, this is a well-made product that's easy to use and reasonably frustration-free.

Lid pressure-fits onto top of kettle, and when it gets hot it gets really tight. If you want to add more water when its already hot this is a problem. You have to pull quite hard on the little knob on the top of the kettle and this results usually in touching the hot metal or having boiling water splash on you a little. Neither is quite pleasant.

I for some reason thought this was an insulated kettle too, but I must have been mistaken seeing a similar looking model in Crate and Barrel.

The spout is also quite... sharp? It feels kinda dangerous as it comes to a blade-like sliced off point that can easily stab someone if they fall on it or aren't careful.

The buttons are also capacitive, which means they don't physically press down when you push on them, making physical feedback a little difficult. Most other kettles just have a switch to flip and you can do it with you eyes closed upside down. Also hard to know which button you're pressing in the dark or if you can't see well as they are all the same shape and dont have any bumps on them to let you know which is which just by touch. You just have to memorize them all. They only light up when you press them too, so in the dark you kinda just have to keep pressing things until you get the right one. Would be nice if the buttons that function for temperature would be different texture, size, or clustered away from each other.

For not being insulated, also holds very little water. You'll run through it all making tea just making 3-4 8 oz cups. You'll be refilling it a lot if making stuff for guests and that darn pressure-fit lid doesn't help with ergonomics.

You also don't "technically" have to listen to the max fill line tab in there, I fill way past it every time, no spills or problems.

Otherwise a pretty decent kettle. Boils water to different temps and does it *relatively* quickly. Keep warm function is nice. No plastic touches water, also nice.