Reflections on the puddle of life
The incident of the kettle
by , 07-26-2009 at 01:37 PM (1973 Views)
Why is it that buying a kettle is so difficult? Recently we decided to replace our kettle. It’s been a good kettle, we’ve had it for nearly 10 years and it still makes a good brew. But recently the mechanism that opens the lid has broken and it’s become too fiddly and a bit dangerous to use. So we decided to buy a new kettle.
Last time we bought a kettle the spout was of utmost importance. This was because we’d just brought our son into the house and were finding that the pouring spout made a massive difference to how easy/difficult it was to make his milk. So we tested, examined, shopped around and bought a kettle that did the trick.
This time we were equally careful about the spout. Spouts seem to have really come on in the last 10 years and we found a kettle which looked pretty good, so we bought it. We brought the kettle home and boiled it three times as per the instructions. We poured it, it poured beautifully. Great, we thought, it’s a good kettle.
Over the next few days we noticed a disturbing trend. Every time the lid was opened a couple of drops of boiling water shot out and no matter how you held the kettle they always, but always, landed on your hand. Also, the lid got very hot and you had to be very careful when pressing it down to close it. It got so my hubby was scared to brew up for fear of scalding himself. He wrote to Russell Hobbs. Russell Hobbs wrote back with their ”it’s passed all the European safety tests” blah. No joy there. I suppose we could have left the small amount of water inside the kettle to go cold before refilling to a two brew level but then since my son was born we have always refilled with cold as a safety measure, to ensure if he ever accidentally pulled the kettle over he would be drenched in, at worst, warm water rather than scalded from head to toe.
The kettle went back.
My hubby came home with a big box and a smile on his face. He’d bought a new kettle. This kettle was the updated version of our old kettle which had stood us in good stead for so long. They’ve updated a few bits but otherwise it looks pretty good. Notably we knew that it didn't fire boiling water at us when we opened it, and there was a nice rubbery section on the top of the lid so you wouldn't burn your hand when you closed it. My hubby filled the kettle, boiled it once as per the instructions. He poured it out and it poured beautifully. He went to refill it and, guess what? The lid stuck! Eventually he managed to open it and refill. He boiled again, this time with a bit less confidence, but to our joy the lid opened okay. Phew, we thought, it was just first boil jitters. But oh no! Next brew the same thing happened. This kettle is now on a trial period and if after that trial period the issue remains the kettle is going back and we’re going to resort to a pan!
So, the next time you want to buy a kettle remember: forget the spout, forget the style, forget if it matches your kitchen, if you can’t get it open forget it!!!
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