Chef's Choice 685 International Deluxe Cordless Electric Teakettle

I had one of these for almost six years and used it on a daily basis (not just for making tea, but also for boiling water quickly for other uses, i.e. food preparation). It always looked great and was a pleasure to use, but one day it stopped working. So I went online and looked at all of the kettles currently available. I thought about trying a different brand, but all of the other stainless steel kettles (I wasn't interested in plastic) had something I didn't like about them -- an awkwardly placed handle, an exposed element, etc. In the Chef's Choice kettle the element is hidden, so the interior of the kettle is easy to clean (it pretty much doesn't have to be cleaned at all, since only water is ever put in the kettle), and if the element gets covered in scale, I don't know about it (Chef's Choice does recommend occasionally "decalcifying" the kettle by boiling some white vinegar in it -- I never did this with my first kettle and I wonder if this eventually led to it...Read more

Like another reviewer here, this is my second Chef's Choice electric teakettle. My first one, purchased at Williams-Sonoma in the mid-1990s, suddenly stopped working after my neighbors borrowed it (hummm...). As do all items purchased there, it had a lifetime warrenty, so I took it back and was given the brand of electric tea kettle they were selling at the time. I did _not_ like it, especially the placement of the handle, and promptly returned it. This was 2003 and Amazon was now carrying the brand so I ordered it here after being unable to find an electric tea kettle with a comfortably placed handle or adequate capacity in any local stores.

I use mine a minimum of twice, more commonly three times a day and am very, very happy with it. As mentioned in other reviews, having the actual heating elements under a solid bottom of stainless steel definitely prolongs the life of the appliance--the heating elements do not get caked with minerals. The best part for me, however, is...Read more

An electric kettle seemingly wouldn't wear out, but that is exactly what happened to our previous one after only one year of use. This one has already beaten that. Additionally, it holds the water at a boil for a bit of time, rather than shutting off as soon as the boil is reached. This means that the water stays hotter in the kettle.