Oster

Cheap, quick to heat variable-temperature kettle. I have yet to use the keep warm function, though the controls are great. I just wish that it listed the temperatures in both Celsius and Fahrenheit.

I bought this kettle about 2 weeks ago and I’m pretty happy with it – especially since Canadian Tire’s website said it was $100 but it was on sale for $60 at my local Canadian Tire! I know of at least one other Steepsterite who uses this kettle, and it was her enthusiastic recommendation, along with the unexpected sale price, that made me spring for this kettle.

It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty close. Here are my pros and cons:

Pros
- There are LOTS of temperature settings on this thing, which makes me happy. Everything from 45°C to 100°C in 5-degree increments. And it’s in Celsius! Thank god. So I can make 75C water or 95C water without having to bust out the thermometer and shut the kettle off at just the right moment to measure the temperature.
- This kettle heats things up really quickly!
- In addition to just heating the water, the kettle also has a “Keep Warm” setting, so if I’m not going to get to the hot water right away, the kettle will keep the water at the temperature I specify.
- The kettle includes a digital readout so you can see the temperature you’ve programmed and whether you’ve kept it on the “regular” setting or the “keep warm” setting. Each setting has a different icon.

However, there are some caveats…

Cons

- The icons for each setting are quite small, and the indicator to show the water is boiling is not intuitive. If the “boil water” icon is not flashing, that means the kettle is on standby, whereas a flashing icon means the kettle is working. This is completely counterintuitive to me – I would expect a flashing icon to mean “standby” mode, and a static icon to mean “it’s working”. What’s even worse is that the manual says nothing about this distinction – I had to find it out myself by fiddling with the buttons.
- Initially, I thought the “keep warm” function would be perfect for gong-fu brewing. However, as soon as you lift the kettle off the base to pour water, that “deprograms” the kettle. This means that if you want to do multiple pours at the same temperature, you’ll have to program the kettle with the same settings multiple times. If you don’t do gong-fu brewing, this probably won’t be a dealbreaker, but it’s a good thing to know.
- There are “boil water” settings for every interval between 45 and 100 degrees – 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, and 100. However, the “keep warm” setting doesn’t work at the 95C spot – the programmable “keep warm” setting jumps right from 90C to 100C. Again, a small issue, but still worth mentioning.