consumer review action group time once more, kids. i bought a shiny new thing today, as i am so prone to do as and when i go to the shops. this post isn't really one to sort of show it off and flaunt it, look you see, but more to give a review of it (so far) for anyone out there that is browsing the web and looking for an opinion on such a thing.
a look at the shiny thing, all close up? sure, why not.
yes, all shiny. and purple too, although Morphy Richards, the manufacturer behind this kettle, claim that it is in fact a "plum" colour. i suppose that is in keeping with the Accents theme they have seen fit to brand this with. purple is not an accent, perhaps, in the same sense that plum apparently is.
why a new kettle? ours was looking a little bit battered. as it would, you would expect, from frequent daily use over the course of a year or so. as i was off out shopping with the day today, then, i was charged with finding out if i could see a suitable new one for us to use. i think i did.
i am trying to find a link to this specific one, that which i bought, for you if you wish to place an order, but i am having little luck. the amazon website appears, unusually, to be down right now, and no other proprietor seems to make the plum / purple one available.
if you are inclined to buy a non-plum one in the UK, Argos can sort you out with red, white or black for (at the time of publishing) price i paid for this, which is £49.99.
yeah, i did kind of baulk or choke a bit at paying a penny short of fifty notes for a kettle. but then i thought this is something that we actually use a lot, so we would get the value off of buying a more expensive one. and yes i know to you readers in London £49.99 is not an expensive kettle; but in the rest of the world yes actually it is.
ah. amazon is working now and, again at time of printing, they are charging a tenner more for this kettle than i paid. a rare case, then, of online being more expensive than off. although you can get the non-purple plum variations off of them for the same fifty note related cost.
yeah, review parts coming up, for those wondering if they would like to buy one or not. but first, well, why not, another look at it in all its glory.
OK, points to be aware of with the kettle. first off, the element of great importance with a kettle, which is the ease with which one can fill it. the answer is "not too easy but not too difficult".
this kettle features a removable lid or top thingie, which is different from all them modern ones with a "flip lid" thing attached. they call this style a "traditional" one, or, for those that charge more, a "heritage" one. it is in the version that Morphy Richards has sold me (via Tesco) where you can the touches of class and user friendly use you paid so many notes for.
yes. i know you are mesmerised by the shine off of it, but look at the ring handle thing in the picture. that's where you put a finger in (presumably) to remove the lid. a very nice touch is the rubber, or some other such heat resistant stuff, placed around it so that you do not burn or hurt your finger with any great ease when removing the lid after a recent boil. nice touch, that.
this protective coating is also present on the elegant, dare i say flamboyant, handle of the kettle, which also make handling in those post-boil moments a relatively safe and unlikely to scold or burn experience.
it is this handle, however, that poses something of a user problem to use.
whereas this handle is excellent - awesome, even - for use in terms of pouring boiled water into a cup or some other such vessel, it provides quite an obstacle course for one when one is filling the kettle via a conventional tap in the kitchen. ah. bother.
we quickly came to the conclusion, then, that filling the kettle via the spout would be the best, sensible and perhaps only option. i point this out because for some the class war still rages, and they believe that filling a kettle via the spout is uncouth, anti-social and the preserve of the proletariat.
i'm pretty relaxed on the subject of how a kettle gets filled, really. i mean, boss if you can do it the way you are supposed to; no problem if it has to be via other means. so long as the kettle is filled, boils and thus can provide a foundation for making coffee (or tea from time to time), that's just fine by me. i appreciate my view could be seen as being "sitting on the fence" and make me an enemy to all sides in this class war business, but so be it, that's just how i see this.
whilst we are discussing the spout - or at least whilst i write of it and you read - a word of warning about it. the flow of water from it is urgent. very urgent indeed. i would go so far as to say i have never before experienced such a fast flow of water from a kettle.
i have tried to make a video of this to show the speed. it is not a very good video, due to lighting issues, but here it is all the same. if it gives you a clue as to what i consider to be fast flowing, nice one.
the flow is so fast, as point of fact, that i do not believe the otherwise ridiculous warning in the instruction book is all that ridiculous. not in this case. the idea that someone would need to be warned of the contents of a boiled kettle being hot is a foolish one, for such a person might not be the best in the world to allow to command a kettle. or anything with electric in.
however, on a first or second use, the speed with which the water comes out is really worth giving a warning about. so well done Morphy Richards, although you probably printed this to limit liability or something like that.
i am not sure, at least i am not convinced, if this is an illusion purely caused by decline to our previous kettle, but it seems to my (considerably) better half and i that this kettle does not half boil very fast, and retains the boiled heat for quite some time. this might be something to do with that wider base of the pyramid style and that; i am not a scientist or anything so would not know this with any degree of authority.
so, worth the £49.99 price? on the basis of use on one afternoon, i believe so, yes. my (considerably) better half likes it, and her being not displeased makes my life easier, to say the least. it is clearly well made and an item of quality, so yes, a good purchase.
plus, the light on it that comes on when you switch it on to boil is boss.
there are cheaper kettles out there, cheap ones which are also purple and indeed shiny. they, however, do not have much in the way of longevity to them. if your life is as dependant on coffee as mine is, it kind of makes sense to "go big or go home" when selecting a kettle.
yeah, it's all sleek and stylish looking, but the key here is that it seems built to last and built to perform to optimal levels in the world of water boiling. so that's a win.
enjoy your tea, coffee or cuppasoup with whatever kettle you use!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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