As a follow-up to my previous post "A Good Electric Water Kettle "“ Just A Fantasy?", thought it was time to get down to business and put a few kettles through a some paces. A "standardized test", if you will, fashioned by me.
For the first round, I compared two Capresso kettles, the H2O Pro and the H2O Plus. Full pots filled to maximum were heated and timed, starting with both cold and already-warmed heating elements. For the "warmed" boil, I heated a full pot of cold water, emptied the kettle, then re-filled with cold water and turned it right back on. To gauge yield, I used 10-oz coffee mugs, filled to about 8 oz.
Read on for the full review of the Capresso H2O Plus.
Quick stats
– Max/Min capacity: 48 oz / 16 oz
– Average boil times:
Cold – 6:10 = 6 minutes + 10 seconds for heat to click off; filled to max
Warm – 5:35 minutes; filled to max
Warm – 4:09 minutes; filled to 34 oz
– Yield: 6 cups
– Cord management: Cord wraps around the underside of the base, staying neatly tucked.
What I liked
This was my favorite of the two when I began, mainly because of aesthetics. The glass kettle with chrome accents is pretty, and is one of the nicer looking electric kettle designs I've seen. I liked being able to see the water heat up and boil, aside from the general fun of seeing water come to a rolling boil, gave me visual cues to how much longer the wait is going to be.
- The capacity is sufficient, allowing me to fill 6 generous mugs from one pot. Not bad if you have company over, and if you're serving tea to more than six guests, it's only about 5 minutes until the next pot's ready.
- When it came time to put on a second pot, I really appreciated the little stay-cool handle on the lid which made it easy to open and close the hot lid for re-filling.
- I also like that the spout allows for a "fast" pour; you can also open the lid if you need to pour out the entire contents of the kettle into another pot or container. I know this seems like an odd "plus", but some spouts are designed to restrict water flow. I suppose the intent is to protect against too much hot water splashing out and potentially burning me? Maybe it's just me, but I prefer to control the pour speed myself.
- The last thing I'll note is that the glass pot has measurement marks to indicate water level, which can be helpful.
What I didn't care for
The main thing that turned me off from this kettle is the chemical smell and flavor imparted to the water. The heating element looks like half of a metal ball that protrudes into the bottom of the pot. A rubber gasket seals the glass to the metal, and boy, does that rubber gasket flavor the water. Given that one of the qualities I'm looking for in a kettle is for it to not contain nefarious materials that leach chemicals into the water, let alone a nasty flavor, I think this one will go back into the box.
- While I understand there's a minimum fill requirement for safety reasons, I don't have to like it. What if I just want one cup of tea? Why should I heat up twice the amount of bottled/filtered water than I need?
- For folks who live in hard water areas, you will definitely see mineral deposits left on the inside of the kettle. Since the kettle is clear, the stains are visible, and if you're someone that cares about that, you may find it to be unsightly.
- Additionally, since we are talking about a kettle that boils water, the glass gets quite hot. Not a negative in and of itself, since most pots of boiling water get hot, but if you have small children running around the house, might be safer to look at insulated options.