Wireless Water Kettle review

I've gone through a succession of many of these so-called "wireless" water kettles over the years. If you're never used or heard of one, they are wireless in the respect that the wire connects to the base, but not the kettle itself. The heating element is inside the kettle, which makes for a very fast and efficient immersion heating of the water. They do tend to wear out and stop working after a few years and will need to be replaced.

If you don't have one, you may want to think about getting one. I use mine just about every day for all sorts of culinary applications. The family also uses it, so it's fair to say I give them a pretty good workout. My current one I've had for almost a year now, so I feel safe in recommending it and explaining why you may or may not want this particular one. I'll also describe some of the features which come with various models and why or why not you may not want them.

Pretty much all of these kettles are designed to bring water to a boil and then shut off automatically. You then pick the kettle up, use as much water as you want, and empty the rest or put it back in the cradle for later use. If that's all you ever do with one of these, then you may be better off just going with a traditional kettle that you put on the stove and it whistles when ready. There's certainly less to go wrong and they will almost certainly outlast one with it's own heating element. The advantage to going with the "wireless" route is they will generally heat up faster since the heating element is immersed in the water, but this advantage might only save you a minute at most depending on how much water you are heating. One other advantage to a "wireless" model it's it's much more portable and convenient as it can be used anywhere you have an electrical outlet with sufficient wattage. Most car inverter type outlets aren't going to cut it unless you have a really good one.

The one I have has a feature that allows you to set a certain temperature below boiling and you can also hold that temp if you want. The kettle I had previously also had that feature, but it was a much cheaper model and it never worked quite right and was a pain to use. If you want this feature (and it's a very good one to have), then spend a few extra bucks and get a good one. If you find one that has that feature, but identical models are sold with a dozen different brands, then chances are it's not the one you want as they are just being produced by the same Chinese factory and resold by distributors who are marking up a very cheaply designed and produced kettle.

So the temperature control and hold has a number of uses, but especially if you frequently make instant coffee, tea, or pour over coffee that demands a temperature something less than boiling. It's also great if you live at a high altitude where a kettle is never going to get to boiling temperatures no matter how long it goes. The one I have works great in that whatever temperature you set is memorized for the next time you use it. Some do not do this and require you to reset the temperature every single time.

The one I have also has a gooseneck spout. So this is great when you want control over how much water comes out such as for tea or pourover coffee. A normal spout just doesn't work well for this. The downside is it takes a while to empty the kettle through the gooseneck, so if you want a lot of water all at once, this is a disadvantage. You can just take the top off and pour it out through there, but it's not really designed for that.

A few notes on using these. Due to the nature of the immersion heating element, there's a minimum and maximum water level you must observe. The kettle will have markings for both. Sometimes you have to look inside for them (as with mine). Others have some type of transparent water gauge you can read from the outside. You will also need to clean them periodically as they will build up with scale the rate depending on how hard your water supply is and how much you use it. All I do is pour in a bit of household vinegar, give it a swirl, and let it sit for about 15-30 minutes, and then rinse. I do this about once per month.

I'm quite happy with the one I have. If it broke tomorrow, I'd buy another. As much as I use it I've probably already gotten my money's worth out of it. I suspect it will last for many more years.