Swan STM200N Teasmade with LCD Analogue Clock Light, Rapid Boil and Alarm, 600ml, 850W, White

Terrific and stylish item to have. It keeps time and makes our morning cups of tea a great start to the day. This one replaced our 1975 teasmade.

Spoilt for many by ergonomic issues. Scored 0 to 5, serious to noteworthy. 1) The manual. eg No mention of how to change lamp bulb. No mention of importance of setting tea pot handle forwards as shown on cover picture. Spout only fits over small angle. null pointe. 2) The lamp. Still using 15 w pygmy bulb. On/Off switch needs hard push. Using one hand can push whole caboodle off table onto floor. null pointe. 3) Hinge to kettle cover seems flimsy. quatre pointe. 4) Alarm . Bleeper so boxed in you will not hear it unless awake. flashing blue light might attract attention. Bleeper auto stops after three minutes. null pointe f5) Tea pot. my sample the pot is a tight fit over the lip in the unit and needs a push to get it to sit firmly on its base. cinq pointe. 6) Tea pot lid. With a 30mm hole in it it is all but redundant. the lugs on the lid look fragile. The lid can be a little fiddly to fit and even more trouble to remove.. trois pointe. 7) Blue light. Far too bright at night. une pointe. 8) The Clock. Viewing angles badly set. Can only read time if eye level is above clock centre line. trois pointe. 9) The Clock. Restarts automatically from 12 when power is restored. Alarm setting lost. Why is it not radio controlled. trois pointe. 10) Time they had a voice operated version. Will Littlewoods (swan) take note of reviews? Not a snow flake in hells chance. I have owned several Swan Teasemades. The best died short of five years of daily use. Will this one do better? On taking the bottom cover off for a visual inspection this is what was seen. Loose wiring, the kettle separated from the clock and its back pack by a heat shield. The clock and its back pack are a single sub assembly with the push button switches and some logic and clock software. This assembly is clearly not intended to be replaceable. The labour cost would be prohibitive anyway. It essentially follows that the durability of this device depends heavily on the quality of this sub assembly.. The kettle has good fault protection. Some wires pass over a sharp edge on the heat shield. The mains cord is sleaved inside the unit but can get close to the kettle. But there is no evidence of any likely safety hazard. Any fault with the wiring external to the clock sub unit is repairable.. In summary the wiring is amateurish and I would not have passed it for production. Will this device be more durable? I think it has a good chance but be aware that any sub unit failure renders the device a write off.

It is a good looking machine. Very efficient. Easy to use.

I’ve had 3 Teasmades which between them have spanned over 50 years. The replacement looks like a worthy successor. It makes excellent tea as (unlike many restaurants) it understands that the water has to be boiling. The only downside is the LED backlight which is far too bright. It makes an effort to dim it at night, but nowhere near enough. A towel draped over it is an effective but annoying workaround.

Four stars, but maybe should be three. This is a hairsbreadth off being excellent. My immediate reaction to the teasmade is influenced by the enclosed leaflet, which does not show all correct icons for the buttons and fails to describe how to set it for. morning tea! I had to go on the internet to download the correct manual and I assume that the leaflet enclosed was printed in China. A few issues. There is no backup battery, so if there is even a momentary power cut, the time reverts to 12.00, and so no morning tea! Even moving the unit to another location or inadvertently disconnecting the power, the clock and alarm have to be reset. The alarm is very quiet and if you are a deep sleeper then you might miss your cuppa. The brightness of the clock is not able to be adjusted and already my teasmaid is living under a cloth cover as it is too bright. The teasmaid could be used both for bedside and also for another location in the bedroom and the ability to adjust clock brightness might accomodate this choice. The twelve hour clock also means that you can’t reset the unit until the evening unless you want to waste a cuppa in the early evening. Given the easy accessibility of very sophisticated chips with lots of menu features and a backup battery the designers have missed out on making this a very good product, and have opted for an “adequate” rating from me.