DeLonghi Kmix 54-Ounce Kettle, White

Electric kettles rock. More precisely, big electric kettles with auto-off at boiling (rather than "boil dry") rock. Anyone who does not have a hot water dispenser built into their sink would probably benefit from having one, as it is much safer and easier than leaving water to boil on the stove while doing other things.I had a DeLonghi of this model type for years and it finally just died. I do not consider that a mark against it at all, as it lived a good, long life, of me turning it back on to boil multiple times per day for tea, plus regular use in the kitchen to get pasta water, etc. boiling faster. And then I bought this one as a gift for someone else a few months back, since I loved mine so much.But now that I have looked to replace my just-dead DeLonghi, I am learning that the playing field on these has changed, and has improved greatly for consumers. This DeLonghi kettle was the very best as of a few years ago when I originally bought mine; nearly all of the rest were made out of cheap plastic, and looked crummy. And I wanted interesting colors, instead of white or stainless, so that basically left me with these DeLonghi kettles, which was fine, if pricey.However, the marketplace has interestingly surpassed DeLonghi in the meantime. And now much cheaper electric kettles with at least the same functionality, often more, can be bought in stylish metal colored trims, for a third to half of the price! (That is pretty great; how often, outside of computer products, does that really happen so quickly?!)As such, even though the DeLonghi is a fine kettle, it is harder to recommend the DeLonghi's anymore, given that the price-to-benefit "value ratio" is isn't nearly as good relative to its competition as it used to be a few years ago.------------------------------------------------------------ FEATURES TO CONSIDER ------------------------------------------------------------- AUTO OFF AT BOIL -- Auto off at boil is vastly better than "boil dry, where it will boil away all of the water if you can't get to it right away. Both perform an essential safety function: with either, you cannot burn your house down because you left your water on the stove to boil. But boil dry fails on the convenience front where auto off succeeds: it allows you to start your water, go do something else, then come back to it any time you are ready to use the water. Sure, it might have cooled down a little in the interim, but just hit the button again, and in a minute or so, you will be good to go again.--- INSULATED OR "DOUBLE WALL" Exterior -- The DeLonghi's do fine on this front -- my tea will be warm enough for me if I get to it within 45 minutes or so -- but so do many others that look good in the $25-$50 range.--- DIGITAL TEMPERATURE SETTINGS -- This is where the huge innovations have come in: even some of the lower priced electric kettles allow you to set the exact temperature that you want, or one of a few pre-set temperatures -- rather than having only one set temperature, like this DeLonghi. For many purposes, but especially for tea drinkers (where since different types of teas are ideally steeped at different water temperatures) that is a huge benefit. It used to be that only $150+ models had that; but the Kettle I just bought to replace my DeLonghi with has 4 pre-set temperature settings, and it cost less than $30 (and reviews of it were very good.)--- KEEP WARM SETTINGS --- Different companies call this different things, but the idea is that it will keep your water hooving around a certain temperature for a set amount of time (often two hours). The DeLonghi doesn't have that, and I wish it did.-- 1.6+ gallons -- Most people won't need that much usually. But it is nice to have the option. Plus it helps to have big capacity for cooking, since I will fill it up when I start water at a boil on the stove, and then add to it when it hits a boil. Speeds stove-top boiling up considerably, and big capacity helps with that.--- NO PLASTIC / ALL STAINLESS interior --- There is perhaps legit concern out there about boiling water regularly with plastic sitting in it. No one really knows for sure that it would be problematic, and it would probably depend to some extent on the particular type of plastic used. But either way, it seems avoid to avoid kettles that have a lot of plastic in them. Some do not have any (Secura 1.8 Quart is worth looking into, especially because it is black, and looks fairly similar to this one.). And some, like the DeLonghi, have a strip of water as an indicator on it------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOME ALTERNATIVE MODELS TO CONSIDER -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Secura 1.8 Quart Stainless Steel Cordless Electric Water Kettle Double Wall Cool Touch ExteriorSecura. Currently under $40 on Amazon. Has all of the above attributes, looks similar(ish) to this Delonghi. And is way cheaper, plus has a digital temp setting on it.Ovente KS88R Temperature Control Stainless Steel Electric Kettle, 1.7 L. This is what I bought (in red, though, not black) for under $30 on Amazon. Has all of the above featured, except that it has the same kind of plastic water indicator that is on the DeLonghi, which means it doesn't have an all stainless interior. But it has a temp setting, and a two-hour "stay warm" setting, both of which I am super excited to have as a tea drinker. (I will wait to post a review of it there until I have given it a good spin; reviews on it were 4-ish stars, which was very good without being perfect; not bad for a $27 tea kettle.)I found one that worked for me, so I didn't look into all of the alternatives. But if you look for those kettles that look attractive to you and are at a price point you like, and then narrow it down according to the list of features above that you care about, you will likely get a great, daily-life-improving kettle out of it.Keep in mind that electric kettles make outstanding gifts, too, especially for older people (and/or younger absent minded professor types and/or busy parents, like myself!) where the safety of stove-top boiling is in question. If you know a tea drinker without an electric kettle, it may just be the kind of product they would have never thought they needed, and then realize they can't live without.----------------------------------------------------------------------- TIP on POST PURCHASE CLEANING -----------------------------------------------------------------------Even though we have a water softener, we still get gray-ish hard water build up inside of it every couple of weeks (i.e., gritty gray build up). This mortified me at first. Then I realized that it would happen in any kettle, and all it takes is boiling some lemon juice (I usually do about 1/4 lemon juice to 3/4 water) and let it sit for awhile in there, then pour it out, and it is good as new! (and unlike vinegar, the lemon juice will make your kitchen smell nice :-)

We have a new home, with a propane gas stove in the kitchen. Our electric rates are very low since we get it from a cooperative in Delaware. Propane, on the other hand, is expensive. We had an electric tea kettle for 10 years (Cuisinart) which worked great for us but got lost in the move. I noticed that we were boiling water 5 to 8 times a day for our tea and to make hot cereal. After our first fill-up of propane, the light went off that the cumulative effect of heating the water was using a lot of gas each month. I went looking for a new electric kettle. I spent hours going through the Amazon reviews of kettles, with the following results:1. Forget Cuisinart, the company is now owned by the Chinese and the product is not what it was, i.e. it's junk with no customer support and the idea that the handles fall off the hot kettle spilling boiling water all over the place is ridiculous! A great product, now junk! I would have gone back to the Cuisinart without question, rather than get involved with the search I had to do to find an acceptable replacement. Oh, we also did not replace our toaster or counter-top toaster oven with Cuisinart either. Both of those appliances in our previous home were also Cuisinart and we loved them. Cuisinart had a loyal customer and lost one with the downgrade in quality!2. I then found that the majority of the other kettles on the market were also manufactured in China, and the reviews clearly indicated that their lifespan was limited, i.e. they are a disposable item with usually very limited warranty, fraught with warranty problems and expensive to get a replacement. If the manufacturer will not stand behind the product (after the great warranty window from Amazon), why do I want it? I do not buy anything to sign-up for warranty hassles from the manufacturer!3. BPA was a real issue as I got into the reviews and questions. I wanted nothing to do with it and that eliminated a large number of kettles.4. Extraneous features that added pizazz from a marketing standpoint but really little value to me for my use. I do not need the expensive extra features and see no reason to pay for them. I noted that the quality reviews of the fancy inits was not that better despite the much higher cost!I finally found the DeLonghi Kmix. It seas clearly at the top of the kettles I evaluated. I tried to get the stainless steel exterior, but Amazon was saying that they did not know when it would be back in stock. The remaining colors were interesting and I noted that the pricing was different (and higher) for some of the colors! That was different! The yellow was $99.00 and the black (and several others) were $79.00. A 25% premium for a color - interesting!Amazon, as usual, got it here in two days (yes, I am a Prime member). It was amazingly well packaged by DeLonghi. I filled it, boiled three times, to clean out of any residual from the manufacturing process, and then made a pot for tea. The tea had no bad taste from the pot. Our water here is very good, with no extraneous taste so I do not use filtered water for our tea. It is FAST to bring the water to a boil, MUCH faster than the kettle on the stove. My wife is also happy that I am not microwaving my hot cereal as it used to boil over and get all over the micro when I prepared it that way.FULL DISCLOSURE: OK, I have only had the kettle for a week, so my jury is still out on the overall quality and longevity of the DeLonghi. I never heard of the brand before this purchase. I gave it 4 stars because of the short time I have had the kettle and I will update this review after some time goes by. Hopefully, I can give it the five stars!

Nice looking kettle. Was looking for reliability and so far that's what we have. Not cheap but it is a quality item. All the cheap kettles we have owned have been hopeless.