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- Variable temperature
- Automatic keep-warm setting
- Lights provide a visual guide to boiling
- Wobbles on base
- No marking in litres
- Interior may gather limescale
In times of strife, we turn to the best kettles to make a brew. For those who can’t wait for the first sip to soothe their spirits, there’s the Russell Hobbs Calm kettle: complete with spa-style music and a soft colour-changing light.
However, its headline features aren’t the whole story: look beyond the plinky plonky tunes and you’ll find what’s actually a pretty decent kettle. Not only does it have variable temperatures that can be adjusted in handy 5°C increments – perfect for making green teas and brewing herbal or fruity blends – but there’s an automatic 15-minute keep warm feature to help avoid reboiling. Plus, it’ll heat water to as low as 40°C, making it ideal for everyone from cooks to busy parents.
In testing, the kettle was fairly quick to boil, not especially noisy and lightweight. However, there were a couple of design quirks I’d be concerned about, with one especially pertinent if you live in a hard water area.
What do you get for the money?
While the Russell Hobbs Calm kettle has more personality than most, from a practical viewpoint, it’s the variable temperature capabilities that may provide greater benefits. Its water temperatures range from 40-100°C, and can be adjusted in 5°C increments using the up and down touch controls on the base. The display also includes options to skip straight straight to boiling, deselecting the automatic 15-minute keep warm (at 90°C) feature while controlling the lights and audio. Fortunately, there’s a quick start guide you can keep to hand, including how to put the kettle into demo mode should you wish to enjoy the lights (there are six colours) and music without heating any water.
Even when it’s not on, the kettle is attractive, combining pale frosted glass with copper-coloured accents. Its base is bulkier than most: rather than sitting directly on it, the 1.7l jug nestles in like a teacup on a saucer. Unsurprisingly, the base is quite chunky, measuring 6×20.5cm (HD) by itself. When the jug is in place, the combined height reaches 27cm. Glass kettles can be weighty but that’s not so here: when empty, the jug is a lightweight 930g and comfortable to hold and carry around. Plus, there’s a two-year warranty.
What’s good about it?
Like the majority of kettles, the electricity output of the Russell Hobbs Calm is 3Kw. This translates to a quick boil, though it’s not the fastest out there: one litre heated from cold took two minutes 31 seconds, and used 0.112kWh of electricity. At a rate of 25p per unit this would cost just under 3p.
I found the automatic nature of the Calm’s keep-warm particularly useful. Some rival kettles require you to decide ahead of boiling or mid-boil if you’d like to engage this function, so having it applied by default means there’s one less thing to think about. I also liked that the water levels were clearly marked and that the changing colour of the light provided a visual guide as to how far along in the boil it was – so you can see from the other side of the room if the water’s almost ready.
For those who dislike noisy kettles, the Russell Hobbs Calm might be a good choice: while boiling a litre of water, I registered a maximum noise of 50.4dB from one metre away (the final chime boosted this up to 53.2dB), and a little less when boiling 500ml (48.9dB). The kettle doesn’t feature the brand’s ‘perfect pour’ spout (unlike, for instance, the brand’s Illuminating Glass kettle) but even without it, the jug pours smoothly. And even with the keep warm setting deactivated, water was kept fairly hot: after five minutes, I measured an internal temperature of 92°C, which dropped down to 87°C after ten minutes.
Playing soothing music as it boils is one of the main attractions besides the colour-changing light. There are five tracks, all designed to be relaxing and calming for even the most frazzled spirits. I found them soothing, if a bit nondescript, and they’re loud enough to not be drowned out by the sound of water boiling. Yes it’s gimmicky, but if you close your eyes and let your mind drift a little while you’re waiting for the water to heat up, you could just be in a fancy spa.
What could be better?
While the jug’s markings are easy to read, I found it frustrating that they’re only displayed in cups, not litres. On top of that, the minimum boil amount is 400ml – a little under two cups – so if you’re just making a beverage for yourself, you’ll always be boiling more water than you need.
Inside the jug at its base, there’s a raised metal frame on top of the element. This means that those in hard water areas will need to descale the kettle more regularly to prevent limescale becoming trapped. In addition, while I was impressed with the build quality of the kettle overall, the button on the lid that’s pressed to raise it felt flimsy. I also didn’t like that the empty jug tended to rock on the base when it was replaced rather than sitting down smoothly.
A final issue is that the exterior of the kettle gets hot and stays that way: at boiling, I registered 82.1°C on the outside, which barely dropped over five minutes later (with the keep warm disabled). When I measured it again 10 minutes later, the exterior was still 78°C.
Should you buy the Russell Hobbs Calm Kettle?
People often don’t want to spend their hard-earned money on essential utilitarian things such as roof repairs or lightbulbs, and the Russell Hobbs Calm kettle helps to soften the blow for people who need a kettle but would rather invest in a pleasant addition to their routine that also happens to heat water. The audio does a good job of covering up boiling noise, while the lights mean you can see as well as hear that a cuppa is in your near future.
That said, for the price, I’m surprised that there’s a conspicuous limescale trap inside. For those who don’t fancy keeping their kettle scrupulously scale-free, a variable temperature kettle with a completely concealed element, such as Bosch Styline TWK8633GB, would be a better buy.
That said, if scale is less of an issue, and you’re looking for a kettle to quite literally brighten your mornings, the Russell Hobbs Calm is a sleek soul-soother.
