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- Best kettles: At a glance
- How we test kettles
- 1. Best kettle overall: Russell Hobbs Attentiv
- 2. Best budget kettle: John Lewis Anyday
- 3. Best luxury kettle: KitchenAid Artisan
- 4. Best value kettle: Daewoo Cascade 1.7l Jug Kettle
- 5. Best Attentiv alternative: Bosch Styline TWK8633GB
- 6. Best voice-activated option: Swan Alexa Smart Kettle
- 7. Best dual-wall insulated kettle: Zwilling Enfinigy Pro
- 8. Best simple, stylish option: Dualit Lite
- 9. Best inclusive kettle: Tefal Includeo KI533840
- 10. Best kettle for visual features: Russell Hobbs Calm Kettle 27450
- 11. Best mid-priced kettle: Russell Hobbs Brontë kettle 26750
- How to choose the best kettle
As a nation of tea and coffee lovers, it’s no wonder they’re such an important part of our daily lives. From quiet kettles and rapid-boil kettles with simple controls to variable temperatures models, picking your perfect one takes some research.
Thankfully, we’re here to help you sort the good from the bad. We’ve tested 20 kettles across a range of budgets and styles for this round up, boiling countless litres of water. For each kettle, we’ve checked boil times, noise levels, temperatures reached and done the maths to figure out how much energy each kettle uses too.
Below, you will find mini reviews of the best kettles from our in-depth testing, as well as links to full reviews of each one should you need to do more research. Furthermore, you can also check out our full buying guide, which will talk you through everything you need to consider when choosing the perfect kettle – from noise level to speed.
Best kettles: At a glance
| Best overall | Russell Hobbs Attentiv (~£75) | |
| Best budget kettle | John Lewis Anyday (~£20) | |
| Best-value | Daewoo Cascade |
How we test kettles
When testing kettles, we use three methods to determine their energy efficiency and noise level. We start by using a two-channel thermocouple thermometer, which measures the external and internal temperature of the kettle during a boil. This also tells us how quickly the temperature drops after it clicks off. At the same time, we use a power meter to determine how many watts a kettle uses. Next, we use a noise meter to measure how loud each kettle is during a 1l and 500ml boil in dBs, also taking the room’s ambient noise level into account.
Next up is usability. We test how easy the kettle is to fill, hold and pour, its weight and whether the fill lines are easy to read. If the kettle has any additional features beyond boiling water, we also look at how useful these are. Finally, we take into consideration each kettle’s build quality and design, and whether these reflect its price.
1. Best kettle overall: Russell Hobbs Attentiv
Price when reviewed: £75 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… speciality tea
- Not so great for… cleaning
No kettle we’ve tested packs in quite as many well-implemented features and neat design touches as the Russell Hobbs Attentiv. It provides more precision among the variable temperature kettles, with its control dial allowing users to select temperatures between 40°C and 100°C, in 5°C increments. This is ideal for preparing everything from baby formula to specialty tea, such as matcha or oolong, as well as coffee. The kettle also boasts a 30-minute keep-warm function and a handy steep timer, all controllable and monitorable via the slick touchscreen buttons and LED display on its base. A final handy touch, the Attentiv comes with a removable steeping basket for loose leaf tea, allowing it to function as a teapot in a pinch.
Thanks to its 3,000W heating element, it also proved itself a speedy boiler in our group test, matching other similarly powerful models with its one litre boil time of 2mins 20secs. Rounding things out with a handsome, sturdy glass and stainless steel construction, the Attentiv won top marks from us.
Read our full Russell Hobbs Attentiv review
Key details – Power: 3,000W; Capacity: 1.7l; Variable temperature: Yes; Warranty: 2 years
2. Best budget kettle: John Lewis Anyday
Price when reviewed: £20 | Check price at John Lewis
- Great for… keeping costs down
- Not so great for… staying cool
Simple in approach and execution, this no-frills kettle operates without fanfare or style but gets the job done. Boiling water about as quickly as our other recommended 3,000W kettles, the Anyday took just 2mins 15secs. It also performed admirably in our heat retention test, maintaining a temperature of 92°C when measured five minutes after boiling. Other notable positives of the Anyday include its clear water level viewer with measurement markings and its lightweight design, with the kettle weighing just 750g.
Of course, great budget options often come with a few sticking points and in this regard the Anyday is no different. While generally well built, in testing, we found that the kettle sat unevenly on its base, rocking a little as it came to a boil. It also became hotter than we would’ve liked in our exterior heat test, reaching 74.8°C externally, meaning you’ll want to be careful of your fingers as you pour. However, given its otherwise good performance, solid design and excellent value for money, we’re still more than happy to recommend the John Lewis Anyday as a straightforward, budget-friendly option.
Read our full John Lewis Anyday review
Key details – Power: 3,000W; Capacity: 1.5l; Variable temperature: No; Warranty: 2 years
3. Best luxury kettle: KitchenAid Artisan
Price when reviewed: £199 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… style and temperature control
- Not so great for… budget buyers
KitchenAid’s Artisan kettle comes in as the most expensive model on our list, but we found it to be worth every penny of its premium price tag. Its sleek, matte finish and general design are beautiful and the range of colours available make it easy to tailor its look to suit your kitchen.
We’re big fans of the old-fashioned temperature gauge on the front, which proved both charming and practical. We also like the smooth-acting temperature setting lever on the bottom, which allows you to heat water to between 50°C and 100°C, in 10°C increments, ideal for a variety of drinks. Once set in action, the kettle emits a soft white light and a calming low beep – it might sound silly, but the Artisan gives boiling water a truly luxurious feel thanks to its deft design touches.
Aesthetics aside, the Artisan also proved itself in our tests. It took just 2mins 22secs to boil 1l of water, which is on par with the rest of the 3,000W models tested. It also excelled when it came to keeping the noise down. During boiling, it only reached a maximum of 52.2dB, making it the quietest kettle on our list. What’s more, once the water’s boiled, there’s no worrying about burning your fingers on the sides. The outside of the Artisan reached an exterior temperature of just 33°C, owing to its dual-walled insulation.
Read our full KitchenAid Artisan review
Key details – Power: 3,000W; Capacity: 1.5l; Variable temperature: Yes: Warranty: 3 years
4. Best value kettle: Daewoo Cascade 1.7l Jug Kettle
Price when reviewed: £35 | Check price at Daewoo
- Great for… stylish affordability
- Not so great for… solo households
Budget kettles tend to be basic with little thought given to pleasing design and choice of colours. Which is why spending a smidge more can pay dividends. Daewoo’s Cascade 1.7l jug kettle is still at the more affordable end of the market but has plenty on offer. Available in three colours: Black, Sage, and a striking deep Ruby, all have a sleek textured exterior and metallic details that give no hint of its modest price tag. There’s no real compromise on features either, thanks to two large water windows, a limescale filter, wide mouth, easy pouring spout and a subtly illuminated on/off lever.
The design could perhaps use a tweak: its lid doesn’t fit as closely as others, meaning that tipping a full kettle quickly can cause dribbling and the minimum fill is high at 500ml. However, in testing, the Cascade performed excellently. WIth its 3kW heating element, it boiled a litre of water in two minutes, 39 seconds and retained its temperature well afterwards.
Read our full Daewoo Cascade review
Key details – Power: 3,000W; Capacity: 1.7l; Variable temperature: No; Warranty: 3 years (when registered online)
5. Best Attentiv alternative: Bosch Styline TWK8633GB
Price when reviewed: £55 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… staying cool and temperature control
- Not so great for… noise
While we liked the Russell Hobbs Attentiv best overall, the Bosch Styline is no slouch, providing a great alternative for anyone not quite won over by the Attentiv. Differentiating it from the Russell Hobbs model are its dual-walled insulation, keeping it at a cool exterior temperature of 31.9°C in use, as well as its chic plastic and stainless steel body, which won’t become as visibly grubby as a glass kettle.
Other design elements of the Styline we like include its four temperature settings (70°C, 80°C, 90° and boiling), half-hour keep-warm function, soft-open lid, large viewing window with clear measurement markings and smooth-pouring spout. Finally, when it comes to boil speed, the Styline’s 3,000W heating element means it’s as swift as any of the other similarly powered kettles on our list.
Read our full Bosch Styline TWK8633GB review
Key details – Power: 3,000W; Capacity: 1.5l; Variable temperature: Yes; Warranty: 2 years
6. Best voice-activated option: Swan Alexa Smart Kettle
Price when reviewed: £80 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… voice activation
- Not so great for… fast boiling
Ever fancied telling your kettle to make a brew? Well, with the Swan Alexa Smart Kettle you can do just that. Thanks to its compatibility with Amazon’s suite of smart speakers, you can set the Swan Alexa to boil, as well as select your desired water temperature and more, via voice commands or the Alexa app.
If you don’t own an Amazon Echo or feel like splashing out on one, there are plenty of other reasons to consider picking up the Swan Alexa. A dual-wall insulated kettle, the Swan Alexa was top of the pops in our exterior temperature test, with a peak reading of just 29.1°C. Also a quiet boiler, it was edged out only by the KitchenAid Artisan in our noise test, recording the second-lowest reading at 53.3dB. Moving on from test scores to features, the Swan Alexa has a solid four temperature settings and the most impressive keep warm function of the lot, boasting the ability to hold water at your desired temperature for up to two hours.
The only downside of the Swan Alexa is its low wattage, which, at 1,800W, means it lagged behind the 3,000W kettles on this list in terms of boil speed. While it takes a fairly lengthy 4mins 9secs to boil a litre of water, you can at least order it to do so without having to get up off the sofa.
Read our full Swan Alexa Smart Kettle review
Key details – Power: 1,800W; Capacity: 1.5l; Variable temperature: Yes; Warranty: One year
7. Best dual-wall insulated kettle: Zwilling Enfinigy Pro
Price when reviewed: £139 | Check price at Currys
- Great for… dual-wall insulation and sleek design
- Not so great for… cost saving
One of the more expensive kettles on our list, the Zwilling Enfinigy Pro justifies its lofty price tag with an ultra-modern design, commendable suite of features and solid performance. This sleek, space-age kettle placed highly in both our exterior temperature and heat retention tests. Its peerless dual-wall insulation helped it maintain an outside temperature of just 29.4°C in use, while keeping the water inside at 94.6°C five minutes after boiling. In terms of functionality, the Enfinigy Pro boasts variable temperature settings ranging from 40°C to 100°C and a 30-minute keep warm function, all programmable via the touch buttons on its base.
To add one caveat, it should be noted that the Zwilling Enfinigy Pro has an 1,850W heating coil, unlike many of the other kettles on our list, which tend to have 3,000W elements. This means it is naturally slower to boil than its rivals. If you tend to get impatient for your morning cup of tea or coffee, the 3mins 45secs it takes the Enfinigy Pro to boil a litre of water may prove a tad too long for your liking.
Read our full Zwilling Enfinigy Pro review
Key details – Power: 1,850W; Capacity: 1.5l; Variable temperature: Yes; Warranty: 5 years
8. Best simple, stylish option: Dualit Lite
Price when reviewed: £72 | Check price at John Lewis
- Great for… unique design and rapid boiling
- Not so great for… noise
With its gleaming, mirrored finish and attractive colour-accented handle, this kettle’s classic beauty offsets its relative lack of bells and whistles. Practical as well as pretty, this 1.5l jug model was another reliably fast boiler in our group test. After just 2mins 26secs, the Dualit Lite had one litre of water boiled and ready to pour.
One notable downside of the Dualit Lite is that it doesn’t do its business super quietly. We recorded how loud each kettle was at boiling water and the Dualit Lite notched up 58.3dB, the second loudest score. Noisiness aside, it did perform well in our tests, including heat retention. There’s no need to rush to pour the water out with this one either. Five minutes after boiling, the water in the Dualit Lite still measured a toasty 93°C, coming second only to the Zwilling Enfinigy Pro.
Read our full Dualit Lite review
Key details – Power: 3,000W; Capacity: 1,5l; Variable temperature: No; Warranty: 2 years
9. Best inclusive kettle: Tefal Includeo KI533840
Price when reviewed: £50 | Check price at Argos
- Great for… accessibility
- Not so great for… capacity
Designed to be easier to use for those who find standard kettles challenging – but realistically easier for everyone – Tefal’s Includeo kettle ticks lots of boxes for practicality. It has two large water windows, with litres marked on one side and cups on the other, a large rocker switch to turn it on, and a big button to open the lid: ideal for those with a visual impairment. It’s also lightweight, easy to fill and pours like a dream, so a win-win for physical limitations too.
However, when stacked up against other kettles, there are two clear drawbacks: one is its maximum capacity of 1 litre, the other its lack of power, meaning that in testing it was sluggish. Boil time for a litre came in at three minutes and seven seconds – about 30 seconds more than a 3kW kettle – while sucking down about the same amount of energy: 0.115kWh. That said, we felt its slower speed was a small price to pay for its well-thought-out design that felt anything but clunky.
Read our full Tefal Includeo KI533840 review
Key details – Power: 2,400W; Capacity: 1l; Variable temperature: No; Warranty: 2 years
10. Best kettle for visual features: Russell Hobbs Calm Kettle 27450
Price when reviewed: £100 | Check price at Russell Hobbs
- Great for… keeping water warm
- Not so great for… stability
For zen mornings, the Russell Hobbs Calm Kettle plays a choice of spa-style tunes and changes colour as it heats, turning waiting for water to boil into something more special. Admittedly, we found this to be a little gimmicky but there’s lots to recommend it as a decent kettle too. This includes variable temperatures that can be adjusted in 5°C increments, as well as an auto keep warm to help avoid reboiling. Plus, it’ll heat water to as low as 40°C.
There are a few downsides: It has a tendency to rock on the base, isn’t marked in litres and has a minimum boil of around two cups. But ultimately, our tests showed that the Calm kettle is more than just the gimmick option: while not the fastest kettle in the round-up, it put in a good performance, heating a litre in two minutes 31 seconds, and pouring smoothly. We liked that the colour changing gave a visual guide to boiling progress and that even with its keep-warm feature deactivated, water remained hot enough for drinks even after 10 minutes (87°C). Plus, even when it’s not on, its frosted glass jug with copper-coloured accents gave it a real visual appeal.
Read our full Russell Hobbs Calm Kettle review
Key details – Power: 3,000W; Capacity: 1.7l; Variable temperature: Yes; Warranty: 2 years
11. Best mid-priced kettle: Russell Hobbs Brontë kettle 26750
Price when reviewed: £60 | Check price at Russell Hobbs
- Great for… smooth pouring
- Not so great for… water markings
A striking design makes Russell Hobbs’s Brontë a serious contender for a place on your kitchen worktop. Available in either matt Black or Stone – and with matching toasters for those who love to coordinate – the Brontë has desirable features galore. For example, you’ll find Russell Hobbs’s ‘perfect pour’ spout, which provides a narrow yet smooth flow of water without drips, push-to-open lid that can be easily operated with a finger and a wide mouth for easy filling. Flick it on and the inside glows with subtle white illumination.
While it’s not marked, the Brontë has a low minimum fill, so you never have to boil more water than you need. It heated a litre fairly quickly, taking two minutes and 33 seconds, and also retained water temperature well, registering 87.7°C after 10 minutes. It’s one area for improvement is relatively minor: the water window markings are small, hard to read and only in cups, not litres.
Read our full Russell Hobbs Brontë kettle 26750 review
Key details – Power: 3,000W; Capacity: 1.7l; Variable temperature: No; Warranty: 2 years
How to choose the best kettle
How much do I need to spend?
You don’t need to break the bank to get your hands on a decent kettle. There are plenty of options costing less than £50 if you simply want a reliable, fast-boiling and reasonably quiet kettle, which should last for three years or more. If variable temperature, dual-walled insulation or stunning designs are on your list of wants, however, expect to pay a premium.
What types of kettles are there?
Electric kettles: As well as being the most energy efficient, they’re the quickest and easiest way to get water to boiling point. They’re also the safest, with most having an automatic shut-off setting when your water reaches the right temperature. The downside is that limescale can build up and reduce efficiency.
Variable temperature kettles: Also electric, these kettles allow you to set your temperature to below boiling point – sometimes as low as 40ºC – so you’re able to heat your water for a variety of drinks, not just tea. The ideal temperature for coffee is between 91ºC and 96˚C. Delicate green and white teas usually require water at 70˚C. Black and oolong teas taste best with water around 85˚C, while chamomile requires water at 90˚C. The list goes on.
Stovetop kettle: This is the most basic kind of kettle, which you simply put on the stove and heat up. When the water is boiling, it will whistle to let you know. They can be, though are not always, the cheapest kind of kettle, as well as having an aesthetic, retro appeal. They are less susceptible to damage caused by mineral deposits than electric kettles and require neither a mains plug nor space on your work surface, but lack safety features.
Are rapid boiling kettles actually faster than normal ones?
Don’t be fooled by kettles advertised as “rapid boiling” – the fastest boiling kettle here is only 11 seconds quicker than the slowest. Also, be aware that the manufacturer’s boiling time claims are often based on how long it takes room temperature water to boil.
In our tests, we used water straight from the cold tap like you would at home, which averaged between 9˚C and 11˚C.
What other features are worth looking out for?
Kettles aren’t the most high-tech of kitchen items, but it’s worth looking out for safety features such as an auto shut-off function. Should you accidentally put too little water in the kettle, this will stop it boiling dry.
One very basic thing to look out for is how a kettle is filled. A button-operated flip-top lid is worth having, as it means you don’t need to put your hand anywhere near the spout – or any steam coming out of it – when you’re refilling it.
We would also avoid buying any cheap kettle that has a mains cable connected directly to the jug itself, as the slot-in stand design of most modern kettles is far safer.
Finally, think about noise. The difference between our quietest and loudest kettles, which measured in at 52 and 63 decibels respectively, is considerable, especially if you have a low tolerance to noise.
What kettles are the most energy efficient?
Many kettles claim to be energy efficient but determining which is the most energy efficient model isn’t as simple as trusting the manufacturers’ claims. In reality, most kettles are going to cost the same amount to run, with a minimal cost saving over the year – we’re talking pennies.
That being said, there are small variations in boil times and how quickly the temperature drops after boiling – important if you want to cut down how often you re-boil.
