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Head-to-Head review: Eco Kettle vs. Tefal QuickCup

Written by Rene Millman

Monday, 03 March 2008

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Head-to-Head review: Eco Kettle vs. Tefal QuickCup
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The Eco Kettle

The Eco Kettle works by having a a reservoir of 1.5 litres of water, which then can be measured into a separate chamber by pressing a button on the top. This then sends water into the lower chamber and this chamber has markings to show you how much water is needed for one, two or up to eight cups of water. This, the vendor claims can save up to 31 per cent of energy (compared to boiling a normal kettle) simply because you are only boiling what you need.

We set about testing how the kettle worked in operation. It is much like a normal kettle, in as far as it is shaped like one (although it doesn't quite have the looks of a designer brushed-aluminium kettle). It also has a base, so it functions like an ordinary cordless kettle. With our test kettle, we found that it didn't quite sit nicely on its based, but this did not hinder its operation. We filled up the reservoir and clipped the lid latch (which, while it worked properly, looked like the lid wasn't flush with kettle).

We measured out one cup's worth of water into the lower chamber and switched on. Now this is where it gets good. As we only are boiling one cup. It takes far less time to bring to the boil (we timed it at around 37 seconds from cold to hot for one cup of tea). We poured out the water onto the teabag and made our cuppa. We found that the water was hot enough for us as well and a nice brew!

As the design is the same as a cordless kettle, it can be used in much the same way. I.e. if you are filling up a cafetiere, this is just as easy with the Eco Kettle as an ordinary one.

Overall, you can get a good cup of tea fast with the Eco Kettle but we think that the few design faults (which do not affect the operation of the kettle in anyway) should be rectified in future releases of the kettle. It could also do with a makeover, so it can hold its own in a designer kitchen as its looks are a bit nineties inappearance.