Cheap Bodum Bistro 17-Oz. Mini Electric Water Kettle

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Having used a basic Black and Decker for the last 7 years, this Bodum though cute is quite irritating to deal with. I liked the size and the aesthetic appeal, but it has proven to be too quirky for my daily use.

First, the unit cannot be manually shut off. So when I want hot, but not boiling water, I can take it off of the base but once the pitcher has been replaced, the unit will continue to boil what is remaining in the pitcher. A huge waste of energy.

Second, if I want more than the small pitcher's worth of water to be boiled, the unit will not allow me to immediately boil a new batch of water. It has to stand and cool down for a lengthy period of time before it will allow another boil. This is in the unit's manual, but seems an unnecessary and annoying feature having spent 7 years with a kettle that allows immediate reuse.

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When I first got this I was very pleased with the looks and it boiled water fine. Then after I was done I set it back on its base to gaze at it's beauty. Then the LED lit up to signal it had tuned itself back on. It realized there was no water present and turned off, only to come back on a few minutes later. The outside of the kettle was getting very hot while that was happening.

The problem was that I had removed the kettle from the base when the water started to boil instead of waiting for the kettle to first switch itself off. This is a really annoying aspect of this kettle. The ON switch should be a ON/OFF switch. You HAVE to let the kettle boil and in turn reset it's ON button. If you place it on the base without water in it with the ON button pressed in it will not reset the button. It just turns the LED on and off every couple minutes or so. Then it gets extremely hot to the touch. It's really the perfect size for my desk though so I will deal with the quirks.

Summary

Let it turn itself off after you boil water unless you want to waste electricity and possibly burn your house down.

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I purchased this small kettle for occasional use while traveling. It fits nicely in my carry-on size suitcase. So far it has endured airport baggage handlers on two trips. It is a simple device that meets my need for small size over functionality.

For home use I really like the Breville SK500XL Ikon that my wife purchased from Amazon about a year ago. We use it almost daily.

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Used this kettle for less than 30 days. One day, filled with water, turned on, and left the room. After a few minutes, I noticed strong odor of burning plastic. Kettle had failed to automatically turn off when boiling, and continued to heat, and melting of the housing/components had ensued. Switch component/handle was too hot to touch and was warped from the heat. Unplugged unit. (There was still water in the kettle, so it had not completely boiled away yet.)

Switch is now melted and stuck into the "on" position, so the kettle can no longer be used.

Emailed Bodum customer service 2 weeks ago and have received no response from manufacturer.

Besides this obvious defect. the design of the kettle is annoying in the way the on/off switch works. Once you depress the switch, you cannot turn the unit off. It only turns off when water boils.

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Edit Feb 2013: Kettle has been redesigned with a proper on/off switch, now it is the perfect small kettle. No exact temp control, but you'll pay at least double for that.

Major problem with this kettle _if_ you frequently want to pour your tea with water that isn't boiling (green tea in particular is awful and bitter brewed with 190F or higher water).

There is no OFF switch. The only way it ever switches off is automatically AFTER the water has been at a full rolling boil for 10 seconds or so.

If you turn it on, let it get to 190-ish, take it off and pour all the water, then put it back on the base, it will still be on and will overheat and damage itself. There is a safety cutoff so it should not catch fire, but repeatedly turning on the heating element dry will eventually cause damage.

So, you either need to use it with a power strip or other switch, not set it on the base when empty, or, pour your tea, add water to the 8oz MIN line, put it back on the base, and waste energy letting it boil and shut itself off.

It's not worth paying to return it so I'll live with it, but it amazes me that designers can screw up something so simple as an electric kettle. Every other one out there (I think) has a switch you can manually shut off.