Cheap Pleasant Hearth 2,200 Square Feet Wood Burning Stove, Large

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Amozon's price is $100 higher than Lowes plus $300 in shipping costs. This stove puts out a significant amount of heat however, the burn time is more like three hours opposed to ten as stated.

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This is a very nice stove. It is very heavy. This was delivered in an 18-wheeler, so it couldn't come up my drive-way to be home delivered. They had to drop in off at my mother's house and then we had to take it the rest of the way. Make sure you have a hand truck! The truck driver did call me about 30 minutes before it was delivered. The stove heats up my house nicely. The window is a little hard to clean, but it is nice to be able to view the flames. Be careful when moving the stove around to get it in line with the flu. We scooted it and one leg ripped off. It is still a nice stove, shipped on a pallet, covered with a shrink wrapped box.

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I checked a lot of stoves on line and this one really fits the bill. It provides the only heat for a fairley large kitchen recreation room at a R>V> park.The glass front provides a country ambience that fits with the "on the beach" locdation.

Discount Mr. Heater 40, 000 BTU Propane Garage Heater #MH40LP

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $565.34
Sale Price: $437.23
Today's Bonus: 23% Off

I liked the first one so much I got another one for my new shop. Easy to install, no power needed, no smell and no noise. It even works when the overhead door is open.

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Discount Hy-c Company,inc UL3242ST-3 "Sandstone" Stove Board 32"x42" (Pack

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it shipped quickly and held up well, but it wasnt as nice as we expected, and neither amazon or the HY-C website said it had raised edges or rounded corners, but instead said they could be tiled to cover a larger area

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Cheap EdgeStar 2.0 Cu. Ft. Ventless Combo Washer/Dryer - White

Customer Ratings:

Works very well. Bought for my 92 yr old uncle,think he got it figured out now. Very quite and balanced well for a extremely fast spinning machine.controls pretty easy to understand.

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I live in a studio apartment with no washer/dryer hookups so a ventless washer/dryer combination was the only option for me. After reading mixed reviews of the Haier 1.8 Cu. Ft. model and not wanting to spring $1500 for an LG, I chose the Edgestar and I am quite satisfied so far. There are many things to love about this appliance: the custom cycle selector is great, the washer cleans very well, the machine is whisper quiet,you can select wash only or dry only, and the water usage is minimal. And then there is the dryer. Yes it takes a long time to dry about 90 minutes for a small load, but if you are patient, clothes come out wrinkle-free and smelling great. I recommend the Edgestar for a single person who does not have to wash big loads frequently. A comforter will wash fine, but I would not try to dry it in a ventless dryer. Plan on 3 hours or more from start-to-finish for towels or a load of jeans.If that works for you, then this is a great purchase.

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Product arrived defective. The company who sold this had to use a third party to schedule the service repair. That this party had to call someone else to actually do the repair. No accountability for their products. We hired our own technician who laughed when he saw the brand name; he had never heard of it. Truth be told, I really wanted this machine to work well for us and had very high hopes. Ultimately it was a complete waste of time.

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I have an Edgestar CW 2200 washer dryer combo. The spin cycle began to malfunction to the point it finally stopped spinning, I got online and tried for months to find a part supplier-Sears use to sell parts but apparently no longer do. I called the Edgestar company, they haven't made the units for at least 8 years and have no parts nor any advice on someone who does.

I got my machine used, it worked for one month. When it worked it was the best little machine I'd ever used, now it's just an expensive and bulky space gobbler.

LG and I believe Phillips both sell Washer Dryer units, I'd suggest you purchase one of those as they are currently in production and parts should be available.

Edgestar. Such a disappointment.

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I purchased this product for a small apartment. The product arrived as scheduled but has never worked. It washes/spins but doesn't dry. Ever. The dryer runs for hours but the clothing comes out as if it's just been spun. I contacted EdgeStar and they couldn't find the product from the model/serial because it was an Amazon order. Once the product was found they scheduled a repair man. He showed up to tell me that his company doesn't fix EdgeStar appliances. I'm returning the product. It's caused me nothing but frustration.

I recommend you save your money.

Buy 240V Register Plus Fan Forced Wall Heater in White

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List Price: $207.95
Sale Price: $144.62
Today's Bonus: 30% Off

Excellent heater and very well built. Delivers plenty of heat and is reasonably quiet. The unit is easily able to heat an all glass and cement floor 200 square foot sun room. Definitely recommend. Very good value.

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Reviews of Pelonis Classic Ceramic Heater

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List Price: $99.99
Sale Price: $89.19
Today's Bonus: 11% Off

With dozens of so called "ceramic" portable heaters on the market it can be very difficult to sort through all the models. Here are the facts friends; Pelonis (Del Rain) pionerred the original fully ceramic portable heaters back in the mid 80's...these models use 100% ceramic heating (disc design) elements and will approximately double the amount of heat available, watt for watt, than all other so called "ceramic" heaters. Why the confusion? the lower cost units (20-30$) use very small ceramic conductive elements which are then joined to long metal type heating fins; (there is only an upfront cost saving); the pelonis disc furnace will pay for itself in less than one heating season! And, by the way, our own space shuttles employ this same type of heating unit on their missions. Case dismissed.

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The Pelonis Disc Furnace is the most efficient and safest small space heater ever built. Dispite their small size, they can easily heat a large room.

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The B-6A1 ceramic space heater is one of the best I have used over many years experience...It far exceeds those which cost less, such as the one's offered at Lowe's, Home Depot, K-Mart, Wal-Mart and elsewhere...In my opinion it is better buildt and puts out more heat than others...It is also far quieter and has a varible temp. selector...You will find that this heater cost more, but you only get what you pay for...It will give you years of good service..

Honest reviews on Pelonis Classic Ceramic Heater

My Dad bought an original Peopnis disc furnace in 1982 because it was used on NASA flights to heat the spacecrafts. How cold does it get up there???

We still have it and it works great.

I have bought over 25 Pelonis furnaces since then. They originally called them furnaces for a reason. Here are the pros and cons. The ones with forced air are not as good as the true ceramic. The ones with out the ceramic discs are not any better than other cheap heaters. The Original ceramic only are excellent par anything They heat up the rooms in our trailer from 25 degrees to 75 degrees 10x12 rooms) and turn off automatically in about 15 minutes. That is unbelieveable The heat penetrates into the furniture and into you. It is not just ehating the air it heats the contents of the room. We did get a black plastic one and it did melt the case when we had it too close to a metal item but oh well, it still runs 10 years later!!! I recommend the original Pelonis with temp control, the browm metal box type. We have had the newer styles and oscilating and no it is not like the original for sure. Thanks for listening

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Do not buy this heater or any Pelonis product. I bought this heater two months ago. I turned this heater on and it burned my linoleum floor. I tried calling the number on their web site and it just rings and rings. I sent an email to them and I have not received a response.

I bought the same model twenty years ago and was extremely happy with it. Comparing it with the new model there is no comparison. The new one is built really cheap and flimsy. The are lots of plastic parts with the new one. My old was made in the USA while the new one now made in China.

Reviews of World Marketing Pelonis Ceramic Safety Heater

Customer Ratings:

This heater replaces an older Pelonis heater which we have had for 20 years. We are pleased with the adjustable fan speed and the adjustable heat. The heater turns off if picked up, so that is a nice safety feature. The heater works fine for a bath, but would not work well in an office, since the fan is very noisey.

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This heater is just what I was looking for at a reasonable price. I wanted a heater just for my bathroom, so I don't have to turn up the heat in my whole house. This does the trick perfectly, and safely.

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Very small, but is better than most large heaters. Perfect for a room, or as I'm using it, in my RV.

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This heater is awesome for my apartment. I do have central heating but we also have large windows with poor insulation. This is perfect for those nights when the thermostat is turned down in the rest of the house but our bedroom is kept toasty for ourselves and our dogs.

This little heater is super powerful and so far I've only used it on the low setting, at medium heat. I love that it has some type of internal thermostat to shut off before baking us. The safety mechanism of shutting off when tipped over is a plus with clumsy dogs.

Great price, very toasty, compact--I love it!!

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EDIT: December 9th, 2011.

Since mid-november, I began using this heater on low settings for about 1hr at a time (2-3 hours a day)to warm up the one small bedroom

Cheap Camco 20836 24"ID x 2" Aluminum Drain Pan with CPVC Fitting

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List Price: $31.04
Sale Price: $28.72
Today's Bonus: 7% Off

The first order came in damage. Amazon shipped me another one next day at no charge.

The Drain Pan fix Water Heater greater than 75 Gallons.

I need a large Drain Pan and Amazon had it and it was the least expensive.

Both Lowes and Home Depot do not stock this size.

Thanks,

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Product arrived in a timely fashion and is of decent quality for the money (cheaper than buying in home depot). Many of these are plastic and cost as much. We like this one just fine.

Discount American Harvest 52,300 BTU Pellet Stove with Exhaust Blower

Customer Ratings:

The reason many people end up dissatisfied with this stove is poor documentation. The stove really will efficiently burn wood pellets, cherry stones, corn, and other biomass fuels. The problem is that the manual explains virtually nothing about how to adjust the stove to get an efficient burn out of any of these fuels.

The fuel/air mixture is controlled from a digital keypad on the side of the stove. It is rather cryptically labelled with the digits 1-9 and the letters A, B, and C. The manual says that A controls the auger speed which means it controls how fast fuel is fed into the burn chamber. B, it is claimed, controls blower speed. C stops the auger for 90 seconds.

Where we run into problems is that all the default settings, in my experience, have a fuel/air mixture that is too rich. That is to say that there is too much fuel and not enough air. The result is that the stove burns poorly, produces a lot of soot, and doesn't heat well.

If you go to the keypad and simultaneously press and hold the A down arrow and the B up arrow for 5 seconds the display will flash; this means you can adjust base auger speed and base blower speed. This is where the manual really falls down.

Now press A. The LED above A will light and you will see numbers in both the A and B displays. 7 and 7, for example. What the booklet doesn't tell you is that this is basically a decimal display that means 7.7! You can adjust auger speed by tenths all the way from 1 to 9.

Press B and you can do the same thing with blower speed.

The booklet also confuses the blower issue. There are actually two blowers at work. B adjusts the blower that forces air into the burn chamber, not the fan that blows hot air into the area you want heated.

With a clear idea of what the keypad actually does, you should dial auger speed way down and blower speed up. With premium wood pellets I usually have the base auger speed set at around 2 and the base blower speed set at around 8. From there, as you adjust the heat level up and down, you just have to adjust the damper accordingly.

The manual notes that you should add chicken scratch to corn to avoid clinker formation. I've found it's a good idea to add it to any fuel that you are using.

Finally, avoid the temptation to run the stove with the damper too far open. This gives a blow torch look to the flame. You want to avoid it because it promotes clinker formation and because it blows a greater amount of fly ash around the inside of the stove than necessary.

With respect to fuel types: Wood pellets produce the greatest amount of heat and the smallest amount of fly ash. Corn and cherry pits have to be burned in greater volume to keep the house at the correct temperature and they produce greater amounts of ash. This means, in practice, that the stove has to be cleaned less frequently with pellets than with other fuels.

Overall, this stove works very well and would have a better reputation if American Harvest had put any effort whatsoever into producing a manual that explained how the controls function.

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I have had my stove for a year now. It cost about $300 to heat my 1600 sq ft basement heated. The additional benifit is that because the heat rises, my floors are warm on the first floor, and the air in the family room which is also the room with the stairs to the basement is warmer.

There are a couple issues that you must take into consideration:

Dry corn is a must. I buy corn from a local farmer with a moisture content of about 14 14.5%. This is a little higher than recommended by the manufacturer, so I add 2 lbs. of wood pellets per bushel of corn. I also add about 1/2 lb. of oyster shell (chicken scratch) per bushel to virtually eliminate klinkers.

The stove needs to be clean. I shut the stove down once a week for cleaning. Empty the ash bin, vacuum the firebox area, the heat transfer tubes, and the chimney clean-out.

Noise is about equal to a normal box window fan in good condition. The noise I hear is tha actual air blowing more than anything else. The firebox does lift up and drop back down on occasion, but this happens on average about once every hour or so, less immediately after a cleaning, more after 5 or 6 days of running.

Power. You must have electricity to run. If the power goes out, so does the stove. This will not keep you warm during power outages. We have lost power while the stove was running, but all that happened was the stove went out. No fumes seemed to back up into the house, but I had closed the air intake vent immediately. I would imagine that if you didn't close it, it would smell a bit until the fire died out.

It is much more work than just turning up the thermostat, but I have saved more than half the cost of the stove in propane compared to last winter. I am thinking about purchasing another one for the upper level.

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I bought one of these American Harvest beauties from the local farm supply store for $1280. I have had it hooked up and running for about a month now and am thinking about selling it. Here is what I do not like about it:

1. Its noisy.

Today it started to rattle. It sounds like the fan that circulates the heated air.

It makes frequent "bangs". When using corn large "clinkers" form in the burn tray. There is a bar inside the burn tray that rotates and keeps things mixed up. These "clinkers" wedge against the rotating bar and cause the burn tray to lift up and drop back down again...Bang! Luckily I can sleep through anything. The wife on the other hand hasn't slept much since we got this. :-(

2. Requires frequent cleaning.

The burn tray has holes drilled in. Corn is dropped into the burn tray and gets burned. The resulting ash is forced through the holes into the ash drawer, or that is how it is supposed to work anyway. In actuality, the spent corn is forced out of the burn tray into the pit that surrounds it. After a couple of days you need to shut the stove off for a couple of hours then vacuum out the pit. You need to let it rest for a couple of hours to make sure that it is completely burned out or you will start your vacuum on fire. I have tried using fireplace utensils to clean the pit but that doesn't work very well. The manual that comes with the stove recommends adding chicken scrath to the burn mixture to get a more complete burn. That doesn't seem to help mutch. They also recommend buying low-moisture corn. I asked the guy at the farm store what the moisture content of his corn was. You can probably guess how well that worked out.

The window requires frequent cleaning. This stove comes complete with something called "fire wash" technology that is supposed to keep the window clean. It doesn't work.

3. Difficult to regulate tempurature.

The stove has two controls. One controls the heat output and the other controls the blower for the heated air. The winter in my location is generally pretty mild so we usually run the stove somewhere between 1 and 3 (9 is the highest). I think the stove was designed to run at a higher output than this. This morning I was getting ready for work and noticed that it had completely burned out. Evidently, on a setting of 1 it doesn't add corn fast enough to keep itself burning. I relit it and bumped it up to three. Hopefully it will still be burning when I get home.

You also need to be careful what setting you leave the blower fan on. Set it too low and the stove will overheat and make your house smell funny. You really need to keep the fan set on at least 4 or 5. Sure its loud, but at least it smells better.

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I have owned this stove for more than a year. It has been nothing but a head ache. It smokes up my house and has shut down for countless reasons. I take a lot of care in running the stove and cleaning it...more than the average person would care to face. Their customer service is horrible. I find it hard to believe they own the stoves themselves with how they blame each and every problem on the customer. According to them they have no "problems". I love the idea of burning corn for fuel but I would definatley try out a different model and different company. Anyone interested in this model should research the difficulties other people face. I am definately not the only one wouldn't you agree?

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I have owned two pellet stoves before ordering this one, a Harmon Accentra and an old Whitfield. The Whitfield worked about as well as the Harmon and I came to realize they all operate on the same principal so I was not concerned about ordering the 6039.

When I went to install the stove I ran into a problem. I could not attach the 'T' fitting to the stove exhaust outlet. The outlet pipe had been jammed so tightly against the stove sheet metal that there was no gap for the 'T' to fit. I called the company at about 4:25 PM and was on hold for 25 minutes. The person I spoke to was rude and unhelpful but, best of all, she hung up on me at 5:00! I decided to just repair it and worry about the warrenty later.

As for the operation of the stove, I have used pellets only and it does pretty well. The fan is no louder than the other stoves I've owned. It does have to be cleaned weekly but all pellet stoves should be cleaned that often. In fact, some of the older stoves had to be cleaned daily. After 2 months I checked the 'T' fitting and it was virtually clean so I'm assuming the burn is efficient.

This stove does not have an auto ignitor which I was not sure would be a problem. My method is to use a propane (MAP gas) torch to lite the pellets, it works great and is fast and clean.

I have had a problem when it runs out of pellets. The stove will show ERR2 and normally you just add more and restart. Lately however it will just keep shutting down. I removed the side panel and jumped out the low temp switch to keep it running and after a few hours it was back to normal.

I would only recommend this stove based on it's price and only if you are confident you can repair it yourself. Customer service is worse than useless. As far as parts, it looks like they used off the shelf motors you could interchange with ones from Grainger to save some money.

Duraflame 10HM1342-O128 Infared Quartz Electric Room Heater Air Reviews

Customer Ratings:

Well, we've only had this baby on three times so far, but she unpacked and rolled to her new home in the sun room very smoothly and heated the large area quickly and quietly. If the coming winter presents any problems I'll check back in. Perfect so far!

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I live up on a mountain where it quickly turns from summer to winter. My basement is almost completely underground and stays cold year round (great in the summer!) and the tile floor doesn't help to retain any heat. Basically the basement gets REAL cold in the winter. Thus far the heater works well to heat the 700sq ft area with 96" ceilings, but it can take some time to heat the entire area. Usually in an hour or two the room is heated and comfortable. I really enjoy the remote and the display. I did a large amount of research on electric heaters, and for your money, this is the best value.

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The Duraflame Quartz Heater has met or exceeded my expectations. Have large open space with 10 ft, ceilings and had been told

this would not heat such a large area. It is doing a very good job of back-up heat as I have an oil furnace which runs much less, saving expensive oil. My 80 year old husband is very sensitive to cold so this is an ideal solution to warm his area without raising the furnace thermostat to heat other areas. I have recommended it to other friends and family.

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I have as of yet to get any answers as to why I HAVE NOT received the Duraflame heater That I have already paid for. I am VERY UNHAPPY with the seervice that I have NOT recieved!!!!

Review of RFFE20-BB Radial Flow Iron Reduction Cartridge by Pentek

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Low levels of Iron is a good thing to have in the water. As long as it doesn't affect the taste of the water or stain your laundry. In my case, it can foul the media that is used in my water treatment system. So I use the RFFE20-BB in line before the system, to remove most of the iron (

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Reviews of Breville BKE820XL Variable-Temperature 1.8-Liter Kettle

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $199.99
Sale Price: $129.95
Today's Bonus: 35% Off

I am relatively new to the tea scene (my wife and I started drinking Teavana teas about a year ago) and as such I have been searching for a really good kettle. I wanted an electric kettle because of their ease of use as well as the extra features some of the nicer kettles offer. After an exhaustive search I decided upon the Breville SK500XL Ikon Stainless-Steel Electric Kettle based in no small part to the excellent reviews it has received on Amazon and other sites.

I went to a few stores to examine it in person and compare it to about ten other electric kettles that the different stores carried but nothing seemed to come close to the design and quality of the Breville. So after finally making my decision, it was simply a matter of time before I made my purchase. I am very glad I waited as within 2 weeks this new Breville kettle was released. While still substantially costlier than the SK500XL, the BKE820XL has a number of features and design improvements that made the extra cost more than worth it. These include:

Multiple temperature settings (different teas require different temperature water for an optimally brew) with 20 minute hold

Improved water level indicators now on both sides (the single water level indicator on the SK500XL is behind the handle which makes it hard to read)

I've only had my BKE820XL a few days (I purchased it from a local store) so I cannot speak to its long term reliability yet, if it is anything like the SK500XL, I don't expect to have any problems.

Oh yeah, and the tea I've made in the last few days is easily the best I've ever brewed! Yay!

UPDATE 1/2/2009: I've had the BKE820XL for over a month now and I still love it! The only thing I've found that I would critique is:

After you are done boiling water for the day, you need to either dry out the lid by hand or leave the lid open for a few hours to let the water evaporate (from the lid where it collects). I am concerned that not doing this might lead to issues down the road.

Even with that, I am still overjoyed with my purchase (which I use at least 5 times a week) and highly recommend it to anyone in search of a quality electric kettle.

UPDATE 3/12/2009 Nothing much to report except that my wife and I are continuing to use our kettle mutliple times a week and are extremely happy with it. It has a permanent place on our counter! :)

UPDATE 09/26/2010 Just wanted to pop on and provide a quick update. We have had this kettle almost 2 years now and have yet to have any issues with it (fingers crossed). We have used it at least once a week (if not a lot more) pretty much without fail and are still very happy with it. At this point if something were to go wrong with it, we wouldn't hesitate to purchase another one. Highly recommended. :)

UPDATE 09/30/2010 A commenter chastised me a bit for not mentioning the BPA controversy in my review. As I mentioned in my reply to her, I would caution everyone to be sure to read the actual scientific papers or publications that are as unbiased as possible. I find a great source for all things scientific to be Arstechnica.com. They have a great way of breaking down complex topics in ways that non-scientific types (like myself) can really understand and absorb (see this BPA article as an example: ).

If you don't want to wait for a conclusive link between BPA and health issues (of which there has not been one to date that I am aware of), I can completely understand and sympathize. If I had an infant I would definitely be doing all I could to minimize their BPA intake. Still, with that said I would ask that anyone concerned by this or other health issues please try to represent the facts in your arguments and not the hype; this allows others to make their own, informed decisions as well.

UPDATE 09/04/2011 We've had our Breville almost three years now and have yet to have any problems with it. Most of the negative reviews seem to be in regard to the potential BPA issue which I've already posted my opinion on (both above & in the comments to this review) however a few have mentioned actual mechanical issues. Perhaps they use theirs more than we do (we use ours at most once per day but probably more realistically about 3 to 4 times a week on average) or maybe they just received a lemon (or perhaps ours is the exception, I couldn't really tell you). I have noticed recently that the lid sometimes stays shut while the water is still hot; I don't know if it has always done this and I never noticed before or if it has recently started to do this, either way I look at it as a design element (to help keep me from spilling hot water on myself) but perhaps it is a design flaw? Regardless all I do is tap on the lid once or twice while pushing the button and it opens right up. Other than that it works just as well as the day we bought it (I still don't have a decent thermometer so I couldn't tell you how accurate it was new or used but the water still seems as hot...for whatever that is worth).

UPDATE 04/09/2012 Well I am sad to report that, after almost 4 years of service, our Breville appears to be on its last legs. Over the last few months we've started to notice some faulty behavior that I suspect is indicative of our unit's impending death. Here are the issues that have started to plague our kettle:

Kettle does not shut off at the proper temperature: this is happening more and more we mostly use our kettle for coffee these days and I use the second highest setting (195 degrees) for our Chemex. The issue is the kettle doesn't always shut off at 195 degrees but will go to a full boil instead. I do not know if it would eventually shut itself off or if this is a true safety issue as I've always notice the issue right away. This is not a huge issue (provided the safety shutoff is still working, which is unknown) as much as an inconvience but it does not bode well for the kettle's future.

For the first time this morning, the Breville shutoff prematurely. I turned the kettle on, set my temperature and the temperature hold and walked away. When I returned (less than 5 minutes later), the kettle had shut off and the water was nowhere close to the 195 degree that it was set to. I was unable to get the kettle to heat up the water to the 195 degree setting as it would (by the sound of it) start to heat up but then before the water was hot enough, it would shut off. The water never got to the correct temperature and the kettle never shut off. It seemed stuck in a repeating cycle. I eventually set the kettle to its highest setting (205 degrees) and the kettle started working again.

To me these issues seem to indicate that the kettle is having issues with its electronics and not with the actual heating unit itself (but obviously this is purely speculation on my part based on my anecdotal evidence). Being that this is the only "high end" kettle we've owned, I don't know if 3+ years is a normal or acceptable lifespan for a tool such as this. I know it only comes with a 1 year warranty but for the price, I had hoped it would last at least 5 to 10 years but perhaps that is unrealistic? Being that my wife and I are mostly coffee drinkers these days, we probably will replace this kettle with gooseneck spout type kettle (like this Bonavita: Bonavita 1.0L Electric Kettle BV3825B) instead of another Breville. Overall I'm still a fan of our kettle and will be sad to see it go.

I believe my original score of 5 stars still stands though I'd change it to a 4.5 if Amazon allowed 1/2 stars.

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First, this kettle is gorgeous! I bought it for it's beauty and easy to use variable temperature and the fact it had a viewing window to easily see how much water was inside. Before I used it, I emailed Breville to find out what type of plastic the viewing window was made from. The response I received was a defensive email about how polycarbonate and BPA are safe for food contact and this kettle is safe. I've been reading the research on BPA and polycarbonate for years, so they didn't share anything new with me. I would have preferred their response to simply state "polycarbonate" and then offer to provide me with more information if I had any concerns.

Regardless, they weren't going to change my mind. I don't feel comfortable with polycarbonate around my boiling (or close to boiling) water and in this day and age where BPA is a huge uproar, I am super surprised that Breville came out with a brand new kettle containing polycarbonate. I would have loved to see this kettle have a glass viewing window and lid, that would have been super! Especially with the price point they are selling this at. Having it be a "toxin free" kettle with no plastic would have been a great marketing move.

I did reply and thank them for the information and politely told them I would be returning it due to the polycarbonate, but that if they came out with a version that had glass instead of polycarbonate, I'd snap it up in a second. I received no further reply from Breville.

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I got this kettle to brew the perfect cup of coffee and I loved it for the first 6 months. Then things started going south. The kettle intermittently does not shutoff when it reaches the proper temp of 200F. Instead it continues to heat to a boil and will boil itself dry unless turned off. Now the audible alarm has stopped working. I can't trust the thermostat and the kettle shouldn't be left unattended the 2 main reasons for purchasing it!

I feel that for what this kettle costs it should have lasted a lot longer. If I had written this review when I first got this kettle I would have given it 5 stars, but experiencing such failure in so short a period of time I can only give it 1 star. I wonder how many of the 5 star reviews were posted right out of the box.

I really got spoiled when this kettle as working properly. I'm on a quest now to find a reliable replacement.

Honest reviews on Breville BKE820XL Variable-Temperature 1.8-Liter Kettle

Despite the 1-star review, which I will get to in a moment, this Breville kettle gets 5 stars for performance and aesthetics, both of which are addressed in detail by others in their reviews, so I will not repeat. It gets 4 stars for durability I have had the kettle for about 2 years and it still works great, however less than a year in, the inside bottom developed several dozen small white spots. I have tried more than once to remove these with baking soda but they persist (I never boil anything other than Brita-filtered water).

Now, why the 1 star? As some others have commented, Breville kettle uses plastic material for the water-level windows on both sides of the kettle not BPA free. Even plastics that have no BPA still leach chemicals into water at boiling temperatures, so the use of plastic instead of glass in a kettle is truly not acceptable any more.

Here are some numbers, to support this potentially serious issue. I recently purchased ZeroWater Water Tester ZeroWater ZT-2 Electronic Water Tester, which measures the amount of dissolved particles in water (with very consistent and accurate results; highly recommended, may change your water drinking habits). We are fortunate to have relatively clean municipal water, its reading came in at 47 TDS (typical range in the U.S. is 51-200), which Brita pitcher gets down to 35 TDS. After boiling Brita-filtered water in this Breville kettle, the TDS reading went UP from 35 to 90 TDS! The same Brita-filtered water boiled on the stove in a non-stick pot went up from 35 to 43 (after boiling for 3 minutes). In a steel pot, the particles' reading went up from 35 to 47. The particles concentration goes up, in large part, due to evaporation of some of the water by steam, thus leaving a higher concentration of heavier (non-evaporating) particles in the pot.

I repeated the test a few days later. The absolute readings were +/3 from the above results, but the conclusion was still very much the same using Breville kettle to boil water adds chemical particles to your drinking water. You have to decide for yourself are the satisfying performance and stylish looks of this kettle worth adding significant unnecessary and potentially harmful plastic particles into your body.

UPDATE 11/15/12:

After about a year, 2 performance issues developed:

1. The auto-shutoff stopped working it actually got delayed, rather than completely not functioning the water would boil and boil, for 5-10 minutes, before the kettle would finally shut itself off.

2. Kettle started leaking at the bottom of the handle. Not a few drops type of leaking, but a little stream.

I'm looking for a replacement now.

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I drink various types of teas constantly to my dentist's consternation, such as Irish and East Frisian in the morning with Pu Erh Tuo Cha and Green Jasmine in the evening. On the weekends I drink French Pressed coffee.

I did it the old fashioned way with a thermometer. Needless to say, but I will anyway, this kettle did make life simpler, but, (always a but) it has not functioned as advertised.

The primary issue is on the boiling setting for black teas. Sometimes it shuts off, and sometimes it doesn't. The other presets have worked flawlessly, and this may only be an anomaly with this particular pot.

I will say that I am going to order a second one, and send this one back to Breville for repairs. That should tell you how much I like the idea of this kettle.