Sage The Compact Glass Kettle, 1 Litre, 2400 Watt, Glass/ Stainless Steel

Product Information

The kettle’s element is hidden in the base, and can boil as little as a cup and as much as 1L. This lets you save energy by only boiling the amount you need, but means, if needed, there will be plenty to keep you and your friends’ mugs topped up. The Compact Kettle also features a wide opening, perfect for both filling the kettle up, and cleaning. Attractive and compact, the sleek, contemporary Compact Kettle from Sage is efficient and won’t take up too much space on your worktop.

The Breville Curve Kettle stands out for its intuitive and easy to use design. The limescale filter is simple to remove, the lid is easy to fit, and it's easy to fill this kettle through the spout, even on full flow. The handle is rounded, making it comfortable to grip and the water gauge can be read as you fill it up too. The quality of the design could be questioned by some however, as the main body is plastic with no steel interior. The handle also feels quite hollow too. Having said that, it’s lightweight and comes at a great price too. If you’re a fan of Emma Bridgewater, then you will love this polka dot-inspired kettle. It offers a traditional pyramid design which feels of good quality thanks to the painted stainless steel body. It comes with a looped handle on top, unlike any of the others we’ve tested. However, we found this design to be a bit hit and miss, mainly because the handle can get in the way when you’re trying to remove the lid or refit the filter. It’s also naturally a little more bulky than a jug kettle because of its traditional shape, so you will need more countertop space for it. The iKettle Original from Smarter stands out for its smart capabilities. It connects to the Smarter app, through which you can control and monitor the kettle. This includes the live capacity as well as temperature readings. There’s no water gauge on this kettle, which seems remiss, but the app tries to replace it. Personally, we think a gauge would be more useful as you can’t see the measurements while you fill the kettle from the sink. The app also offers a keep warm setting, which lasts for 40 minutes, as well as Home mode, so you can prepare the kettle to boil for when you arrive home, and Formula mode, which will boil and cool the water to the best temperature for making formula. You can also set the temperature within one degree from 20-100°C, which gives you great control.

The Sage Compact Kettle is a good kettle for small kitchens

We were amazed by how quiet this model was, emitting just 64dB when boiling, which is way lower than anything else we tested. We also loved that it comes with a 235ml minimum capacity, which means you won’t waste anything if you’re boiling water for one cup of tea. However the exterior gets very hot, reaching 87.6°C after boiling one litre, so you need to be cautious around it. This is also the case if you remove the lid while it’s still hot, as the steam rises past the handle. This sweet design isn’t the most practical, but it’s great if you don’t want to wake the house up in the mornings. If you’re a fan of the design, but not so much the polka dots, it’s also available with a pink hearts theme. Style: most kettles sit on the countertop, so think about how it will look within your kitchen and among other gadgets. These days, there's a style of kettle for most types of kitchen, be they classic, old-fashioned, shaker, futuristic or trendy, so you should be able to find a range of options. Consider footprint too, and whether you prefer a jug-style or pyramid design. When put to the test, the iKettle didn’t perform as well as we hoped. It was slow to boil, needing two minutes and 18 seconds to boil a litre, and the external casing was a dangerous 92.1°C. It was one of the lowest scorers for energy efficiency too, needing 0.1195 kWh to boil the same amount. We noticed whenever it reached its boiling point, a lot of steam escaped around the lid as well, which was not sealed well. There’s also no minimum capacity listed for this kettle as well — there’s no mark inside the kettle, in the instructions or listed online, so it’s anyone’s guess. It comes with quite a few negative points, but the smart capabilities did impress and it’s the best for temperature control as well.

With a push-button, slow release lid, the kettle prevents hot splashes of boiling water, and staggers steam release. The jug is made from high-quality German-made Schott glass which both allows you to see the water level at all times and provides a naturally pure finish. As the kettle heats, the temperatures on the base light up to show the progress, and we found it very quiet while boiling, measuring just 73dB. In fact, we noted that it sounds a little like rainfall as it boils, with a high-pitched tone. However, its main let-down was the casing reaching 89.8°C when boiling one litre; this makes it quite hazardous for young children or pets. It’s also a heavy kettle, which is almost expected given all of the features, but this was the heaviest of all we tested. Despite that, there’s nothing else like it, and it’s the one to buy if aesthetics and features mean more to you than anything.If appearance means a lot to you, we definitely recommend the KitchenAid Variable Temperature Kettle. With its traditional pyramid shape and built-in temperature gauge, it was easily the prettiest of kettles we tested, featuring a painted aluminium exterior (there are either colours to choose from) and a cushioned handle. It’s got some weight to it (1271g when empty) — which is perhaps too much for some. It offers variable temperatures from 50-100°C and makes an audible noise when it starts and finishes.