Tea Kettle Testing & Results

In this test kitchen, we’ve looked good and hard at ten of the best tea kettles on the market to find the ones that can best fit into your life. If you’ve never thought too much about your tea kettle, well, that would have been two of us. It’s surprising how much variation there is on the market, and how little of it is captured in the price tag. This page recaps our testing and showcases our ratings for the top kettles we test.

Best Tea Kettles

[Reviewed, Ranked & Rated]

1. Le Creuset Tea Kettle — ★★★★ Best Overall

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One of our overarching questions for this test is, “does more money buy a better tea kettle?” In the case of Le Creuset, the answer is yes. This kettle is extremely good, and I think anyone would be perfectly happy to have it in their kitchen. Is it worth over a hundred bucks, though? Maybe not, but there’s something to be said for getting the best. Le Creuset is kind of squat with a wide base and a high folding handle. The look is very much French country with classic lines. It’s available in a variety of colors, including Le Creuset’s trademark Flame (red upward fading to orange) Caribbean (turquoise), Cerise (red), Indigo, Marseille (blue), Oyster (gray), , White. The handle and simple lever spout cover are black plastic.

The folding handle and wide opening make filling very easy. The tea kettle comes to a boil quickly, and I noticed that the loud whistle sounded more pleasant than average.

Pouring was very smooth, and the shaped handle afforded a good grip in whatever position the fill level required. The shape of the kettle makes pouring easier since it channels water towards the spout when tilting it. Many other kettles have a shape that traps the water below the spout.

I don’t know if Le Creuset is worth the hefty price tag, but it is extremely good. It’s attractive, boils quickly, sounds a loud whistle, and pours neatly and well. This is your Cadillac choice of tea kettles.

2. Cuisinart Aura — ★★★★★ Best Value for Electric Stoves

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The Cuisinart Aura is a solid kettle at a reasonable price. The design is simple and attractive to fit a modern kitchen. The body of the kettle is available in silver, metallic red, or metallic copper. The handle is a large solid loop of black plastic. The spout cover is button-style, and latches open once you press the button.

The Cuisinart Aura is pleasant to use, but definitely better for an electric stove. The handle loops high enough away from the filling hole that it’s easy to fill with any faucet. One small problem with filling is that the max fill line is printed on the outside of the tea kettle, so you can’t see the water against the line.

The base of the kettle is a little small, so it got extra-hot on the gas stove. The button mechanism for the spout cover works well, and is conveniently placed, though my hand clipped the close button while gripping through a towel. The handle is well-shaped and lets you change your grip as the weight of the water in the tea kettle demands. The spout pours well and with control.

Overall, this is a great kettle for people with an electric stove who don’t care about a loud whistle. For folks with a gas stove, it’s still pretty good, and a solid value.

3. Müeller — ★★★★★ Best Value for Gas Stoves

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The Müeller is an all-around good kettle whose most notable feature is an especially wide base. The good and bad features of the Müeller are intrinsically tied to that base. It’s no trouble to recommend this kettle, especially for folks with a gas stove, but you might do better on an electric. The tea kettle is all stainless steel with an industrial style and a spring-loaded spout cover, and includes an infuser.

Filling the Müeller is easy enough, as it features a reasonable amount of space between the handle and filling hole. The wide base lets you use relatively high heat on a gas stove without worrying about flames lapping around the sides.

The handle was the coolest in the test, but the spout lever suffers the usual problem of being directly connected to a steam source, so I still needed a towel to handle this right off the stove. We did run the stove at full blast for all the kettles, so a more judicious heat level would probably give you a cool grip. The pour was extremely smooth, second only to the All-Clad. I especially appreciate how the grip is in exactly the right place for an easy pour. The only downside on pouring is that the very wide base puts a lot of water all but out of reach. You have to turn it almost upside-down to get all the water out, and it’s not light.

Despite a couple of small hitches, this is a really good kettle.  The handle design is excellent and the price is right. While there are faster and louder kettles in the test, the usability pushes the Müeller to the top of the list, especially for a gas stove.

4. Mr. Coffee Claredale — ★★★★★ Best Bargain

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Could the cheapest kettle in our roundup stand up to the competition at five times the price? Yes! The Mr. Coffee is not the best kettle around, but the low, low price makes it an unbeatable bargain. Available in either Brushed Stainless Steel or Red (with stainless peeking out in several spots), both versions have a tall black plastic handle with finger grips. The spout cover is a button style at the front of the handle.

There’s enough room under the Mr. Coffee handle for easy filling. It’s obvious when you handle this tea kettle how lightweight it is compared to the other kettles in the test. All the metal is very thin, and I don’t expect to be passing this one on years down the road. The whistle, though good and loud, sounds a bit unpleasant when it reaches a boil.

Pouring the Mr. Coffee is pretty solid. The handgrip is in exactly the right place for a comfortable pour, and while the thin metal passed plenty of heat up to the handle, it was easy to grip through the towel. The actual mechanics of pouring could be better — the spout is wide and short, so the pour is sloppy and requires finesse it shouldn’t.

Every bad thing I said in the last few paragraphs pales in comparison to the price. At $15‒20 depending on color, the Mr. Coffee is an astonishing bargain. It’s a credible piece of kitchen equipment at an incredible price.

5. OXO — ★★★★

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Early in this article I ran through the three different styles of spout covers that you’ll see on most whistling tea kettles. OXO had their own idea, and it’s a good one. When you grab the handle and pick up the kettle, an ingenious lever automatically opens the cover. There’s no hot lever to push or button/lever that dictates your hand position while pouring. The OXO cuts an interesting figure in the kitchen featuring interesting curves that loop back and forth to form the handle mechanism. The whole kettle is in stainless steel with black plastic handles.

Filling the OXO could be better. There is no max fill line, so I estimated it at just below the spout, which is a bit too much — 2 liters is probably a better fill level. The offset lid offers a good opening for any faucet, though the handle rides a little low for my taste.

When pouring, the automatic handle works great. It was on the hot side, but the simplicity makes using a towel easy. While the pour started out great, it was tricky to pour out all of the water. There’s not really enough handle length to comfortably tilt the OXO all the way over to get the last half liter. I have some concerns about the longevity of the handle mechanism. It’s got to support the weight of the full tea kettle in motion every time you pick it up.

Overall, it all comes down to the handle (which is very good) and the price tag (which is high). This is a good tea kettle that you’ll be happy with, but I think I’d rather have Le Creuset for a little more money, or the Müeller for half the price. Still, that handle is very good.

6. Willow & Everett — ★★★

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Here’s our third kettle in the same vein as the Müeller and Chef’s Secret. It has a similar wide base, but tapers quicker than the other two giving it a smaller capacity. Speaking of capacity, this is our worst offender in exaggerating its capacity. The box and website claim 3 liters, but we measured it at 1.5 liters. Like its sister models, the Willow & Everett shows off an industrial style in stainless with black handles, and a spring-loaded leer spout cover. It includes a tea infuser.

Like the Müeller and the Chef’s Secret, filling the Willow & Everett is easy under the high arching handle. There is no max-fill line, but it’s easy enough to see the base of the spout. This whistle on this model is the loudest in the test — lawnmower loud, according to some internet charts.

Sadly, the Willow & Everett doesn’t match the Müeller’s handle heat performance. The handle and spout lever were quite hot coming off the gas stove. The handle is well-positioned, and while this tea kettle has the common problem of water getting stuck at the base, it pours reasonably well. I still don’t like the way the spring-loaded spout lever forces my hand into one position.

This kettle is perfectly fine, but I’d rather have the Müeller for two-thirds the price.

7. RockUrWok — ★★

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The RockUrWok kettle is a small kettle that didn’t perform as well as we’d like. It’s got some good points, like the attractive mid-century-modernish kettle design (available in white, honeydew, or blue) and some bad points like the ugly handle, and its slow boil time. The spout cover is in the simple lever style, in the same fake-wood Bakelite as the handle.

The RockUrWok has one feature I came to love in our testing — a folding handle. For filling, the best thing your handle can do is get out of the way, and this one made filling super-easy. The handle gets canceled out a bit by the lack of a max-fill line on this model.

This kettle has a small base, which hurts it in a couple of ways. First, it can’t use the full power of the big burner, and a good chunk of the heat just floats away. The other way hurts you too on a gas stove, since everything gets really hot, including the ugly handle and spout cover. The pour spout pours easily with good control, and while the handle works well when starting to pour, it becomes questionable when getting to the bottom of the tea kettle. You’ve got to raise the back of the kettle pretty high, but the plastic part of the handle doesn’t let you move your grip back, so the arm makes a more difficult angle.

Summing up, the RockUrWok is not that great, but not terrible. This is one to buy because you like the aesthetic, ugly fake wood and all.

8. Poliviar — ★★

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The Poliviar captures plenty of superlatives in this test: slowest boil time, quietest whistle, fakest-looking materials, and ugliest overall aesthetic. It’s not all bad, though. The button-style spout cover operates pretty easily, and the shape of the ugly handle is nice. It’s hard to pin down a style for this kettle, with a body in fake Grey stone (or Matte Black, Silver, Aqua, Black, Seabed, or a different Silver), handle and lid in super-fake wood, and spout in stainless.

Filling the Poliviar is simple enough, with the high handle staying well out of the way. There is no max fill line, but it’s easy enough to see the spout level. The shape of the kettle is not helpful. The base is too narrow, so it can’t take advantage of the full size of the electric burner. A gas stove gets the flame everywhere, but also heats up the handle way too much.

Pouring is fairly good, except for the extremely hot handle on the gas stove. A towel makes it acceptable, but the towel makes it tough to keep the spout button in the right position.

All-in-all, the Poliviar is not terrible, but it is extremely ugly. I wouldn’t want it in my kitchen, especially on my electric stove.

9. All-Clad — ★

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The All-Clad is a nice enough kettle, but does not come close to justifying its staggering price tag. In a side-by-side comparison, we judged it to be only marginally better than the Mr. Coffee at 20% of the price. It’s solidly built with an attractive industrial style that communicates a professional seriousness. The spout cover is a simple lever in the same stainless steel as the rest of the kettle.

The handle on the All-Clad rises high over the filling hole, so it’s easy to fill it with any style of faucet. The max-fill line is extremely easy to see while filling, which I can say about very few of these kettles.

The handle is good for pouring, and easily affords a towel or hot pad. The spout is excellent, with a very smooth and controlled pour. The big problem when pouring is the extreme weight. When full, the All-Clad is just over 7 pounds, which is a lot to torque around comfortably.

All-Clad’s business is first-class pots and pans that use the best metals in careful combination to heat as evenly as possible for perfectly controlled cooking. I would imagine that if I wanted to sear some meat in one of these kettles for some reason that the All-Clad would excel, and the others would be revealed as inferior cookware. But we’re judging kettles here, and they just don’t need that much sophistication. You’re not going to scorch the water in even the cheapest kettle. This is not worth $100.

10. Pykal — ★

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Some design decisions make you wonder how anyone ever thought they were a good idea. In the case of the Pykal, it’s the spring-loaded button-style spout cover. Someone was extremely concerned that the cover might come open and someone might get their water out, so they put a super-powered spring on the button that’s already in exactly the wrong place. Setting that aside, the Pykal is a modern-style kettle in stainless steel with black plastic handles. It comes with two tea infusers.

The handle on the Pykal rises very high, so it’s easy to fill in any faucet. The handle is so high that it remains relatively cool, even on the gas stove.

When pouring, everything comes back to that button. It’s right on top at the front of the handle, so you have to swing the kettle on a very long lever arm with your hand in front of the center of mass. It’s in the exact wrong place, and it requires actual effort to press. Once actually pouring, the spout is pretty good.

That spout cover is a dealbreaker. This thing just doesn’t work, doubly so for folks with small hands.

Results Summary

Le Creuset
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Mr. Coffee
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Cuisinart Aura
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Müeller
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I came into this wondering whether there could possibly be enough differentiation between tea kettles to possibly make sensible recommendations, and after three days of testing, I can say that there are some real winners here. Our Best Value picks are the Cuisinart Aura for an electric stove and the Müeller for a gas stove. Both are reasonably priced and easy to use, but the shape of the base should be different for different kinds of stove. The Best Overall pick is Le Creuset. The price tag is big, but it performs basically perfectly for a pleasant cup of tea. The Best Bargain is the Mr. Coffee: a good kettle at an amazing price. It won’t last forever, but grab one for a summer rental and you’ll be more than satisfied.

I think it’s time for another cup of tea.

Testing Notes

Ratings & Metrics

It’s worth noting, the tables featured under each of the products (featuring capacity, weight, boil times, etc) requires a little interpretation;

Capacity listed reflects actual capacity not advertised capacity. Electric Boil test was conducted by filling each kettle to its full capacity, while the Gas Boil test was completed by filing each kettle with 1 Litter of water. Boil times are represented in minutes and seconds.

What We Tested For

Boil Time
Nobody wants to wait around on the tea kettle. Boil times for 1 liter range from just under 5 minutes to nearly 6½. Filled to the max-fill lines, the differences are even bigger, even adjusting for the amount of water involved.

Whistle
The quietest whistles in the test can barely be heard from across the room, while the loudest ones could wake up the whole house. If you like a pleasant steam whistle to announce when your water is ready, take a look at our volume measurements, probably for something in the mid-range. We also note any that seemed especially unpleasant.

Ease of Use
This is the biggest thing we looked for in our testing. If you’re going to use this thing every morning, it should be easy to use and comfortable to hold.

Filling
A good tea kettle should fill easily from any source. Some of the handles really got in the way. We like a kettle where the handle can fold away, or at least leave enough room over the opening for easy filling.

Pouring
 

You want a kettle that pours with control with the arm in a pleasant natural position and an easy grip. The worst kettles are the ones that force your hand into an awkward position or try to burn you by putting hot parts right where your hand needs to go.

How We Tested

For some of the test days around here, we’ve got a whole battery of tests where we make three or four meals worth of food. For kettles, there’s not much to do but to boil water and drink the occasional pot of tea. The first test was to boil at max-fill on a flat-top electric stove. The second was to boil 1 liter of water on a gas stove. In each trial, we measured the time it took the water to come to a boil. Once boiling, we poured the water into a teapot to get a handle on ease of use. While testing on the gas stove, we measured the volume of the whistle using an A-weighted decibel meter on a tripod 1 meter away.

Overall, there wasn’t a significant difference between performance on the electric stove and the gas stove. We ran this test because my folks have an old copper kettle that became unusable when they got a flat-top stove. It has a rim that holds the base of the kettle off the burner, so now it’s just there for looks. It appears that all modern manufacturers have made their designs to work on a flat-top, but you should bear this in mind if you’re looking at antique kettles.

We didn’t get too much data on which handles got hotter than others. On the electric stove, all of the handles were comfortable, while on the gas stove, none of them were cool enough to grab barehanded. I’m sure there’s a sweet spot on the gas burner where there are differences from kettle to kettle, but we only note where something was especially good or bad.

What We Learned From Our Testing

A stovetop kettle offers a quick and easy source of boiling water, perfect for making couscous, rice noodles, or even speeding up pasta preparation by boiling water in both a pot and the kettle. It’s also handy for making instant ramen and tea simultaneously. Stovetop kettles are versatile and make great gifts for tea and coffee lovers alike.

If you don’t come from the biggest tea-drinking family, then an electric kettle might seem like a bit of a novelty product, one that could easily be replaced by a microwave. But after borrowing a roommate’s kettle, I can say that it’s become one of my greatest allies in my mission to turn my home office into a bastion of both comfort and productivity. — allrecipes.com

Stovetop Kettle vs. Electric Kettle

Electric kettles are convenient, especially at work where you can’t install a stove. However, stovetop kettles are simpler and often more durable. They can last a lifetime if well cared for, whereas electric kettles may require replacement when the heating element fails. Stovetop kettles are also more aesthetically pleasing and easier to store.

Stovetop kettles are as simple as it gets. I hesitate to say indestructible, as any small child might prove me wrong, but a good kettle could last you for life. Electric models are hardly disposable, but I’ve had to replace mine a couple of times as the heating elements go kaput.

It’s a matter of taste, of course, but I think a good stovetop kettle looks a lot better in your kitchen. It’s also easier to store than an electric kettle when you’re not using it. Stovetop kettles can fit easily with the rest of your pots, while an electric will occupy a chunk of counter pretty much forever.

A covered kettle boils water faster by trapping heat. All our test kettles have a whistling spout cover that needs to be removed or opened for pouring.

Weight and Capacity

One thing to watch out for here is manufacturers substantially overstating the capacity of their kettle.

Choose a kettle based on how much water you need to boil. Larger kettles take slightly longer to boil but are useful for tasks like prepping a water bath for a cheesecake. Lighter kettles are easier to move around. Be cautious of manufacturers overstating capacities; always check reviews for accurate information.

Mechanisum Styles

Kettles come with different spout mechanisms:

1. The simplest (and my favorite) is the simple lever cover. Opens and closes with a lever, stays open once lifted, and can be boiled without the whistle. 
2. The spring-loaded lever adds an extra linkage to put the opening control under the handle as a trigger button sort of thing. Requires holding a trigger button under the handle, which may not be comfortable for everyone. 
3. The third style hides some sort of mechanism in the handle and gives you a pushbutton. Located in the handle, varies in effectiveness based on design. Try different styles to find your preference. If you can’t, the simple lever style is generally a safe choice.

We recommend you try the different mechanisms yourself to find your personal preference. If that’s not on the table for you, the simple lever style is the most straightforward, and while you might be happier with something else, I can say confidently that you won’t hate it. Alternativity, if you’re looking for gooseneck type kettle, we recommend checking out Fellow.