Best kettle 2024: the highest-ranking multi-temp and standard models

Owning the best kettle possible is an essential for tea-loving Brits, and they come in handy in other countries too. Even the very best kettles used to be simple things that boiled water, so you could make tea, instant coffee, Bovril or fill up saucepans to boil veg. About 10 years ago, kettles started adding 'advanced' features such as heating water to temperatures other than 100ºC, and keeping water at the temperature you desire. 

Given the price of energy these days, this seems a bit mad so perhaps it's no surprise that the trend now is back towards old-school kettles that just boil your water and leave it at that. Whichever type of kettle you prefer, you will find the best kettle for you right here.

You can then complete your breakfast selection with the best toaster – you know, for toast – and the best juicer for a morning vitamin rush or best bean to cup coffee machine or best pod coffee machine for a caffeine rush. If you live in a hard water area, the best water filter jug may be an essential as well.

Best kettles 2024 ranking

After approximately 1000 years at the top of this particular list, the Sage Smart Kettle has been ousted by this smart number from KitchenAid. Also known as KitchenAid 5KEK1722, this doesn't do anything very different to the Smeg and Sage kettles below. However, it is very stylish and can heat water to any temperature between 50ºC and boiling point – the others have preset increments of 10ºC. Okay, we know that's not a big deal. 

A handy display on the top of the handle, next to the temperature controls, tells you how heating is going. The pour is pleasingly smooth, and the lid pops open like there's no time to lose. This may not feel as premium as the action on the Smeg or Sage but personally when we want a brew, we don't really want to have to wait for a soft open mechanism to delay my moment to pour in water.

Overall, we prefer the KitchenAid over its equally impressive rivals because we happen to prefer the look, and because it has a slightly smaller footprint. As with goal-line video technology, tiny differences make the difference between glory and failure, in the premium kettle world…

For those of a certain age, this kettle will induce feelings of wistful nostalgia. We imagine it's also appealing to young people, with their bizarre love of retro things. All that's been noticeably updated is that there's now a see-through panel so you can view your water level, and it's cordless of course, with a nice slim base. 

Unlike most of the kettles at the top end of this guide to the best kettles, this one only heats to good, old-fashioned, 100ºC. That's perhaps because, when it was designed, tea was tea. Not this fancy-pants 'green tea' or 'oolong' nonsense. It also lacks a keep-warm function but seriously, who really needs that? Just reboil the kettle. 

As a result, Russell Hobbs' claimed feature set is a bit feeble – 'embossed logo' is an actual selling point, according to the website. It can also 'boil one cup of water in 40 seconds', saving energy wastage but, uh, any kettle can do that. The spout is obviously very much more 'directional' than that found on most modern kettle designs, and you probably will completely miss the cup with it the first few times you use it. However, once you master it, you'll be pouring water like a boss, and wondering why modern kettles have such feeble little, so-called spouts.

However, if you have no need for multiple temperature settings, this is an excellent vessel for making water hot in, and a genuine design icon. Colour choices are classic brushed silver and a new-fangled copper tone. 

We love the Perfect Temperature Kettle from Ninja, and whilst it might not look at swanky as some of the kettle on this list, it's got a huge amount to offer. It features not one, not two, but six temperature settings ranging from 60°C to 100°C, meaning you can tailor your cuppa to absolute perfection. It's also able to boils one cup in under 50 seconds, which is rather impressive if you ask us. 

After using the Perfect Temperature Kettle for a few weeks, it became clear that its 360° swivel base feels a little wobbly. However, that is the only slightly negative thing we could say. It's a great kettle to choose, and isn't overpriced at £99.99. For Ninja, that's not bad at all. 

We keep giving the Sage range top spot in our kitchen tech lists for several reasons: we like the steeled look, the products feel high-end and offer genuine innovation. Although the pricing is not cheap, it's actually pitched below more established names in the premium small appliances market.

So it's almost boring to say it but the Sage Smart kettle is yet another strong, steely and premium-priced product that tops one of our charts. It boils quietly and reliably, has a large, 1.7-litre capacity, looks great for a kettle and has a lid that opens with a pleasingly slow – but not so slow as to be irritating – action. The buttons, as on the Sage Smart Toaster, are amusingly quirky. Has there ever been a UK kettle with a dedicated "oolong" button before? 

This was our #1 kettle for YEARS, and it is still very good. Please note that it is now marketed as simply Sage Smart Kettle; they dropped the 'By Heston Blumenthal' bit a few years back.

The cool Smeg KLF03 kettle smoulders in black, looks sexy in red, or is also available in a selection of other shades. The retro looks work to great effect while the design is practical. 

The 360° swivel base is handy if you have an open-plan kitchen and frequently approach your kettle from different directions. However since the kettle has a squared off shape rather than a round one, you do need to position it with a little care, to get the optimum visual effect.

As with the kettles at number one and two you have various temperature options, a removable and washable limescale filter and a 1.7 litre capacity. It seems to have occasional issues when at the end of its heating programme, needing a couple of goes to decide it's reached the correct temperature. Also, the lid takes what feels like an age to open – the effect is very elegant, admittedly – and the various beeps it makes are a little bit too jaunty for my tastes. Although the fact that the 'turning on' jingle sounds a bit like the first 4 notes of Cars by Gary Numan could be called a plus. 

Nevertheless, the Smeg feels like a properly premium appliance – arguably even more so than the Sage or KitchenAid – and boils water like the best of them. What more could you ask for?

This retro-styled gooseneck kettle is an ideal choice for tea and coffee connoisseurs because it features a really slim curvy neck for delicate pouring and a variable temperature range of 38˚C to 100˚C.

The Dualit Pour Over only has a capacity of 800ml so it’s not the best option if you’re looking for a kettle to fill up a saucepan in readiness for cooking. This is because it takes well over four minutes to boil a full kettle’s worth – 1 minute 25 seconds for a single cup – and it takes too long to pour.

On the plus side, the matt-black stainless steel Pour Over comes with a brilliantly easy push-dial interface, a button to change the temperature units from Fahrenheit to Celsius and a really comfortable handle that makes the act of pouring a cup of tea a veritable delight.

The Swan Alexa Smart Kettle is super easy to set up on the Alexa side of things. You plug it in, switch it on and the Alexa app recognises it immediately, letting you add it to your Alexa devices list and set personalised commands for its operation, such as Alexa, boil the kettle.

Boiling a full kettle takes about six minutes for the top 100ºC temperature while heating it to 60ºC takes about three minutes. When it's about 10 degrees away from the chosen temperature, it might seem like it turned off, but it's just slowing down to get it right. It's 1.5-litre capacity is enough to make about 8 cups of tea.

It has a rather funky Cool-Touch body feature, a design detail that means it doesn’t feel hot to touch, even right after it’s boiled. It also has a Keep-Warm feature, which you guessed it, keeps the water warm once boiled. 

However, it is on the pricer side, which has divided a lot of people. 

As you may have probably gathered, we at T3 are quite fond of Sage household products, partly because they look great but mostly because they work so well. This minimalist kettle is a prime example. The Soft Top Pure comes swathed in Sage’s customary brushed stainless steel so if you already have the Sage The Bambino Plus espresso machine, the Sage The Smart Toast or the Sage The Smart Oven Pizzaiolo indoor pizza oven, then you will very likely want this 1.7-litre kettle to complete the set.

Aside from its stylish looks, this kettle’s main USP is the soft-opening lid that really is soft opening. But that’s about all that’s different about it. Everything else is much the same as most standard kettles. In other words, it boils quickly and pours superbly well.

The Russell Hobbs Groove Kettle is a keenly priced and highly stylish appliance that boils water in quick and efficient fashion. If you’re looking to save some cash on energy bills, the precise level indicators allow you to boil exact amounts with ease. 

In terms of heating up water the 3000Watts is more than adequate. There's blue illumination when the 3kW/3000W kettle is at work and those 1/2/3 cup markers really do help with getting your water levels just right if you’re looking to cut down boil times and energy usage. There’s a push button lid, removable and washable anti-scale filter plus a 360-degree base complete with integrated cable storage. The 61cm is a decent length too.

Meanwhile, the design also comes in a choice of colours. If you don't fancy a stainless kettle, this is the next best thing.

We’re smitten by the Bosch TWK7203GB Sky Kettle chiefly because of it’s very precise spout, which can get boiling water to your cup, pot or pan beautifully. 

At the same time, the Bosch has a great look with a natty base that is home to a touch control panel. It’s a neat variation on the traditional kettle approach we think and works well too.

Elsewhere, there’s an audible alert when boiling point has been reached, but perhaps best of all is the capacity for deciding an optimal temperature for your chosen drink. This is done using the slider on the 360° swivel base. 

Better still the ‘Keep warm’ function means that the kettle will keep your water at the right temperature until you’ve used it.

Best known for its toasters, Dualit also tries its hand at other appliances, making really excellent hand blenders, and not-bad milk frothers, for instance.

Dualit also makes a wide and growing range of kettles, and this is our favourite. It best captures the classic Dualit look of being retro without looking old - timeless, really - and boils quick and fast. The handle allows easy lifting and pouring and the water level gauge is very easy to read. The scale filter is unusually easy to access and clean, too.

Sometimes, the simplest tech, done best, is the most pleasing. It's a shame it doesn't have multi-temperature settings though.

A more affordable Sage kettle, this dispenses with the multiple temperature control and only holds a litre. That's why it's called The Compact Kettle. However, it keeps the same benefits as the pricier Sage devices, being very handsome indeed, quick and quiet to boil, and having an excellent spout and reliable, sproingy lid.

A word of warning though. If you live in a hard water area, don't even think about buying this without first buying an entry from our best water filter jug guide, unless you want to be cleaning regularly. You just know limescale and glass don't mix…

If you fall in love with the look of this one, perhaps its price tag won't put you off. We find it rather squat and unappetising, and overly self-conscious in its analogue affectations, from the temperature dial on the side to the soft "ping" it emits once the desired, adjustable temperature is reached.

On the other hand, the temperature slider is hugely satisfying and covers the widest range of any of these kettles, from 50 to 100 degrees. On the other other hand, our one's lid kept popping up when boiling, and then the pinger stopped working, and it was also kind of loud. 

Doubtless that isn't what usually happens, and probably most of these work fine, but it does go show that not only will money not buy you happiness, it also won't even buy you a kettle that always works.

Yes, that Bugatti. Now, this looks absolutely magnificent, and has a particularly fetching digital display for its variable temperature settings. It can also hold the water at your chosen hotness, has a clock and, if you please, a timer, so you can have it boil at set times. 

Why don't more kettles do that?

It's not the best kettle, being particularly tricky to pour from. However, this does undeniably make a very strong statement. Even if that statement is, 'I am a rich car nut who hasn't got a clue.'

How to buy the best kettle for you

How does a kettle stand out in such a crazily busy field? Two ways: they can be made of premium materials and look like an industrial work of art. And they can use digital tech so as to have different temperature settings.

The latter allow you to make the most of different beverages - coffee requires about 90 to 95 degrees, green tea, which can be literally nauseating when made with boiling water, requires about 80 degrees. Oolong tea requires 90 degrees and white tea about 85. Do you drink oolong tea? Then there you go. Sorted.

Now an interesting thing, in our experience, is that a really expensive kettle will not necessarily last any longer than a cheap one. 

Probably if you tallied up all users around the world, a £100 one lasts longer, but T3.com has had several pricey kettles drop dead after a few months, and we've all owned cheap plastic kettles that lasted for all our student years and well beyond. If you're going high-end, buy from someone who's reputable in terms of accepting returns, like John Lewis or Amazon.

At the end of the day, these things are kettles, for heating up water. We know which ones we like, and we'll tell you here. You can judge for yourself whether you like the look, we'll fill you in as best we can how good they are at boiling and dispensing water without scalding you or exploding. It's hot work, but someone's gotta do it.

Once you're done, come back and check out the rest of our kitchen tech verdicts, links are above. They're way less boring than kettles, we guarantee.

Before you read on, let's answer a few questions.

Do these kettles all have removable scale filters? Yes.

Do they all have variable temperature control? No, though most do. We've mentioned when they don't.

Hey, my variable-temp kettle stops boiling for a while, then restarts when it's heating to a temperature other than 100 degrees! Yes, they all do that. We don't know why. Don't worry about it, guy.

Are these kettles ranked in order? Yes, but based on our taste. And let's face it, kettles are not the most difficult things to get at least somewhat right. Pro tip: browse till you find one you like the look of and can afford.