What we love: Amazon’s house brand offers a selection of good-enough, affordable kitchen gear that gets the job done. True to its name, this Amazon Basics electric kettle is very basic, but it boils water quickly, and a blue light will turn off when the kettle does, so you know it has reached the boiling point and has shut off (there’s no keep warm function).
What we don’t: The 1-liter capacity might be a little limiting for some home cooks, and the opening is somewhat small, but if you just need something that will boil water quickly and you’re on a budget, this is a decent option at a very accessible price.
How we tested electric kettles
All electric kettles have one job: boil water, preferably fast. However, the best ones do a lot more than that. Here’s how we put them to the test:
- Time to boil: We timed how long each kettle took to bring four cups of 72°F tap water to a rolling boil.
- Accuracy: For kettles with temperature presets or variable settings, we used an instant-read thermometer to verify they hit their target temps.
- Ease of use: We looked at how each kettle felt in hand when full, how smoothly water poured, and how intuitive the controls were. For gooseneck models, we paid extra attention to pour precision and flow consistency.
- Taste: Enough customer reviews flagged metallic-tasting water that we felt it was worth testing ourselves, noting any unusual flavors.
- Materials and construction: Function is paramount, but we also want gear that looks good on a countertop.
- Long-term testing: Our top picks don’t stop at initial testing. We continue using them throughout the year to see how they hold up to everyday use.
What makes a good electric kettle
The best electric kettles let you set specific temperatures to the single degree. Even many budget-friendly models can reach and hold temperatures below boiling, which matters more than you might think. Those lower temps are important for brewing pour-over coffee, extracting the best flavor from different types of tea, whipping up a bowl of instant oatmeal, or warming a baby bottle in the middle of the night. Beyond temperature precision, look for a kettle that feels comfortable to hold and pours smoothly without splashing, especially important for gooseneck models, where a consistent flow makes all the difference. Capacity matters too, depending on whether you’re making a single cup or a full pot. And if you’re making dinner in a hurry, an electric kettle can give you a head start on boiling water for pasta.
Other spout electric kettles we like
Ninja Precision Temperature Stainless Steel Kettle
Ninja’s Precision Temperature Stainless Steel Kettle has a sleek brushed-stainless steel exterior and a digital interface that displays temperature as it heats water from your starting temp to your target temp. You can manually set the temperature from 105ºF to 212ºF in five-degree increments (until you reach 210ºF, then the next increment is 212º). There’s also a boil button as well as one-touch preset temperature controls for coffee and five different types of tea (black tea, green tea, white tea, oolong, and herbal). It brought four cups of 72ºF water to a rolling boil only fifteen seconds slower than the OXO kettle. It also offers a nice little beep to let you know it’s reached temperature and to warn you that the auto shut off is about to kick in to keep it from boiling dry. Frustratingly, the keep warm setting shuts off when you remove the kettle from the heating element. This is in contrast to most other electric kettles, including our top pick, which will keep the water at a temperature for up to 30 minutes or more, regardless of how many times you pick it up. When you can find it on sale, it’s a great budget option. But at the suggested retail price, it costs about as much as the OXO and lacks some of its better features.
Fellow Corvo EKG Electric Kettle
Fellow
Corvo EKG Pro Electric Kettle
Fellow’s Corvo EKG electric kettle is basically the base model Fellow Stagg EKG kettle, but with a standard pitcher spout instead of a gooseneck spout, so it’s not something you’d want to use for pour-over coffee. Like the Stagg, the Corvo has a beautiful, minimalist design, with a single knob, a flat backlight temperature display, and two switches hidden on the back (one engages the keep-warm function and one switches between Fahrenheit and Celsius). But with a 0.9-liter/30-ounce capacity, some home cooks might find it too small to work as a general-purpose kitchen kettle—especially when you can get something much larger with similar features for a lot less money. That said, if you only ever need to heat a little water and you want something that will perform well and look really great on the counter, this is a great little kettle.
Saki Luna Pro Electric Kettle Pro
The Saki Luna Pro is one of the most pleasant surprises we tested. Completely plastic-free, its features rival Fellow’s: true variable temperature control in single-degree increments from 104°F to 212°F, guided presets for things like green tea and bottle warming, altitude adjustment, easy Fahrenheit-to-Celsius switching, and a keep-warm function that holds temperature for up to 120 minutes. A subtle red ring light glows when it’s on, which is both pretty and practical. At 1.75L and 1,500 watts, it’s as fast as our top pick, the OXO, and arguably easier to navigate. Our art director tested it every workday for over a month and called it a joy to use. Two caveats: it runs slightly louder than a glass kettle when boiling, and the exterior gets very hot to the touch after heating, up to 180°F, so watch your fingers.
Cuisinart Soho 1-Liter Kettle
Cuisinart
Soho 1-Liter Double-Wall Electric Kettle
This kettle is a great deal, and its double-walled design means it’s cool to the touch. The interior wall is made of stainless steel (the rest of the kettle is made of plastic), and the lever on top opens the lid and keeps it open, making the kettle easy to fill with water. You can also wrap the cord in the base of the kettle to save space. But this kettle took slightly longer to heat water than some of the other models we tested and was loud as it worked. This is still a good, affordable alternative for someone who simply needs a kettle to heat water without all the design elements of the Fellow Clyde.
Breville IQ Electric Kettle
Breville
IQ Variable-Temperature Kettle
This is yet another example of the very intentional way that Breville thinks about the user experience. Pressing buttons on this kettle felt deeply satisfying: They beep when pressed and have an actual haptic response, so you know you’ve fully engaged each function. The kettle has five variable temperature settings and a keep warm function to keep water at a set temperature. It boils water just as quickly as many of the other kettles we tested, but has a much larger capacity at 1.8 liters.