Breville VKJ271 Polished Colour Select Jug Kettle

The Breville VKJ271 Stainless Steel Jug Kettle markets itself at not only being an incredibly stylish piece of equipment for a modern kitchen, but also a practical and 'lifestyle' designed utensil.

The kettle has a very impressive 1.7 litre capacity (we're talking six to eight cuppas here). This far exceeds the capacity of the average run-of-the-mill kettle. To make life just that little bit easier, the kettle has incorporated a large clear plastic backing to the main body of the kettle, allowing for the user to easily identify how much water is in the kettle.

However, the main feature of the kettle is the multi-colour-illuminations function of the kettle. When you turn the kettle on, the clear plastic sections illuminate a soothing deep blue to indicate that that the water is currently quite cool. Once the water inside begins to warm up, the blue colour begins to take on a reddish tinge, changing to purple, then on to pink, until finally, once the water has boiled, the illuminated sections are a bright red colour. Fancy stuff eh?! Then, when finished, the kettle beeps just the once (to tell you its boiled) and reverts to the 'standby' colour setting that you have chosen (green, lime, orange, red, pink, purple, blue, aqua, white, a slow cycle of all the colours, or off). The kettle then maintains this illumination for 20mins, announcing that the water inside is still hot and ok for a brew (or whatever). Once the 20mins has passed, the illumination is automatically switched off.

The different pre-set colours can be easily changed by the simple press of a button located on the top. The kettle's lid also easily 'pops' opens up for refilling at the press of a button on the handle, allowing for one-handed refilling for those multi-tasking-experts amongst us.

Cleaning the kettle and its filter is a doddle. The filter simply slides out from the spot area and can then be rinsed off, wiped clean or replaced.

The kettle is of the recent energy efficient 'base-heated' design, which also allows for less electricity usage and easier cleaning! The high wattage also boils the water in a quicker time than the average kettle, which again is more energy efficient.

As a whole the kettle has a sturdy, highly polished exterior that looks stylish and smart as well as performing well and efficiently. The changeable colour illuminations add an additional 'fun element' to the whole product, making the kettle a further `stand-out' feature for anyone's kitchen. The instruction manual included is very brief, but let's be honest, how much do you really need to read up on with a new kettle?

Finally, to get the best idea of what the kettle is like, please see the accompanying video I knocked together of the kettle 'in action'. Please note that the illuminating colours don't actually flash, this is just the rather ropey video footage!!! They are also a lot more predominant than the video makes out.

UPDATE - 25 August 2011 - Further to a number of more recent reviews on this product, many of which stating that they have expereinced a number of different issues with the kettle after a short period of time, I can confirm that our kettle still works just as well as the day we first got it. We use it numerous times on a daily basis (like most families) and 1 year on it's still performing well. That's not to say that problems haven't occured for others - I just thought it would be good to update this review with our own ongoing (positive) experience of the kettle.

This is a great kettle with additional interest. The kettle itself is a regular sized 1.7 lt fast boil 3kw kettle jug in plastic with polished stainless steel wrapped around the majority of its body leaving a large water window so you can see how much water you have or need, It has a flip top lid for easy filling and a good sturdy handle both in polished stainless steel like the body. On the top of the handle is the button for the lid to open and above that the feature of this kettle, a colour change button. This allows you to change the colour of the LED light inside the kettle. The on off lever is at the base of the handle and easy to operate. the whole thing sits on top of its corded base also polished stainless steel, giving you a cordless jug with 180 degree swivel. It is not the quietest of kettles on boil but its not the noisiest either.

This is just like any other kettle, it boils water for your tea, coffee or whatever you want boiling water for but it has a little something extra. The light inside is able to be set to any of 10 colour functions. Ok, not necessary but makes it a bit more special.

Press the small button on the top of the handle and you have, dark green, lime green, orange, red, fuchsia pink, purple, deep blue, teal, white or multicoloured as it transitions between all the colours. You can also have it without the light on at all if you wish. Each time you press the colour change button there is a soft beep sound.

When you switch on the kettle it beeps once and the light turns deep blue and then cycles between blue, purple deep pink and then red when it boils and then gives a beep to tell you its boiled it then switches its self off and goes back to the colour you have set it to. After 20 minutes if it has not been touched it will switch the light function off conserving electricity.

Most of us these days seen to like our kitchens to be coordinated and stylish and want their appliances to look good too, this fits the bill nicely. I also bought myself a matching Polished Stainless Steel 4 Slice Toaster and they look great together.

I don't think this kettle would be a good idea if there are small children around as having a fun looking piece of equipment that contains boiling water is just asking for trouble. We have to turn ours off when my little nieces come to visit as they are intrigued by it. I must admit it was something I hadn't thought of when I bought it but as my own children are 12 and up its not a problem for us.

If you like your equipment to have bells and whistles then this is the kettle for you but if you prefer something that just gets the job done there are plenty of others out there to choose from.

All in all I am very pleased with mine, I have had it now a couple of months and it still makes me smile in the morning when I make my coffee. At night when the kitchen light is off it glows quietly in its corner of the room and looks great when it is changing colours. Mood lighting for kitchens!

I have a slight confession to make, while writing this review I am waiting on a replacement, the colour change function has stopped working and it has decided to beep continuously when switched on but I am hoping this is just a glitch and the new one will work properly. Amazon have been excellent and replied to my email strait away stating a new one was on its way.
I suppose the more gimmicks the more chance of it going wrong, hope its just a fluke though.

Ok, so what can I say? This kettle boils water, that's what I need in a kettle. So, there would seem to be little to say about one that fulfils this basic task. But then a cheap plastic kettle would do the job, maybe not quite as fast but just as well.

What then does this one have over the cheaper version? Well for one thing there is the already mentioned speed, it is really quick, noticeably so over my now defunct 'top brand' one. It pours well too, water doesn't dribble over the worksurface, like previous kettles I've used. A large translucent section shows readily the volume, in 'cups' of water inside; how this will stand up to the obscuring effects of limescale I don't know. The lid opening is a bit small and requires a little manouvreing to get the mixer tap to engage, if there's anything in the sink, filling this up becomes a bit tricky.

The main selling point, however, are the coloured lights; the translucent section can be illuminated in one of a choice of colours. I am personally not too bothered about having a light up kettle, though I might find a bit more cheery on a dark winter's morning, I have switched the light off till then. Where the lighting is handy is the transition from blue to red as the kettle boils, which is nice but not indispensable.

Overall this a perfectly good kettle with a few 'knobs and whistles'. I'm not crazy about it but I don't think I could ever get excited about a kettle and there is no good reason to mark it down.