The best electric kettle of 2021

The was my favorite right out of the box purely from an aesthetic perspective, so I was delighted when this kettle also performed at a high level in testing. To me, it felt the most solidly built and I dug the simple one-button minimalist design. It’s also not overly bulky, weighs just over 2 pounds and has a cool-touch exterior for finger safety.

The pricey (from our first round of testing) is a tea drinker’s dream with its custom heat options for the perfect cup of green, black, herbal, oolong or another variety. The B kettle by Drew Barrymore and the Cuisinart PerfectTemp also have these features, so either might be a good choice if you’re particular about different tea-brewing temperatures. The Breville, however, is the only one of the models with a dedicated basket for brewing loose-leaf tea, making it the most specialized tea kettle of the bunch.

While the  (Drew Barrymore’s line) wasn’t the least expensive model on our list, it was by far my favorite of the not-so-expensive kettles. It has a large capacity, a fast boil time (more data on that below), a cool-touch exterior and a sleek digital interface with those aforementioned specialized settings for tea. 

The  also performed well in testing and I loved the sturdy, stainless steel build. It is the only app-controlled kettle in the group, which proved both a blessing and a curse. While the iKettle boiled water quickly and completely when controlled through the app, when I tried to manually boil water using the button on the side of the kettle, it shut off before it came to a full boil. If you’re app-addicted, it is convenient to be able to see how much water is in your kettle and also start it boiling remotely from your device. I certainly wouldn’t advise against buying this tech-forward electric kettle. I liked it quite a bit, in fact.

The pricey  was another high-octane kettle with a solid build and a ton of retro charm to boot. My main beef with this kettle is that it got extremely hot to the touch and also how expensive it is ($170), considering there are no special features other than simply boiling water. If you like the look, you won’t be disappointed but it’s not a lot of bang for the buck.

The Cuisinart PerfectTemp also did well in testing but its performance is not commensurate with the $100 price tag. If you’re looking to snag one from that brand, I’d recommend this slightly which has fewer presets but a more reasonable price. As Megan Wollerton reported in her initial round of testing for CNET, the PerfectTemp has received customer feedback and  stating that its auto shut-off feature is defective and poses a potential fire hazard. Cuisinart did not respond to a request for comment.

Both of the Ovente electric kettles I tested — the and the — are affordable options that boiled water quickly and were easy to use. That said, neither one stood out in testing and they felt a bit cheaply made. Also, both had lids that were unnecessarily detached from the kettle which means you could misplace them. Knowing myself, I probably would.

Only three of the models offered keep-warm or hold-temperature functions, so I did extra testing with these models. The B by Drew Barrymore kept the most consistent temperature over 10 minutes (209 degrees F) although the iKettle (205 F) and Cuisinart (195 F) kettles did respectably well in that test also.

How we test electric kettles

To test our batch of eight electric kettles, I used . The thermocouple measured two things: how quickly each kettle boiled 3 cups of water — and how well each model with a hold-temperature function held the water temperature over a 10-minute period. 

For the boil test, I watched three separate thermocouple displays until the three sensors tracking the temperature inside each kettle reached 212 degrees Fahrenheit. I started each test with water at room temperature — around 75 degrees F — and I ran this test three times for each kettle. I also confirmed visually each time that the water was, in fact, at a roaring boil inside the kettle.

For the hold temperature test, I used the thermocouple thermometer to measure the minimum, maximum and average temperatures held during the 10-minute period. The table below displays both the average time it took each kettle to reach 212 degrees and the minimum, maximum and average temperatures for each kettle with a hold temperature function held over 10 minutes. 

Keep in mind that the thermocouple readings aren’t exact and that there will be slight variation based on placement during testing. That said, I did my best to place the thermocouples midway down in the water, in the center of each kettle.