Shoppers can save 40 per cent on the kitchen gadget that has features that shoppers have hailed as ‘invaluable’
Video Unavailable
Review: The Mirror puts smart kettles to the test
It’s apparently the ‘most talked about kettle of 2023’ and half of that is probably me telling everyone I meet how blooming great my kettle is. I’m not a particularly gadget-y person or tech fanatic by any means. I don’t have the latest iPhone and I’ve had the same laptop for about eight years – but getting a smart kettle has been life changing.
It sounds dramatic, I know. But I drink a lot of tea, so to me, it’s paramount to have a decent kettle at the very least. We previously had a Breville HotCup which I thought was great, not just for the fact it was quick and convenient, but because it also saved money on energy usage. Its only downside was that, when you’ve got a houseful and six people want a brew, you’re in the kitchen for a very, very long time.
So, we wanted to return to a kettle, and as soon as I tried out the world’s first Alexa kettle, by Swan, I knew there was no going back. A smart kettle is the kind of gadget you didn’t know you needed until you have one, and while they can be quite pricey, Black Friday offers the ultimate opportunity to add one to your arsenal of kitchen tech.
Swan has developed the world’s first Alexa compatible kettle that is voice activated and boils without the need to get up. You can set it to boil at certain times of the day, keep it warm for up to two hours, and make a brew for the whole family in one boil.
Usually £99.99, the Swan Alexa 1.5L Smart Kettle has been reduced to £59.99 for a limited time ahead of the major shopping event, saving tech fans 40 per cent on the RRP. It’s the lowest ever price we’ve seen the device since it launched in the UK at the start of the year, having previously been slashed to £62.99 on Amazon in August this year, according to price history checker CamelCamelCamel .
What’s so smart about it, then? You don’t have to get up to boil it, for one. Within a few short and simple steps, you can connect it to your Amazon device and control it with your voice through your Alexa. Alternatively, the smart kettle can even be controlled via an app remotely to boil water to a desired temperature.
Whenever I fancy a cup of tea, I can call out ‘Alexa, turn on the kettle’ and it will start the boil without even having to get up. Further features that make this smart kettle superior are its two-hour keep warm function, dry boil protection, and the fact you can set up routines in the app so your kettle boils at certain times of the day, which can also make it more energy efficient.
The kettle fills just over five large mugs of tea each time – bigger households may need to boil it twice, or opt for a larger capacity device like this one from Sage – with four temperature options between 40 and 100 degrees that make it great for coffee and various green teas.
I have to admit, I thought the novelty would wear off after a few weeks, but this Swan kettle is far from a gimmick and really puts the fun into functionality, adding tech into the home that is convenient and seamless, which is why I named it our Mirror Choice best smart kettle.
Its additional features inject convenience into busy lifestyles and makes for a conversational bit of kit that will no doubt impress your guests. And the fact you can get it at its cheapest ahead of Black Friday is a real bonus. In fact, it means it’s only £10 more than our recommended ‘budget’ alternative from Drew and Cole, which is usually £49.99 .
And I’m not the only one who thinks it’s a great piece of kitchen equipment, with one Amazon shopper agreeing that it’s one of those things you never knew you needed, hailing one feature as invaluable’. They wrote: “Purchased during a night of bored insomnia. Regretted and was intending to return immediately. Until I looked in the box. The kettle is an obsidian object of refined, elegant beauty.
“Setting it up was a very straightforward task after reading the instructions. It connected to WiFi & Alexa with ease & hasn’t dropped out at all so far (2 months in!?!) The ‘keep warm’ is invaluable. A great buy after all.”
Another added: “Use this with Alexa routines. I have one where my Echo Flex rings the alarm, switches on my smart bulb, and boils the kettle. When I get downstairs, the water is boiled. For some reason my kettle doesn’t beep when boiled, but I prefer that. Instead I just added a command to the routine and Alexa announces “The kettle has boiled”.”
However one said: “It’s kinda on the small side in my opinion (also kinda slow),” and while it very much depends on your household, an extra 0.2L capacity would have made this perfect. It is quite slow to boil (around three minutes when full), the fact you don’t have to get up to boil the kettle really does counteract that factor, for me anyway.”
You can shop the Swan Smart Kettle here on the Swan website for £59.99 in the early Black Friday sale, or find it on Amazon for £69.99 here.
