Hi, author here.

Can you please send me a link? (not being snarky).

Thanks

I use the previous version of this that I purchased in college nearly a decade ago: https://www.amazon.com/Adagio-Teas-010026001-variable-temper... Use it 4x a day and have descaled it several times.

My brother has had one of these for 8+ years and uses it all the time: https://www.amazon.com/Beach-Temperature-Auto-Shutoff-Protec...

My parents run a motel and they stuck close to 4 dozen Amazon Basic units in the rooms - haven't replaced a single one yet: https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Stainless-Steel-Electric...

Like, I can't think of a single electric kettle I or my friends have owned that hasn't been absolutely bulletproof.

I have this one, I like it. But there are many more like it.

https://www.bosch-home.co.uk/product-list/kettles-toasters/k...

Me too.

I have had to buy a half-dozen kettles in recent years (for more than one place), and they have all failed after about a year. These are $60-$90 kettles, old brands (e.g. Kitchenaid, warning!) with reputations they should want to maintain. Taking one apart, it is clear it was designed to fail after a short time in normal use. (Aside, KA mixers are now crap, too.)

There is a mainstream term: Planned Obsolescence. This is a real phenomenon, a fixed-point of runaway capitalism. We cannot tell by looking how long a thing will last. We have to depend on reviews, but the review systems get corrupted.

This has been well-known for many decades. Gaslighting the OP is nothing but abuse. It is often possible to buy a reliable product in a category, but its maker operates at a sharp commercial disadvantage vs. the shoddy work, by a process analogous to Gresham's Law. The bad products generate more profit, enabling more effective promotion, getting more sales and displacing the good ones. Makers of good products fall into line, or are driven out of business.

So, identifying a good product and spreading the word is the only defense we have.

Some people adopt a policy of never buying anything they have seen an ad for, on the principle that they would be paying for the ad instead of the product. This works, except that many products we need are not advertised. Also, some of us have been successful at largely eliminating our exposure to normal advertising, and even to "placements", advertising disguised as content, and we lose access to that signal.

But I don't think kettles are advertised much.

Buying a cheap kettle with fewer features often works, as there is less to go wrong, and the makers may be still trying to develop a reputation that could command a higher price--but not if you want the features.

So we have to rely on referrals from other buyers who got lucky and happened upon a good product.

The irony is that many of us would be ready, even eager, to pay a premium for quality, but apparently cannot find it at any price, or only at a price that would not enable a quality producer to stay in business while paying employees a living wage.

After the over-the-top section about the bright lights and loud beeping, I started to imagine this as a parody of an English person complaining about stuff...

Hi, author here. I've owned kettles with lights (and I like them). I've owned kettles that beep (and I don't mind it at all). Believe me when I tell you, that section of my article was not over-the-top. On the first day, I sat on the couch (about 7 meters away from the kettle) and the light of the kettle shone so brightly in my eye that my first thought was that someone was flashing a laser into my eyes through the window.

Here's a t-fal kettle that suits.

I have a nearly 20 year old T-Fal kettle that I keep waiting to fail so I can replace w/ one that allows me to adjust the temperature but the thing just keeps working. Seriously, 20 years, used 2-5 times/day.

Amazon sells the T-fal BF6138 for $33 in the US. It has a window to see water levels, temp control, and a scale filter. Warning: the scale filters on mine only last 8-10 years. But I can't complain.

https://www.amazon.com/T-fal-Balanced-1750-Watt-Electric-Tem...

Sometimes consumer electronics stuff is too bright-- it seems the market has a preference for bright blue LEDs still.

But all you need to do to fix this is color over the light with a black sharpie. It reduces the brightness by 75%+.

I’ve had blue lights that black sharpie could not dim.

The solution for those is black nail polish. Dirt cheap, easy to apply since it’s more of a goo than a liquid which you apply it by a brush that comes with the bottle, and it’s completely impervious to any sort of light shining through in one coat. If you’d like some light to see if the thing is on or off, apply a thinner coat.

It completely solved my aggressive LEDs on things problem.

That black kettle on the left of your photo is sold in US as "Fellowes". Notice how closely to the knob the venting steam flows? I've burnt myself a few times that way. An asymmetrical knob could remind the user of the safe grasp angle -- but then off course it wouldn't look so "minimal" in photos ...

I dunno, manufacturers seem to love those bright blue LEDs. Maybe they're the cheapest? But I can't be the only person who finds them annoying. I have multiple devices where I can cover the blue leds with a layer or two of tape and they're still too bright. Let alone their use in a dark room.

My kettle was cheap AND works well. What's the problem? Cherry-picking?