Review: Chefman Precision Electric Kettle

This does what it’s supposed to do! I love that. I love when you buy something for a purpose and it does it! I’d say even to perfection. Okay, so all it does is boil water, how difficult is that? Well, this has temperature control and that is the key when making a good cup of tea.

The kettle doesn’t take up a lot of space. Also – still love the hanging cups underneath the cabinet. See how I did it HERE! 

What I love:

Easy to use!

Hot water anytime I want it; even if the unit is shut off, from off to boil, is darn near instant. I usually turn it on first thing in the morning and I go about my business. The beep will sound that it’s ready (loud enough, but not obnoxiously loud); warm lemon water, followed by an herbal cup of tea. As I sip away, I’m using the boiled water to heat up dog/cat food; I’ve used it to make instant oatmeal, heating up pasta, I’ve even made coffee!

Easy to clean; add white vinegar and water and set to boil! Doesn’t get any easier than that! Tip to keep my sink drains unclogged… I will pour the boiled white vinegar and water down a drain in the house. I pick a different one than the last. (Another tip; adding baking soda first in the drain then the boiling white vinegar and water helps to keep my drains clear).

If I’ve made tea in the pot and leave the tea sitting for a while, it will leave a stain at the bottom. No a big deal! To remove the stain I will use the white vinegar and water method. Set the pot to boil. I will do this 2-3 times and the stain will lift. If there is any stain left over, I will just use the kettle as is and the stain will eventually be gone after a few uses. I have used the kettle for just boiling water with the stain and it does not affect the taste of the water. I have very hard water, so even using filtered water, in time, there will be bits of hard water deposits. The white vinegar and water method keeps the hard water deposits out of the pot and it will come out totally clean the first time.

Programming is simple and straightforward; One button for the ON/Off and a red light will turn on letting you know the unit is on. The button next to that is the program button; press that. And a blue light will go on, then you have two buttons on the left side of the base that controls the temperature you want to set it at. It’s super easy, if I so say so myself, since I’m not the best with most electronics of any kind!

If you just press the ON/OFF button once it will turn on the kettle and warm up to whatever temp it was on last, then once heated, it will turn off. This unit heats to a maximum of 212 F and can be adjusted down in increments of 5. If you press the ON/OFF button and then the program button, it will heat water to what you had it set at last and stay heated for 60 minutes. That is what I do automatically as I want hot water all day long. I will keep making teas and as the water level goes down, I add to it and turn the unit back on as needed throughout my day. The temperature setting will stay on the last setting unless you unplug the unit for it to reset. I just adjust the time by using the (+ or – ) buttons on the left to control the temp. And another thing; you will notice an ER indicator when removing the kettle. It does NOT mean there is a problem with the unit. It shows up when you remove the kettle from the base. Once you place the kettle back on, the ER indicator goes away.

Holds a good amount of water. 7 cups…1.7 liters. I have filled mine past the max line with no issues. (not saying I would recommend this, I just haven’t had an issue)

Kettle is made for right and left-handed users. Returning it to the base can be done from either side, even from behind the unit base!

Comfortable to hold. The kettle handle is comfortable in large and small hands. (My husband has large hands and I have small hands and we both can hold the kettle easily). The lid release button is substantial; easy to find and press.

Tea infuser; I’m just gonna say, I LOVE this! Adding tea leaves, herbs, dried flowers; this infuser holds them and steeps them beautifully! The water flows into the infuser easily allowing a wonderfully infused pot of tea. Removing the infuser is simple and cleaning it is just as simple; press the button on the handle, remove the infuser, dump the contents into compost bin, and wash tea infuser with soap and water, rinse well and set out to dry.

The display light makes it is easy to see/read; bright enough to read with no other light on at night and bright enough to read in good daylight.

No cord on the kettle. The cord is on the base (obviously), just not on the kettle which makes it super convenient when pouring and taking the kettle to another area such as the breakfast table. The unit will stay on and remember the setting for five minutes after removing the kettle.

Glass kettle; I can easily see what I am brewing or if I need to add more water. It’s also rather soothing watching the bubbles. There’s a soft blue light that adds a nice touch too!

It’s a nice size. Kettle is next to my Ninja coffee maker (which is still going strong! We brew about a pot or two a day. Check out that review here.)

Parts of kettle can be removed and cleaned. The tea infuser, tea infuser mount, spout filter can be removed and cleaned. I don’t need to clean it often as I mainly boil plain water. Once or twice a week I will make tea in the pot using the tea infuser. Most of the time I make tea using the tea infuser inside my cup. I like to drink many types of teas during my day and the tea infuser is awesome. Just find a cup/mug that it can fit into. It eliminates me having to use a tea ball or straining it out with a strainer or something like that. Like I said before, when I am done using the infuser I dump out the contents in my compost and wash and rinse. It takes about 30 seconds.

One complaint:

If I had to pick one, I suppose I wish it would stay on longer. It has a boil-dry protection mode and if there isn’t enough water in the kettle, the unit will turn off automatically. That is a good thing. Though, as I mentioned above, I fill the kettle throughout the day so there’s always a good amount of water.

All in all, I really can’t complain about anything with this unit. I am very glad I bought it and have used it for about five months nonstop. I turn it on first thing in the morning and off last thing at night. If I don’t turn it off, it will shut off within the hour of the last time I turned it on. I would buy this again as well as give this as a gift!

I hope this was helpful for you in choosing an electric kettle.

Happy tea making/happy boiling water!

Love and Peace…Koko

Ninja Coffee Bar with Glass Carafe

I had a Cuisinart Coffee maker I had been using for almost three years. The review on that can be found here . I really liked that coffee maker. A lot! At almost three years, the machine itself started leaking water. The coffee maker still worked, but the side where it made hot water sprung a leak. I tried taking it apart to see where it was coming from and I found the parts I would need just wasn’t worth it to fix. Enter the Ninja Coffee Bar with Glass Carafe!

This is the Ninja Coffee Bar with Glass Carafe!

I looked at a few dozen types of coffee pot machines and after careful thought, I decided on this Ninja. It didn’t hurt that it was on sale at Target! I believe I picked it up for less than half the price. Winning! 🙂

Ninja’s words…”Ninja has a patent-pending brewing technology designed to deliver better, richer- tasting coffee with variable richness levels that are never bitter. Only the Ninja Coffee Bar® brewer has Thermal Flavor Extraction, which truly unlocks the full flavor potential of your coffee using automated controls for Temperature Calibration, Pre-infusion & Coffee Saturation.”

The settings brews four types of coffee; classic, rich, over-ice, specialty. I have used them all. It’s stepped up my coffee game! Classic Brew is what I’d call a regular brew, a nice perfectly brewed coffee. I like this setting when I drink it black. The Rich Brew is a bolder flavor. And by bold I don’t mean bitter. Just a nice stronger flavor. If you use milks or creams, I find you don’t lose out on that coffee flavor. Using the Over Ice Brew makes the coffee even richer so as not to lose any coffee flavor when pouring over ice. No watered down taste! The Specialty Brew is even more concentrated coffee, making the coffee flavor just right when making any type of “fancy” concoctions. It comes with a recipe booklet too. Tweaking the recipes to my tastes is a lot of fun. WE have coffee bar nights where we pick a recipe to try! A great “party” theme.

Their trademarked Ninja Easy Frother™ is such a simple design that does the job very well! I’ve had other frothers, yet there’s something about this one that sets it apart. To me, it froths the milk much faster and the consistency of the froth is much thicker.

This coffee pot doesn’t have a filter. It wasn’t a deal breaker for me as I use filtered water anyway, though I  had to “get over” not having my coffee double filtered, hahaha! As it turns out, it’s good in the way that I don’t have to remember to change the filter (and the cost savings of buying them) and have to deal with another compartment to keep clean. And speaking of keeping it clean, this pot is very easy to clean. The machine comes apart easily. Nothing tricky about it. Seriously easy!

The reservoir is a neat feature. Ninja’s Auto-iQ™ One Touch Intelligence feature sends out the right amount of water you need depending on what size you want. Super cool! I keep it full of filtered water, so making a cup, half a pot, or full pot is quick and easy. You can remove the water container to fill it or you can pour water into it from another pitcher or other vessel (which is what I do most of the time).

See that silver round piece? It flips down and that is where you set your cup for that single serving cup. Flipping it back up allows you to make a travel sized mug full of coffee, or of course, a half pot or full pot.

What I like about this feature is you can make that single serving or travel mug size without using those “pods”. I have yet to meet a pod that made a decent cup of coffee or tea for that matter. By the way… I’ve used this machine to make yerba mate tea! It does a fantastic job at brewing it just right! How does it know? 😉

My only “con” about this set up…the mouth of the carafe is small. You can’t fit your hand inside to clean it. So, you need a bottle brush or something like that to clean it effectively. This is not a complete deal breaker, however, if I were looking at two coffee makers, both being equal, but one had the traditional carafe opening, I would buy the wider opening. Ninja does sell a soft sponge brush for $5.95. See the video I made below to so see how I clean my carafe!