Tech For Life

Browsing around Firebox.com today, I saw something that I just had to look into further, as it seemed like one of those “too good to be true” stories. The makers claim that this kettle can heat water, from cold to tea making, in three seconds. Think about that for a second (or three…). By the time you have read this sentence, the Tefal Quickcup could have made 2 cups of tea…starting from cold water.

My instant reaction was that no way could any non-nuclear-fusion-powered kettle possibly achieve this, and there must be a catch, and there is, but it’s a very very small catch. The way that this rediculous speed is attained is that it only boils one cup of water at a time. You fill the kettle with cold water, put a cup under the spout, and hit the ever so tempting red button on the top. At this point, the QuickCup Kettle sucks a cupful of water from the resevoir, filters it on the way, and squirts it up a very clever spiral heating element gizmo, before pouring hot (85 degrees centigrade) water.

Now tea bores will insantly comment that 85 degrees is not hot enough for making a cuppa to their standards, but for everyone else, especially those coffee drinkers among us, 85 degrees will result in a perfectly adquate hot drink, that doesn’t sear the inside of your mouth.

The resevoir is detachable, and you can also use the kettle as a cold water dispenser by pressing the black button rather than the red.

All in all, I think this kettle is a great idea. They even claim that it is more efficient than a slower normal kettle as you are only heating one cup at a time. This makes a certain amount of sense, though I would have to see the maths to be sure.

Pop over to Firebox and take a look for yourself, £49.99 is a fairly expensive kettle, but by no means extortionate.