Yes, this is the second kettle review to appear on EFTM today, don’t adjust your browser we have not become Choice.com.au. But if you want to take the humble kettle that Geoff reviewed to an entirely new level Chris Bowen thinks the iKettle 3.0 from Smarter may well be just for you.
Put simply this is a kettle that connects to your Wi-Fi network. Why? Well why the heck not! Boiling water via an app may seem like the very definition of laziness, but it’s hugely more useful than you’d think. The setup process couldn’t be any easier, you simply download the Smarter app and allow the base of the iKettle discover your network and away you go.
First and foremost, the Smarter app allows you to control the iKettle from a smartphone. Aside from a straight up full boil you can also set the exact temperature, see what the level of water is (holds around eight cups) and even activate a baby formula mode. The latter boils and cools the water making for the perfect formula every time. Then there’s a wake-up mode allowing you to set alarms to boil, so no more hanging around the kettle at 5am in the morning for example.
A home mode uses your phone’s location settings to create a virtual geofence, when you approach home at night it can be set to boil for example. But the clincher for me is the ability to simply bark orders at Google Home and have an applet created by the web-based command program IFTTT communicate the request to the iKettle. In fact, you could go crazy with applet commands I could make all our Philips Hue lights go red when the iKettle was finished. But that would be weird, which is why I haven’t tried that. Maybe.
Yes, that’s right the day has arrived when you can tell Google Home to boil a kettle. Such a statement just a few years ago would have others question your mental stability.
So there it is, what more is there to say. You can now have a freshly boiled cup of tea thanks to the internet. The iKettle 3.0 should debut in Australia by Christmas, local pricing hasn’t been announced. In the UK our as tested limited edition white and gold sample retails for £129.99 so I’m tipping it won’t be cheap.
