Kogan SmarterHome 1.7L Smart Glass Kettle Review

I think I’m in trouble. I’ve broken the kettle we were given as a gift from our wedding registry 12 years ago. Thankfully my wife has been talking about updating our appliances for a while now, and Kogan has just launched a new wifi connected smart kettle in their SmarterHome range which includes support for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. 

At $99 (+ delivery), the Smart Glass Kettle isn’t the cheapest kettle on the market, but it’s smart, and a lot cheaper than the £129.99 iKettle reviewed by Bowen a few years back – with the added bonus that it’s readily available to buy in Australia now. 

Hardware

There’s not a lot to the Kogan SmarterHome 1.7L Smart Glass Kettle. It’s made of aluminium with glass sides, it’s cordless, sitting on a circular base that plugs into your standard Australian outlet, and can heat up to 1.7L of water.

There’s a one-touch open lid, though mine can be a little sticky, letting you fill (or empty), the kettle quickly.

Though it’s a smart appliance you don’t need an app to operate it, you can still just turn the kettle on or off with the touch sensitive LED panel on the handle. Once the kettle is heating, it lights up blue as a visual indicator. 

The panel can also be used to set the kettle to use the warm function. The warm function allows you to keep the water warm at temperatures ranging from 40°C – 90°C for up to four hours. You can also set the keep warm details in the app.

There is of course one major drawback with a smart kettle – you need to fill it before switching it on remotely; Just remember that and everything will be fine. 

Smarts (Software)

The Kogan Smart Glass Kettle is part of their SmarterHome range, which includes a range of products such as light bulbs, switches, heaters, air purifiers and more. Kogan has used the <i>Tuya</i> Internet of Things platform to power their smart devices – but that’s a good thing, with Tuya quite reliably powering a number of smart devices you’ll find being sold here in Australia.

Setup is fairly easy, with a follow the bouncing ball style how-to guide included in the box. You will of course need a Wifi connection and the SmarterHome app which is available for both iOS and Android devices.

Once setup in the SmarterHome app, you can also connect the Kettle to your Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa smart device setup.  You’ll need to associate your account with the Smarter Home Google Assistant app, or Amazon Alexa Skill which you can do easily in the Google Home or Alexa apps on your mobile device. 

For simplicity you can rename the Kettle in either the Alexa or Google Assistant settings, then it’s as simple as tapping the button in one of the apps, or asking Alexa or Google Assistant on your smart speaker to turn it on:

“Hey Google, turn the kettle on” or “Alexa, turn the kettle on”

I’ve incorporated the Smart Glass Kettle into my Google Assistant and Alexa morning routines, so now when we say good morning to either virtual assistant, we get a jug full of boiled water as well as our smart lights switching on, and our morning headlines and briefing read to us.\

If you don’t want to use Google or Alexa integration with routines, you can still schedule your kettle to boil at particular times in the Kogan Smarter Home app, as well as configure the keep warm function as well. 

Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that you can choose to boil the water in the jug to 80°C (the preferred temp for herbal tea drinkers), but you’ll get there in a roundabout fashion with the ‘Keep it Warm’ function.

Wrap up

After having the smart kettle in use for a couple of weeks now, it’s earned its keep. I don’t often tell Google or Alexa to boil the jug, but having them incorporated into a morning routine makes them invaluable.

Spending $99 on a kettle isn’t outside the realm of possibility – even for a non Smart model. Sure you can pick up a cheap as chips plastic deal if you just want to boil some water, but if you want to do so with a little panache, without breaking the bank – this is excellent.

If this sounds like something you’d like (Fathers Day isn’t too far away), then you can order now on the Kogan website