Best Oxo Tea Kettles

OXO's Kettles - The Pressure is On In 199X, OXO introduced its first Tea Kettle. Safety and practicality were the guiding principles during the development process, and our little Kettle came complete with an innovative steam shield. Through user feedback, we realized we missed a key consumer insight - that a Tea Kettle, while a practical kitchen tool, is often a centerpiece in the kitchen. Users would leave them out on the stovetop when not in use and some even coordinated their entire kitchen decor around their Kettles. While the steam shield was innovative, it was considered by many to be unsightly. In 1998, we corrected the aesthetic flaws to our otherwise safe, practical and well-performing Kettle with the Uplift. The kicker is that all of its elegant aesthetics came as a direct result of making the Uplift safe and easy to use. Problems Identified Handles on tea kettles are positioned too close to the steam and hot water at the spout, making it uncomfortable while pouring Angle of kettle handles combined with weight of filled kettle make it difficult for users to lift and pour without straining wrists Fine motor skills required to open kettle trigger to pour hot water; difficult for many older users to maneuver Small opening on top makes it difficult to clean interior of kettle The Process The quest for the perfect interaction point between the spout and the handle (so the kettle would not open when carried around filled with water, but would open easily when tipped forward) led us to the current connection between the spout and handle, one that resembles a splash of water. The same connection point was also designed to keep the spout open if the user chose, so that they could keep the Uplift's whistle quiet while boiling water, which is especially handy when preparing an early morning cup of tea. While designing an opening large enough to be easy to clean, we needed to ensure it wasn't so low as to limit the maximum water level, but we still needed to ke... [Read More]