Sage Smart Kettle BKE820UK

This hi-tech kettle offers a range of temperatures perfect for tea connoisseurs

What is the Sage Smart Kettle?

The Sage Smart Kettle is a jug kettle that sits on a base, which is home to some hi-tech controls. These let you not just boil water but also heat it to any temperature from 80 to 100⁰C in 5⁰C increments, which makes it better for making various types of tea. There’s also a 20-minute keep warm function.

The features are very similar to the Kenwood Persona SJM610 then. But while the Kenwood’s temperatures proved inaccurate the Sage was impressive.

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Sage Smart Kettle – Design and Features

The Sage looks good. The jug itself has an attractive black lacquered finish and the base is brushed stainless steel. It’s lightweight in the hand at 990g (jug only).

The base is home to an impressive seven buttons – that’s a lot for a kettle. But at least this means controls are very straightforward. There’s no display for the desired temperature. Instead five buttons let you select 80⁰C, 85⁰C, 90⁰C, 95⁰C or 100⁰C. Then one switches the kettle on and another tells it to keep warm.

Build quality is very impressive. The lid is large and see-through and pops up smoothly at the push of a button, there are water level indicators on both sides, the power cord length is generous. And the limescale filter is made from fine-cut metal rather than a mesh, making it much more durable than most.

Sage Smart Kettle – What’s it like to use?

The Sage feels lovely in the hand and is a pleasure to fill. Tap the button at the top of the handle with a thumb and the lid rises smoothly, giving you a wide neck to fill (and also makes it easy to clean). It pours cleanly too.

The controls – a series of buttons across the front – are very self-explanatory and are very familiar to anyone who has other Sage products.

It took a pretty average 2m28s to boil a litre of water that started out at 14⁰C from the tap. We measured the temperature after 10 mins (83⁰C) and again after 30 mins (66⁰C).

More importantly though, we also told it to heat water to 80⁰C to make green tea and then measured the results: an impressively accurate 78⁰C.

If you’re a tea aficionado forking out nearly £100 on a high-end kettle in order to get the perfect temperature, this matters a lot.

The keep warm function worked well but we do feel that it’s a waste of energy repeatedly reboiling water.

Should I buy the Sage Smart Kettle?

Yes if you love a range of teas. Boiling water is fine for coffee and black tea but lower temperatures get the best out of green and white teas. The Sage does a good job of such temperatures accurately. You could also consider the hi-tech Smarter iKettle 2.0 if you have an Apple device.

If you simply want boiling water though, save your money and consider the superb value double wall insulated Tefal Safe to Touch Kettle instead. Or priced in between is the beautifully designed Morphy Richards Prism Traditional Kettle.

Verdict

This hi-tech kettle offers a range of temperatures perfect for tea connoisseurs.

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