Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I specifically bought this kettle to avoid the plaque of cheap plastic ones which have been foisted on the public. Plasticisers give plastics their flexibility and resilience but leach from the material over time. This process is speeded up enormously when heat is applied. Pure water boiled in a plastic kettle will emerge as water + plasticiser. This synthetic contaminant is harmful, even in tiny amounts. The Indigo kettle is made of borosilicate glass, a material normally limited to laboratory glassware. The problem with borosilicate is that although it performs well under thermal stress, this characteristic is compromised as the glass gets thicker. Consequently lab glassware intended for direct applied heat is deliberately thin-walled to preserve its resistance to thermal shock. What's thermal shock? Well, if you have a glass vessel full of cold liquid and subject its outer wall to high temperature, the strata of glass on the hot side starts to expand, but the glass on the cold side remains as it was. This differential expansion causes internal stresses in the glass, so much so that ordinary glass will shatter immediately. The advert illustration is ambiguous and can give the impression that most of the kettle is blue glass. Not so, it's all clear glass apart from the blue knob on the lid. The product is marketed by Grosche International Inc in Canada but it's made in China. Despite the imposing company title, Grosche is a small enterprise formed in May 2010. Like Haagen Dazs, Grosche is likely an assumed name and there's no Mr Grosche. Etched on the base of the kettle are the words "Grosche Kuchenware". A number of Chinese manufacturers produce these borosilicate kettles in several variations. Wholesale buyers buy in quantity, have their batch etched with their own logo/company name, packed in their branded box, and then sell them on. Despite very careful handling - there's no other way to treat it - the kettle survived a mere 23 days. A large crack appeared around 75% of the base whilst being heated and that was it. I had not knocked, dropped, or subjected it to any form of mechanical shock. The probable cause of the failure is: (a) improper annealing (de-stressing) of the glass during production, or (b) a micro-crack due to mishandling when packing. Any crack, however small, is death to borosilicate. Stresses caused by heating will rapidly transform an insignificant fissure into destructive cracking. Verdict: The Indigo kettle would have been an overdue and welcome addition to the marketplace, but it falls flat on its face due to the limitations of the material. Such a kettle - if well produced - could survive in the careful environment of a lab. It's far too fragile for use in a domestic kitchen.