Best electric kettles for a small kitchen: six from a 1-liter cool-touch to a 1.7-liter with temperature presets

ZWILLING’s page gives the Enfinigy’s footprint as 5.31 by 5.31 inches and its height as 8.27 — the smallest claim on a counter of anything here — with 1,500 W behind one liter, a double-walled body with a stainless interior, and automatic shut-off. The double wall is why you can pick it up by the body mid-boil, and why it weighs 3.23 lb, a pound more than the Cuisinart that does the same job.

A liter is four mugs, and there is no water window: you judge the level by weight or by looking in. There is one setting, boil.

For a tight corner, a household with small children, or anyone who has burned a hand on a steel kettle, it is the one. For a French press, buy a bigger one.

The Soho is Cuisinart’s version of the same idea at 2.2 lb: double-walled, stainless inside, cool outside, one button, with auto shut-off, overheat and boil-dry protection and a cord that winds into the base — all from Cuisinart’s page, which gives 8.07 by 5.71 by 8.46 inches but, oddly, no wattage. The listing says one-touch and little more, so the boil time is something you find out at home.

What it does better than the ZWILLING is weigh a pound less and keep its cord out of the way; what it does worse is leave you guessing the element. Both hide the water level behind the double wall.

If the ZWILLING’s weight puts you off and you do not need to know the wattage before buying, this is the lighter cool-touch kettle.

Hamilton Beach’s page for the 40901 lists 1,500 W, one liter, auto shutoff with boil-dry protection, a concealed element and a water window, and then shows the kettle as out of stock with a notify-me button — while the Amazon listing was in stock when we checked. It is a plastic kettle with a cord-free base and nothing else to describe, which is the point: it is the cheapest way here to stop microwaving water, and it boils a liter as fast as the ZWILLING.

Hamilton Beach publishes no dimensions, weight or warranty for it, and the listing’s own spec table says 2 liters, which contradicts the title, the page and the product — we go with one liter.

For a dorm, an office or a first apartment it is enough. If it goes out of stock for good, Hamilton Beach’s 40978 is the stainless equivalent at the same wattage.

A borosilicate glass body with a stainless lid, filter and base, so the water touches no plastic by Cosori’s description; 1,500 W; 1.7 liters; a blue LED ring while it heats; auto shut-off and boil-dry protection; 9 by 6.3 by 10 inches and 2.5 lb, by the manual and Cosori’s own listing. It is the full-size kettle for a household that boils a pot at a time, and the only one here where the water level is obvious from across the room.

Ten inches tall and nine deep is the biggest footprint in the group, there is one setting, and glass shows limescale in a week in hard-water cities.

Buy it if you fill a French press or boil for cooking and want to see what is in it. Buy the next one if you drink green tea.

Same 1.7 liters, same 1,500 W and the same 9 by 6.3 by 10 inch, 2.5 lb body, but stainless rather than glass and with six preset temperatures — 100, 140, 160, 185, 195 and 212°F — and a 60-minute keep-warm, all from Cosori’s manual. The housing, inner lid and filter are stainless, so again no plastic in the water path.

The presets are the reason to spend more: 160–185°F for green and white tea, 195 for oolong, 212 for black tea and French press, and the keep-warm means the second cup is at the same temperature as the first. There is no water window, so you learn the fill by feel, and it beeps at each step until you learn the buttons.

For a tea drinker, or a pour-over drinker who does not want a gooseneck, this is the one.

A gooseneck spout pours a thin, slow stream, which is what a V60 or Chemex wants; Cosori’s page gives this one 0.8 liters, 1,200 W, five presets at 170, 180, 195, 205 and 212°F, a 60-minute hold, a stainless kettle, lid and spout, and a two-year limited warranty — the longest here. What it does not give is a size or a weight.

Eight-tenths of a liter is three mugs, and 1,200 W is the slowest element in the group; this is a coffee tool, not a household kettle.

For one or two people who make pour-over every morning, it earns its spot on the counter. For everything else, it is the wrong shape.