[ORIGINAL REVIEW]I recently started drinking a lot more tea, hot cider and hot chocolate. As such, I was boiling a LOT of water on the stove to pour in my mug. Using a sauce pan. Not very efficient.I realized I needed a kettle to boil water. I spent probably two hours online looking at kettles -- cast iron, copper bottom, aluminum, stainless steel, ceramic coated, etc. Then I realized the real problem was heating up water on my stove top; it uses an enormous amount of power. What I needed was a self contained, energy efficient electric kettle that was made of inert materials so it wouldn't impart any bad taste to the hot water and convenient for pouring/storing the water between heating.Didn't take me long to hit on the Chef's Choice model. More than I wanted to spend, but otherwise met all my criteria -- tempered glass so I can see the water level/heating state at a glance, easy to get on/off the base, enough capacity, black and stainless design, etc.I've had this unit for 3 days now and I think it's great. On touch to turn on, few minutes later the water is at a RAGING boil, shuts off automatically or one touch to turn it off. No discernable taste imparted to the water. Easy to pour. Doesn't take up much counter space. Looks great.In short, a well designed device that does what it's supposed to do and does it very well, thus simplifying my life. In other words, what an "Appliance" is supposed to do.[UPDATE AFTER ONE YEAR]Still using this on a daily basis. However, the lid on the top of the unit has stopped latching. The spring clips that latch the lid stick inside the lid. without the lid closed it will boil forever (no steam build-up to activate auto-off. May try to fix it myself. Taking off a star for this reason.[UPDATE AFTER 14 MONTHS]It died. The lid broke completely. The plastic lid had pretty much disintegrated internally after 14 months of daily exposure to hot steam from boiling water. I removed the lid entirely and tried to continue using it without one. That worked for a week then I lightly bumped it against my stainless steel sink while filling it and the glass broke. Apparently the glass becomes extremely brittle over many tempurature cycles. I think for the price this unit sells for it should last longer than 14 months (at least 3 years). Downgrading my review one star and not purchasing another Chef's Choice product.NEW UPDATE:STABERDEARTH says:Lid release problem? Manufacturer never heard of such a problem?Ours finally crapped out. The lid no longer opens, but you can still gingerly feed water into the unit and the auto shutoff still works. I disassembled the unit to see what was broken.. You got it, cheap, cheap, cheap design, not robust enough to last. Will I buy another? Probably not. I will attempt to fix...These are the sort of performance issues that drive an engineer like me to want to disown a portion of my own group of techno incompetents. Plastic is easy to work in, but is often poorly chosen for the function, and is too often poorly designed with less than generous fillets and cross sections. More than likely further economic pressure from the scourge of long lasting quality design, the corporate bean counter.Some of you may think that two years is long enough for such a product to last. Just pitch it and buy another... You've been programmed by the disposable society. As an engineer I expect and demand longevity in my products and try to shop with that criteria. The lid catch is the Achille's heel of this unit. I will even go so far as to try to fix this on my own, rather than deal with an argumentative manufacturer who will only respond (and has for other products) after I plaster negative reviews everywhere online.I FINALLY FIXED IT WITH A MODIFICATION AFTER TAKING THE WHOLE LID UNIT APART which of course probably violated the already expired warranty... ;-) SHOULD NOT HAVE TO DO THIS TO MAKE AMENDS FOR STUPID DESIGNS!Original review...I happened upon this unit while staying at a relative's home. They loved it. I searched for reviews. I also asked others who owned the same unit. Thumbs up from all. I tried to get to the bottom of all of the negative reviews and the only thing I can come up with is that Chef's Choice had early on quality control issues AND it also appears that some folks are not blessed with stellar tap water as we are here in Bethlehem, PA (GIGO principle).I bought one for my wife for Christmas and she absolutely loves it! Works great, no fuss. Cleans easily. The only thing it might use is an audio off/on option so that if you leave the room you know it has finished accomplishing its task. You can only hear the off switch "pop" if you're in the room.The unit is not rocket science. You fill it, let it do its BTU impartment on the contents, and viola, you have your desired outcome. Simple. And it does this "working in the background, as all appliances should. If yours has issues then perhaps Chef's Choice still has quality control problems. After 5 months of daily use often several times, no problemo here. I just bought one for a relative's birthday.Figured I should try it out for awhile before posting a review.Owned for 3 years now use several times a day and still looks and works great.The first very small signs of rust starting to show at the bottom so figure I should get at least 2 more years out of it.These days anything that lasts that long is a plus.Edit 2020 ( 5 years ) and still working greatI was happy when I saw this kettle on sale. I had done a lot of research to find the best kettle and although this was not always the consensus number one in all the places I read, it was always in the top 5. This kettle has everything I was looking for.1) BPA free. I was replacing a cheap plastic kettle which I'm certain was contaminating the water with who-knows how many chemicals. I have young children in the house so BPA's are a real concern.2) Removable from the base. I think most modern kettles have this feature so this was easy to address.3) Easy view window. How much easier than to have a glass carafe?4) Quality build. This is the best built kettle I have every owned, though I must confess I have not owned too many.5) Good price. On sale this was reasonable although not fantastic. I won't complain.6) Easy clean. The lid opens wide and there is no exposed heating element so this is as easy to clean as a water pitcher, except you shouldn't immerse it in water of course.The only thing I would have like to see is audible indicator when the boiling is completed. You have a whistle on a conventional kettle. This one is fine if you can see it, but our living-room cannot see into the kitchen so some audible indicator would have been nice. Still I'll give it five stars because the overall quality is fantastic.One thing of note, the glass kettle is heavier than some other offerings, so if weight is a concern you may want to look at something else. For most his should not be a problem as the water in the carafe is the greatest contribution to the weight.I've had this kettle for a few years and I've got nothing bad to say about it. It boils really fast and is glass instead of plastic. We have a baby and we are tea drinkers, so we boil water multiple times a day and it hasn't ever failed us! UPDATE: We replaced this kettle with the same model because we loved it but it was starting to rust along the bottom. It was 5 years old and we had used it mutliple times a day. The replacement was crap. The lid didn't close properly and spilled water out the sides and after 8 months it just stopped working.I like it enough but the lid doesn't open when you press the button... I have to lift it at the same time or karate chop itThis is a great Kettle, love it and it looks great!It works smoothly and fast, and is easy to clean, looks great on the counter.