Review: Balmuda MoonKettle

Ideal coffee brewing temps are even more finicky, whether we’re talking Aeropress, French press, or pour-over. The ideal temp might depend on the bean, or it might depend on which YouTube channels you watch.

Anyway, the MoonKettle makes this modulation pretty easy, without a wacky control panel full of buttons. Hit Start, and the target temperature will flash. This is an invitation to toggle your temperature using a little dial on the right side of the kettle’s heating base.

Hit start again once you’ve chosen, and your water will begin boiling. From here, the base’s display will show the real-time temperature of the water in the kettle as it heats. While the water is still heating, this display tended to be accurate within the error range of the probe I used.

As a safety mechanism, the kettle will shut itself off by default upon reaching boil. And of course, it’ll play a little tune. To keep the burner on for an additional 30 minutes, press the Hold button either before or immediately after the kettle reaches temp.

While on hold, the kettle’s heat will then cycle on once every few minutes to keep the water near the target temp. In practice, the temperature variance on the holding function was about 5 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning the heat tended to kick back on when the water temp drifted down by about 5 degrees.

All of this makes for a beautifully useful kettle—one of the very few kettles on the American market that can actually make an argument for the precision of its water-heating technology while also being frankly beautiful on a countertop.

But at What Cost

That said, the MoonKettle doesn’t do your laundry, compliment your spouse when you forget, or do your grocery shopping. And $260 is quite a lot to pay for a water kettle.

At this high price, you start coming up with things not to like. Why, for example, is the MoonKettle a mere 1,200 watts instead of the more standard 1,500 watts comfortably allowed on a standard United States circuit?

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

This means the MoonKettle takes almost precisely five minutes to boil a liter of water from room temperature near sea level. A little bit more juice would allow the kettle to boil in four minutes instead. I’m rarely in a situation where this extra minute is pivotal or even relevant, but once I’ve spent $260 on a water kettle, I’d like to speak to the manager.

(All of these boiling times probably sound insane to British readers. But bear with us! Water boils slower in the United States. Our outlets are a mere 110 volts, and our amperage is hamstrung. We’re trying.)