Introduction
Dualit makes several kettle and toaster ranges, including Domus, which is available in grey or white. I loved the Domus Four-Slice Toaster, and the Dualit Domus Kettle certainly shares its industrial and not-entirely-lovable looks. It’s comparatively compact, though, sitting squat and wide. With a 3kW heating element and a 250ml minimum fill, it could be ideal if you often boil just one or two cups. It only boils, though – there are no other temperatures on offer.
Design and features
Looks frumpyGreat attention to detailNo easy lid release
This certainly isn’t the most beautiful kettle you’ll come across. The grey version I tested was utilitarian to the point of being drab, enlivened only very slightly by some chrome accents on its base, handle and lid. While the kettle’s body is metal, its lid, handle and base are all plastic – and the grey of the lid doesn’t quite match the body colour. Dualit mentions an ergonomic, silicone grip, but this appears to comprise only a centimetre-wide insert on the inside of the handle. It makes little difference to comfort or practicality. The handle stays cool, but it’s a little hard and unforgiving. Disappointingly, it doesn’t feature a quick-release button for the lid. It’s great that the lid itself locks closed, but you can only release the catch using its circular handle. These criticisms aside, this kettle displays Dualit’s usual attention to detail. There’s a small gasket around the lid that actually seals it properly – no water leaks out, even if you tilt the kettle up too steeply. The spout has a clever baffle that stops water from gushing or splashing – this is one of the neatest pouring kettles I’ve tested. I like the water gauges built into the Dualit Domus Kettle’s sides. These are simple, clear windows with huge markings. It’s a little annoying that they display either cups or litres, but not both: right-handers get cups, while lefties get litres. I also found that they’re not the most accurate, reporting the kettle was slightly overfilled when it contained exactly 1.5litres. This kettle has the usual safety features you’d expect. Its power switch won’t lock down unless it’s sitting on its base, and there’s boil-dry protection. While the kettle itself isn’t huge, all of its lettering and controls are, which could be a help to those with impaired sight or mobility.
Performance
Fast and efficient boilingCools down a little quickly
With a 3kW element, you’d expect this kettle to be quick. It doesn’t disappoint, boiling 500ml of water in just a minute and 15 seconds. It boiled its maximum 1.5-litre capacity in only three minutes and eight seconds, which is almost the quickest I’ve tested. While kettles do use a huge amount of power, they don’t do it for long, so their overall consumption may not be as high as you expect. The Dualit Domus used 0.06 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity to boil 500ml of water, and 0.15kWh to boil three times that – both fairly typical results. Boil 500ml five times a day and, at the current 34p per kWh price cap, you’d pay 10p a day, or £37 a year – your fridge/freezer probably costs around four times that to run. There’s very little variation in the running costs of different kettles if they’re all filled with the same amount of water. But with any kettle, boiling more than you need really will push up your bills. For this reason, it’s great that the Domus will let you boil as little as 250ml – barely enough for a mug of tea. Doing so took just 45 seconds, and consumed less than 0.04kWh of electricity. To put that in perspective, you’d pay £22 over a year if you boiled a single cup (250ml) five times a day. If you boiled 1.5 litres each time, you’d pay nearly £100. I like to measure kettles’ ability to keep water warm once they’ve been boiled: water that stays warm needs less reheating, saving a little more energy. Here the Domus didn’t do so well, with 500ml of boiled water cooling to 47.1°C after an hour, and 1.5 litres cooling to 67.5°C in the same time. While this isn’t a huge deal, the best-insulated kettle I’ve tested kept water around 10°C warmer in both cases.
Latest deals
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
