Pino

Wow, no one has reviewed this yet? I’ll indulge.

I had my Pino Digital Kettle Pro for 6 months before the heating element stopped working and it failed to heat up water anymore. The temperature readout and controls still worked, but no heat. Unfortunately, Pino only offers this product with a 90 day warranty so I was screwed and had to toss the thing. I have a friend who has had this same kettle for years with no problem and loves it.

My feelings on it are mixed. The size of the kettle is medium sized. It holds about 1.5 liters.

The pour spout only works well if you pour with confidence, otherwise you’ll get some drips. However, when this thing is full it pours fast and hard if you pour confidently, and it begins to pour with just a slight tipping angle, so you can’t really get it very low over say, a gaiwan, to pour directly into it without making a mess. I often had to pour into a cha hai and then use that to pour into my gaiwan so as to get an even and steady pour.

The temperature setting can be set to any temp and the readout tells you the temperature live, which is ideal for a kettle, but it often overshoots the temperature when heating by about 5 degrees F, and will drop about 5 degrees below the desired temperature before it decides to heat again. If precision is the name of the game, you’ll find yourself waiting on it to get back to the desired temp. You can cheat it when it is too cool (but not cool enough to start reheating on its own) by flipping it off then back on. If you do that it will try to heat to the set temperature (will still overshoot a bit, so you’ll have to wait for it to cool some).

Being that this was my first totally variable temperature kettle I was happy with it while it lasted, but now that I’ve moved on to a smaller kettle with a gooseneck spout from Bonavita, I’m definitely digging the Bonavita a lot better.

The manufacturing feels solid and appears solid, but since mine died after just half a year of use, I can’t speak for the quality.

I’d give this kettle a higher rating if it had a more controlled pour and if the temperature stayed closer to where you set it, also if it had a longer warranty. It does let out a chime when it reaches the desired temperature, so that is nice if you need that kind of thing.

For the price, there are better ones out there, so I wouldn’t recommend this one, especially with only a 90-day warranty.