Category
Kitchen & Appliances
5 reviews in this category. All long-term tested.
We descaled six electric kettles every month for a year. Two of them cannot be descaled properly.
Limescale is the actual lifespan determinant for a kettle in a hard-water area, and the feature that decides it — whether you can reach the element — is on no spec sheet.
Across twelve months in a hard-water area, the variable that predicted kettle survival was not build quality or price — it was whether the heating element is exposed inside the body or sealed under a flat plate you cannot scrub. Concealed-element kettles descaled with acid alone retained visible scale and lost measurable boil speed. The two survivors both have accessible elements and replaceable filters.
Anova Precision Oven (2026) review: steam that earns its counter space, software that does not
Nine weeks with a countertop steam oven, most of it spent working out which of its many modes are genuinely better than an ordinary oven and which are a novelty.
The Anova Precision Oven does one thing no ordinary oven does — precise humidity control — and that single capability is genuinely transformative for bread, custards, reheating and low-temperature cooking. It is also a countertop appliance with a mediocre app, a cavity smaller than its footprint suggests, and a price that only makes sense if you will actually use sous-vide-mode and steam baking rather than admiring them. Recommended for people who bake bread or cook proteins at low temperatures regularly. Hard to justify as a general second oven.
Ninja Creami Deluxe (2026) review: a clever machine that asks for more freezer space than your kitchen has
Three months and roughly 60 pints later, we're impressed by the texture and frustrated by the workflow.
The 2026 Ninja Creami Deluxe is a real improvement over the 2022-era originals — quieter, faster, and with a redesigned lid that finally seals reliably. The texture it produces is genuinely impressive: closer to a small-batch ice cream shop than to a home churn. But the workflow remains awkward. Each pint requires 18-24 hours of freezer pre-freeze, and the nine pints we keep in rotation occupy a noticeable chunk of a standard household freezer. We recommend it for serious dessert hobbyists and people on restricted-ingredient diets, not for casual buyers.
Breville Barista Touch Impress 2 review: the prosumer espresso machine that finally tames the grind
Four months at the kitchen counter, several thousand shots in, and one stubborn opinion: the assisted tamp is the real upgrade, not the screen.
The Barista Touch Impress 2 is Breville's most polished prosumer machine to date. After four months of daily use we believe the assisted-tamp mechanism, not the redesigned touchscreen, is what makes the difference for a home barista. It is not a flawless machine — the puck-prep step still occasionally over-doses, and Breville's choice to keep a single boiler limits back-to-back milk drinks — but it is the one we'd put in a kitchen with both a serious enthusiast and a partner who just wants a flat white before work.
Instant Pot Pro Plus (2026) review: a refined multi-cooker in a category that has run out of ideas
Five months testing the latest flagship from a struggling brand. The hardware is solid; the software still feels like 2018.
The Instant Pot Pro Plus is a competent, slightly improved electric multi-cooker from a brand that emerged from bankruptcy in 2023 and has spent three years stabilising rather than innovating. The 2026 model adds a brighter display, sous-vide accuracy improvements, and Wi-Fi connectivity that finally works without the company's much-criticised app — but the cooking results are barely distinguishable from the 2020 Pro. We recommend it for buyers replacing a dead older Instant Pot, and we recommend against it for buyers entering the category fresh.