Best Kettles and Toasters for Irish Homes (2026)

The kettle is probably the hardest-working appliance in an Irish kitchen, and for something so simple the choice is wide: plastic, stainless steel or glass bodies, 3 kW “rapid boil” elements, “quiet boil” designs, and matching toasters in every colour going. The differences you notice day to day are fewer. How well does it cope with limescale? How loud is it at seven in the morning? Is it easy to fill and pour? And does the toaster take the bread you actually eat, from a sliced pan to a thick wedge of soda bread?

We have not yet added a kettle or toaster to our product catalog, so the models below link to Amazon.ie search results rather than product cards. Alongside them we explain the trade-offs, what hard water does to a kettle, and what a boil and a round of toast cost at Irish electricity prices.

Much of Ireland’s drinking water is hard, because it has passed through limestone, which underlies the midlands and many other areas. Hardness depends on your water supply zone rather than your county, and you can look up your zone on Uisce Éireann’s website. In a hard-water area, a crust of scale builds up on the base of the kettle within weeks, flakes end up in your tea, and a badly scaled kettle gets slower and noisier.

• Choose a concealed element. Most modern jug kettles have a flat base plate rather than an exposed coil, which is far easier to wipe and descale. Check for it on older or very cheap designs.
• Keep the spout filter in. A removable mesh filter does not stop scale forming, but it catches the flakes. Rinse it under the tap every week or two.
• Descale little and often. In a hard-water area, every few weeks is reasonable. Use a kettle descaler or citric acid as the manual directs, then boil and discard a couple of kettles of clean water.
• Empty it after use. Water left standing and reboiled all day adds to the build-up. A filter jug also cuts scale noticeably if you do not mind the extra step.

If you also run an espresso or bean-to-cup machine, hardness matters even more. Our coffee machine guide explains how to set the hardness level on a machine and why most manufacturers advise against vinegar.

The energy needed to boil water is set by physics, not by the kettle. A litre of cold tap water needs roughly 0.1 kWh to reach boiling, plus a little lost to the kettle body and the air. At the average Irish urban unit rate of around 32c per kWh at the time of writing, that works out at about 4c per litre.

A 3 kW kettle is not more expensive to run than a 2.2 or 2.4 kW one. It draws more power for less time, so the energy per litre is almost identical; you simply wait less. The real saving is boiling only what you need. Filling the kettle to the top four times a day when two mugs would do adds roughly 20c a day, or around €70 a year, at around 32c per kWh.

Toasters are cheap to run too. A typical 850 W two-slice model running for about three minutes uses around 0.04 kWh, roughly 1–1.5c a round. A four-slice toaster with all slots on, often drawing around 1.5–2 kW, costs two or three cent per cycle, which is why independent controls for each pair of slots are worth having if you often toast for one.

Rapid boil or quiet boil? Most kettles sold for Irish and UK sockets are already rated at or near 3 kW, the practical maximum for a standard plug, so “rapid boil” usually refers to that element plus a one-cup marking. Quiet boil kettles change the element and body design to reduce the rumble as water heats; Russell Hobbs says its quiet boil models are up to 75% quieter than its standard kettles, which is the manufacturer’s own comparison. They are quieter, not silent, and plenty of them, such as the Luna, still have a 3 kW element.

Capacity and minimum fill. 1.7 litres is standard and plenty for a family. If you live alone, check the minimum fill line: a kettle that will boil a single cup safely saves energy every day. Water windows on both sides suit left- and right-handed users, and a lid that opens wide makes filling at a shallow sink and descaling much easier.

Glass, steel or plastic. Glass looks smart and shows you the water level at a glance, but it also shows every trace of scale. Brushed steel hides scale and feels solid, though single-walled steel bodies get hot to the touch. Plastic is the lightest and cheapest and boils just as fast.

Two slices or four? A two-slice toaster suits one or two people and takes up less counter space. For a family, a four-slice model with independent controls for each pair lets two people choose different settings and avoids heating empty slots. Check the slot width if you eat soda bread, batch loaf, bagels or crumpets: wide slots and a high-lift lever make the difference, and a bagel setting toasts the cut side only.

• Removable crumb tray: essential with crumbly soda bread and brown bread.
• Defrost: handy if you keep a sliced pan in the freezer.
• Reheat and cancel: small features you will use more than you expect.
• Cool-touch sides: worth looking for if small children are around the kitchen.

Matching sets. Russell Hobbs sells most of its design ranges, including Brontë, Groove, Textures, Adventure and Luna, as both a kettle and a toaster. A set gives you no performance benefit, but colours and finishes are refreshed every few years, so buy both together if a match matters to you. We only link to items sold and dispatched by Amazon.ie, for the reasons in why we only list Amazon.ie stock.