Lobo Plunger Filter Kettle Full Review
Posted: 12 February 2008 by Adam Vaughan
Let's say you like the concept of the Eco Kettle, but you're obsessed with water filters and wish it had one built in. This Lobo Plunger Filter Kettle, supplied to us by Nigel's Eco Store, plugs the gap.
Like its rival, it employs two chambers -- one for boiling and one as a reservoir -- to stop you using surplus water to make a cuppa. To use it, you simply pump the required water through from the reservoir to the boiling chamber. But it goes one further, using a massive water filter that did, to our surprise, produce tea with a noticeably cleaner taste than the Eco Kettle.
The Lobo kettle is also fast. It'll boil one cup in just over half a minute, which is on a par with the Eco Kettle and slightly slower than the Tefal Quick Cup for speed -- and substantially quicker than a conventional kettle that's been slightly overfilled. The result is less cash and water wasted, and less carbon dioxide hanging out in the atmosphere.
Pumping the water through to the boiling chamber can feel a little like going back in time and visiting the village pump. Because you're mechanically forcing the water through the filter for speed, the pump gives a fair bit of resistance. For one or two pumps to get a cup of tea, that's fine -- but when you're filling up a saucepan for pasta, it's the proverbial pain in the posterior.
The pump and see-through sci-fi styling certainly make the kettle a talking point for guests. We're personally not keen on the design, which looks and feels a lot cheaper and more plasticky than it does in photos. It's also worth noting the thing is massive. Not rave massive. Colossus-of-Rhodes, Titanic-of-James-Cameron massive. Expect to sacrifice a good chunk of worktop space to it.
As you'd expect, it's heavy too, though not enough to be a problem for most people. Oddly, the size doesn't translate into capacity -- it actually has a boiling chamber a quarter of a litre smaller than the Eco Kettle and Quick Cup.
The filter is good and bad. It does produce a distinct clean-tasting cup of tea, but you need to replace it every 400-600 kettle-fuls of water (how often depends on your water hardness). On the plus side, there's a counter display on the kettle-top, so knowing when to change the filter is easy -- a feature that's lacking from the filter-equipped Quick Cup. The bum notes are the price for replacement filters (£12 for two, versus £5 for three from Tefal) and the fact there's no recycling scheme for them.
Despite the lack of filter recycling, the Lobo clearly wins a good few greenie points on carbon-saving grounds. Unfortunately, its manufacturer was impossible to contact for details about the ethics of its manufacture, so we've marked it down for lack for openness and transparency.
The Lobo's an intriguing member of the eco kettle family, and the quirky styling and filter may make it worth a look for you. But it just doesn't cut the Earl Grey against the competition.
If you're simply after filtered water from an eco kettle, buy a £35 Eco Kettle and use the cash saved to stick a water filter jug in a fridge. And if you want something lighter and definitely more stylish, scope out Tefal's Quick Cup.
Quality
Value
Ethics
Green
