Morphy Richards 43652 Opera Cordless Jug Review

Overall Rating

All round good design, fast element, lightweight and easy to fill, pour and hold, good alarm system.

Some models have stopped working but this may be down to the fact that the switch at the top is not water resistant! Availability, main body not heat insulated, small 1.5 litre capacity, some component problems.

The Opera range originally consisted of a kettle and matching toaster, the pack of which could be purchased together at Argos, Comet and Currys. Whilst I loved the look of its matching toaster, my dad didn't and in the end we were the proud owners of one very snazzy looking plastic bodied Opera jug kettle after paying £25 at our local Scottish Power electrical shop.

Presently online the Opera jug retails for a very cheap £9-99! But by today's standards the Opera jug merely sits in a market full of kettle jugs trying to earn a place in consumer's homes.

" This silver kettle has a natural pearlescent finish to capture the swirling, irregular beauty of a South Seas pearl, the Pearlescent finish has a unique flow line which guarantees each silver model to be a guaranteed original "

Or So Morphy Richards had said with the little card suspended by a silver elastic cord which sat proudly on the Opera jug when I looked at it on a shelf in the shop. Back then I did think that the Opera jug looked like a plastic kettle which had melted due to is strange near classical looking handle and squat design. The shape would however grow on me as time passed.

So in use the Opera jug does what a kettle is supposed to do; boil water and unlike some kettles on the market, the jug design has a few novel but important features. One of the features I like about the Opera jug is the locking lid at the top of the kettle. The spout has a wider aperture at most which means you can fill the kettle straight from the tap or other means (such as pouring water from a water filter jug) but if pouring through the lid, the lid simply unlocks by lifting a lock mechanism upwards. If the kettle is switched on accidentally whilst pouring water in, the lid flips all the way until it rests on the main power switch located at the top of the handle, plastic upon plastic and flips the switch back up so that the kettle can't be activated whilst the lid is open. Now that's an idea which I have not seen on many jug kettles let alone any other Morphy Richards kettle I have used which has a similar outward design.

Boiling time is average or dependent on water capacity; the less you fill above the minimum line, the quicker the Opera readies itself to warm up and start heating up the water. Put in water to fill the 1.5 maximum capacity and it takes maybe a few seconds more to heat up. Importantly thanks to the 3.1 kilowatt power, the Opera jug warms and heats water extremely quickly which is ideal for anyone who needs a lot of hot water in one go. I would however prefer the Opera jug to have a larger capacity of 1.7 litres - I find that a kettle with this capacity is so handy when making large amounts of home made soup or with general use such as filling up my wash Vax vacuums.

Pouring and handling the Opera jug is as easy as it looks with its large curved handle. I find it a very comfortable kettle to hold whilst generally the Opera jug doesn't boil water loudly; more importantly my parents don't struggle with the size of it and lifting it to pour into various cook ware is easy and water doesn't tend to splash out because of the wide, squat spout. The quality of the plastic is also well marked and seals or bonding is not easy to spot which is good - I wish the same could be said about my Kenwood silver jug kettle which is a dead ringer for the Opera jug.

Although the element is concealed it is indeed easier to clean this kettle out when deposits naturally sit at the base. An LED clear light is located at the bottom of the base of the kettle at the bottom of where the spindle handle of the kettle meets the bond seal, and when the kettle is switched on, the clear gauge and water lights up in a pleasant orange hue. It is also very easy to clean, not often though as the only dirt which gets on the body seems to be coffee or tea stains.

The kettle has all the standard functions most kettles of this design have; 360 degree base, completely rotational; auto boil switch off, washable, removable spout mesh filter which catches water impurities and a thermal cut out function. The cord is also optionally able to either be stored by wrapping around the tidy at the bottom of the base of the machine or having it all out.

Due to its understated design, the reason to why it is called "Opera" is the fact that the kettle has a built in alarm which goes off after the kettle has boiled the water and automatically switches off. Sounding like a low electronically produced whistle which starts off low and rises in a quick scale, it is a common sound heard from our kitchen on a daily basis. Unlike our Morphy Richards Soprano toaster, the Opera jug's alarm can be switched off by a small nib switch located on the base of the kettle. Finding it however can be tricky due to the general design though.

But there are ways in which you may catch the Opera out. Sometimes when we want instant hot water and can't be bothered to have lip burning water before the Opera goes off with its final boil, we switch off at the mains plug, push the switch off and then pour the hot water out. Then after installing the kettle back onto the base, the moment the plug is switched on, the audible siren from the Opera is emitted; this can be confusing for the next person who uses the kettle. So in a way, perhaps the Opera jug does have a memory built in.

But importantly on the other hand, if the kettle has already boiled and the switch is pushed down a second time straight after the kettle has boiled and water has been poured, the Opera jug will either alert the owner that water has already reached the top temperature and therefore won't boil again OR if half the water has been emptied and there's still enough to boil up, the Opera will regain its memory and boil the rest of the water up. I know it annoys the hell out of my mum but after three years ownership the Opera jug just keeps going! I just haven't told her there is a switch where the alarm can be switched off.

My mum's friend fell in love with our Opera jug the moment she laid eyes on it. Although it is an extremely easy to use kettle and has that plastic glittery paint concept going on, it is disappointing that the kettle's body is not heat insulated. Whilst the handle gets slightly warm, the body of the kettle is extremely hot to the touch once it has been boiled, and in this instance seems to a trait to most plastic bodied jug kettles. The locking lid however is heat insulated which is at best a good idea!

Secondly my mum's friend tried to buy an Opera jug late this year and went on Ebay to source a reconditioned model for £10 plus postage and packaging. All went well until the third week when the kettle just stopped working completely. After returning the kettle back to the seller on Ebay (who are a limited company and offer a 6 month guarantee) kindly replaced the kettle with another Opera jug and sent it back. Since then she has had no problems but the problem turned out to be water being filled when she was in a hurry and had seeped into the on switch area, which may have drowned the elements inside. So in this respect it is easy to judge that the switch may not actually be water proof!

Lastly Morphy Richards make the Opera jug in many colours, appearing in Black, Yellow, Green and other colours and sometimes those colour models apart from the Black, Silver and White jugs don't have the alarm built in. In this respect it is handy to know the model name and model number if this product interests you.

Time is therefore catching up with the Opera jug on the basis that Morphy Richards are launching other kettles which have improvements. But the safety, general ease of use and rapid performance mark out distinct features on a jug kettle which does a little more than just boil water. Review appears on Dooyoo.