Hallelujah! Critical Mother-in-law APPROVED! I bought this electric tea kettle for my MIL to use when visiting, because during her last visit, I caught her microwaving water in a mug for FOUR MINUTES to make TEA! The mug cracked, of course. Her explanation for going overboard: MY water doesn’t boil as hot as HER water. Yes, she’s one of THOSE mother-in-laws. If that lady doesn’t get her ritual morning tea and toast, it could be catastrophic for EVERYONE. I haven’t been able to solve the mystery of why the same brands of butter, bread, and tea are inferior at my house (as opposed to hers), but surely I can get this lady some hot water for her tea without her or any unsuspecting soul getting blasted in the face by an exploding cup of water, when the microwave door is opened (the toaster is a story for a later date). She doesn’t like stove kettles and it’s just as well, because I have a glass stovetop built into my kitchen island. There’d be a fire when something got set on the hot burner that blends in with the countertop. I searched Amazon & thought about an electric kettle that was clear(so she could SEE the water was indeed boiling), but we already established that “boiling” doesn’t mean anything to her- not to mention the spout looked like it could dribble. I finally decided on this kettle. It has various temperature setting buttons ranging from 180 degrees to 212. It even has recommended uses labeled under the according temp (180 for green tea and white tea, 195 for Oolong and airpress coffee, 200 for black tea or French press, 205 for herbal tea or pour overs, or the BIG GUN 212 for BOIL). Plus it has a “keep warm” setting. I thought MAYBE since it SAID only 200 degrees needed for her black tea...that MAYBE pushing that highest button “BOIL” might give her some satisfaction. Be warned, that if this is for a gift for someone in your own household, you will need to specify to “hide contents” at the gift option in checkout, because it came in its product packaging. It was packaged very well, very straightforward simple directions on one sheet of paper and in English, easy set up, very attractive design, easy to operate. Its all very well thought out. It’s not complicated at all. Even my MIL had the patience to work it, and believe me, she’d find any excuse NOT to use it. She never griped once. It’s a skinny spout that pours away from the side of the pot. Absolutely no dribbling, splashing, or lid coming off while pouring. The lid kind of snaps into place. It doesn’t fall off at all but isn’t difficult to purposefully TAKE off. It doesn’t have a rubber seal or anything so you can’t turn this thing upside-down, completely side-ways, or shake it wildly. I safely walked into living room to pour a “warm up” for someone’s tea, and since the spout is a goose neck that starts out low but curves up almost to level of lid, and the max water fill line inside is a safe distance away from the top, there’s not much worry about splashing out if held upright while walking across kitchen or whatever. I can easily pour this one-handed. It’s a very gentle, directed, and SAFE pour without taking forever to fill your cup. It’s so directed and precise that you could fill a soda bottle without spilling a drop. Outside of pot does get hot so must use handle. But it’s lightweight and fits in the hand well. There’s a “thumbprint grip” on handle, to help control. Simple to set back on top of the base- without having to look to see if anything is lined up, and no flat base for it to slip off of...you can tell when it’s on because the piece that sticks up from the base is a couple inches in diameter and sticks up about an inch to fit inside the corresponding indentation on bottom of kettle. When pot is replaced you can just let it sit and it will eventually turn off, or you can push “keep warm” (holds temp for 30 mins)or choose a different temp, or turn off. The pot stays hot for a while so you could walk away for a while and it still wouldn’t take any time at all to heat up to temp again even if you don’t don’t press keep warm setting. The next time the unit is turned on, it will automatically be at that last used setting. If the pot is turned off, when u lift up the kettle to fill with water and set it back down again, it automatically wakes up. The last used temp button will glow, and all you need to do is push “power.” The temp and power buttons are BOTH lit while in process of heating water. It’ll heat up and beep when done. It is a beep that won’t wake up the whole house. It’s easy to tune out (not always a good thing) so keep an ear out for the beep. The power light will turn off and the temp button will stay lit after it has beeped. So if you miss the beep, you can easily tell. It won’t keep boiling if you miss it. The max fill line inside is actually a metal tab that sticks out so you can easily see it. It’s a 4 cup pot but that’s using the smaller mugs. It’ll fill 2 big latte cups or 3 of my midsize mugs. You could use to add to Ramen noodle cups, etc. Any part of the kettle that touches the water is stainless steel. The only non-metal parts I see is on very top knob on outside of lid, grip part of handle, and part of the base (like the non-conductive handles on some stove pots). Despite my being a coffee drinker, I actually love this pot and have chosen tea over coffee many times now. I ended up trying it out on a blooming flower tea to give it a test run before MIL came. It worked great because it got hot enough to open the flower and the spout is small enough that I can add more water without destroying the flower. It’s easy to keep clean. Any fingerprints wipe easily off. I was originally planning on keeping it in a cupboard or in the box between MIL visits, but I love to use it and it looks very sharp on my countertop. I’ll be giving these as gifts this Christmas. The company seems to have good customer service, and part of the proceeds go to Wounded Warrior Project and pediatric healthcare in Uganda. My ONLY disappointment is that it’s not made in USA. That surprised me. It’s a veteran-inspired company so I expected it to be made in USA.