Healthy Living Books Kitchen & Housewares

Rating: - It does what it says on the tin
This is about our fourth Teasmade in 30 years. We once bought a different make, but pretty soon took it back, as it wasn't a patch on a good old Swan. I agree, the earlier models were better - they had a few more refinements - but I guess we lost the bedside light that came on with the alarm as part of a cost-cutting exercise. Whichever way you look at it, a Swan is still the best, and I wouldn't be without mine!

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Rating: - It does exactly what it says on the tin!
Yes it's not particularly high tech nor will it win any design awards and the build quality is not up to ipod standards but, and this is important! it wakes you up with a freshly made pot (HOT) of tea for 2. OK, the rocker switches are a little dated, the clock is a little "agricultural" for my liking and it's only a slightly less than 12 hour timer (how long do you sleep for anyway?) but it's a teasmade - it makes tea. I suppose they could have added a digital clock, WiFi, internet radio, D.A.B., bluetooth and god knows what else but it wouldn't make it do the job any better. As for a kettle and timer, good luck with that, it's certainly cheaper but somewhat less convienient (or safe for that matter) and then you have still got to pour the water into a pot which is the one thing I wanted this to do, and it does.

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Rating: - Disappointing model - and not cheap...

I've had two or three of these over the last few years.

Ideally, I would prefer the old type of traditional Teasmades, and although they are pretty easy to come by second hand, for hygienic reasons, it is best to only keep those for a collector's purposes. However, as I cannot wake up in a morning without my 'cuppa' I have to have a modern one.

Despite being a 'reputable' name and having the nearest thing to a built in 'kettle' (a visible Element inside) these were not brilliant. They developed various faults pretty soon, and although you can still get things repaired nowadays, the cost involved is really not worth it on something like this, and so you tend to simply 'throw away' and get another, (which I guess is what the Company generally relies upon) but the other problem with this model I found was for some reason Swan insist on coating the inside of the kettle area with 'Teflon' (some form of non-stick coating) Apart from the fact that this is not necessary (ordinary Electric Kettles do not have it) it does affect the taste of the tea. Some days it's not there, but for some reason, other days it is, and it's 'YUK' and you just can't drink it...

I now use the Tea Express - see my Review for that Item.

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Rating: - Unreliable and awkward
We finally had to replace our 38 year old Goblin Teasmade that had been a wedding present. The first Swan broke in a few months and was replaced under guarantee. The second worked until the guarantee had expired then would only work manually. So we replaced it with a Micromark Tea Express with Alarm Clock which is super.

Apart from the unreliability, the clock & alarm times are very hard to set, the permanent light is too bright, and the device is ugly compared with the Micromark.

I isn't anything like as good as the old Goblin which hadn't let us down until it finally expired after 38 years.

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Rating: - compact
I love the swan teasmaid but just wish the lid was more secure, I find it nearly falls off if you tip the pot up too far, I do think the tray is a good idea. Its very conpact so fits in a small place, I just love it.