Prior to Friday this kettle was a shiny silver and not sporting the “burnt to a crisp” look.

We are very lucky. On Friday night I set the tea kettle to boil on the stove for a spot of tea before bed. I then proceeded to go to bed. In the morning Iggi found a very unhappy kettle not-quite-smoldering on our stove. We are not sure if I left the whistle up or if the whistle failed.

According to the kettle’s reviews on Amazon, the whistles on this model have been known to fail. In spite of the possible whistle failure, props to Oxo for building an indestructible kettle that is now very ugly, but which didn’t burn our house down or give off toxic fumes. In fact, it didn’t smell at all. The kettle may not have experienced structural failure, but we are also unsure if the kettle is safe to use. I’ve boiled water in it a few times and the inside is flaking, so unless I can stop the flaking or determine its cause, I am wary of using the kettle.

In the meantime I am considering other options. And, since we’ve pledge to do our best not to buy new things “just because” I have been researching neused (new-used) kettle options, while also looking into recycling our old kettle. Normally, I would give it away, but depending on what is causing the flakes, I am not sure that it would be ethical to pass the kettle along!

I’ve determined that if I can remove the few plastic parts from my kettle, it can be recycled for free in the scrap metal bin at the Longmont Eco-Cycle Community Drop-off Center. This might be a good option, especially if I can pick up a nice second hand kettle. With this in mind, I stopped by the second hand shop Serendipity, off of 3rd and Main Street in Longmont, to check out their kettle collection. Unfortunately, although Serendipity had a handful of coffee percolators in stock, I couldn’t find a tea kettle. When I asked the friendly retail clerk if they might have one somewhere in the store, she said no. She then suggested that I “pick a new one up for cheap at Mall-Wart.” She’d just bought a new kettle there and offered up that “it works great.” Sigh.

I am not going to buy a tea kettle or anything else from Mall-Wart (more on that later). For now I have decided to ruminate on the issue. My friend Julie received the same tea pot as a wedding gift (from yours truly) and a few months back she fessed up to never actually using it to make tea (or anything else). Perhaps I will contact her and set-up a trade. Perhaps I just need to get over the burnt-to-a-crisp look and do my best to clean up my current tea-pot. Maybe the flaking is simply caused by burnt off mineral deposits? What do you think?