I just purchased a Breville Variable Temperature Kettle from Sur La Table. I justified the ridiculous price of $149 because I had a gift certificate for $100 – and I figured the kettle would be delightful and easy to use to obtain the correct temps for various brews. To my dismay, I discovered while reading the manual that they allow themselves a plus/minus 10 degrees of variance on the temperature of the heated water. They claim “This product is not calibrated for commercial or scientific use. Temperatures may vary (plus/minus) 10 degrees F, however still within range for optimal brewing for each type of tea or coffee”. Yet that 10 degrees (20 total!) puts the temp selection into the temp range of buttons on each side. PLUS! The inner carton flap say “This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. I’m outraged at the arrogance and deceit of this company. I feel duped.

There is a glass electric kettle made by Medelco that claims to be BPA free. Some of the other glass and stainless one’s mentioned do have various plastic parts that come into contact with the boiling water. I just ordered the Medelco kettle from Overstock.com for around $60, including shipping. Amazon had it for about the same price but it was on backorder there. I will try to post an update after I get it and try it out. I also emailed Krups, they have two stainless models with no plastic touching the water. Breville told me that all of their kettles currently have some plastic on the inside, but they’re coming out with a new “tea appliance” that won’t. Lastly, Zojurishi (spelling?) also makes a kettle that has a plastic outside but all stainless inside, they told me it has plastic in the lid, but not the water chamber. Hope this helps.

The problem with the glass kettles seems to be that they use some type of plastic sealant between the water and the heating element. People on Amazon complain that it smells horrible, so it clearly leaches into the water.
I’m not sure if the stainless steel ones use a similar sealant but it doesn’t seem like it. I’m thinking it’s because people buy the glass ones for tea, to avoid metallic taste. (Stainless steel leaches some chromium and possibly iron into water, not in harmful amounts however.)

On second thought, the sealant is probably not plastic but silicone rubber, which might taste weird but is pretty much inert in the human body.

“Breville told me that all of their kettles currently have some plastic on the inside, but they’re coming out with a new “tea appliance” that won’t”

- If you visit their home page you’ll see a new tea maker (BTM800XL) for a whopping $250 and it will be available in May. Open up the PDF file that is available for download and search for yourself. I could not find any information on the plastic’s used and if you zoom in on the first page picture in the PDF you’ll see a rubber ring at the bottom and lots of other plastic…I don’t think thats the one they promised. Well and its not really just a kettle.

I woke up this morning with the same horrified thought… that all this time we have been boiling water in plastic! I feel so bad and so scared that I have harmed by babies in some way with BPAs. After reviewing your list, I just ordered the Hamilton Beach one that you listed above. Thank you for your help and I will let you all know how it goes.
All the best.