It beeps and the temperature light comes on but then it immediately fades and the kettle does not heat up.

I had the same problem after 2 years usage and found the problem to be the contacts between the kettle and base.

• Unplug the base and using a very thin needle file clean the 3 contacts and centre pin carefully. These contacts are sprung metal, so be careful to apply slight pressure in a clockwise direction.
• Next empty and upend the kettle, now use a fine abrasive pad (I used a piece of 'wet and dry' paper) and gently clean the surface of the contact rings.
• Clean away all dusty residue, this should cure the problem.

Exact same problem, used a hairdryer to dry the connectors at the base of the kettle.. All sorted.

I discovered that cleaning the contacts helped but still did not allow kettle to progress to switching heating element on. The problem was the four delicate sprung contacts in the base were not reaching or pressing upwards. I dismantled base unit ...(four anti-tamper screw heads!) Popped it open ...POWER WAS OFF ??....gently moved the sprung copper connectors up a mm or two, especially the centre one that takes the pin connector from the kettle. Reassembled and all seems good again .

I had the same problem and did the contact cleaning per Martin Olney: it worked for me! Thanks, Martin.

My kettle did this just after I had descaled it - problem was however nothing to do with the descale I had just done but rather to a very small amount of water that had found its way into the connector at the base of the kettle (probably due to the rinsings I had just completed). Dried the connection with kitchen towel and carefully pushing the kitchen towel in with a small screwdriver - retried and works fine again!