Boiling water taps/Quookers - had one? I need advice please.

[CakeandRoses]

We're in the planning stages of our new kitchen. We're thinking about getting a boiling water tap so I'm keen to hear if you've had/have one and what you think about them.

We'll mostly use ours for making tea and for cooking. It's probably hard to justify the cost however you look at it but we're not splashing out on any other gadgets so thought it's be nice to get one of these - we've been lusting after one after seeing them on Grand Designs yonks ago!)

From the reasearch I've done so far, the Quooker sounds like it might be the best bet - they're expensive at £800ish but are actually boiling so are hot enough for tea, unlike many of the other brands.

It sound like they're miles safer than kettles and Quooker say they have had no accident reports at all, but please do let me know if you had any mishaps with yours.

The energy-savings sound a bit debatable so I'm also keen to hear how you found them from an energy perspective too please.

Many thanks!

[licquorice]

No experience but also interested in one so bumping for you

[GrendelsMum]

Here you are - those trusty Danes have been researching it for you:

www.savingtrust.dk/news/archive/consumer_archive/boiling-water-on-tap

And yes, they do waste electricity unless you're happily boiling your kettle and pouring it down the sink. They also say that you're likely to use boiling water for unnecessary purposes, further increasing the cost.

[Rebeccaj]

A friend has one (must be a Quooker as it's boiling) and uses it all the time for coffee/tea etc and when I cook in his house I use it for boiling water for veggies/pasta etc. Works well though you need to be careful with splashback - if you turn it on too full you can get splashed as the water rebounds out of your cup/pan etc. TBH tho I think he got it cos it's a gadget and has no idea about the energy savings!

[OmniDroid]

We've got one at work - don't know the brand, but it is brilliant for making cups of tea! Boiling water from one switch, chilled water from the other. Never had a problem with it. I'd love one at home.

[GrendelsMum]

I think the question is whether there's something else you'd rather do with the £800 quid up front plus the yearly cost of running it.

[Quookerman]

The article that GrendelsMum refers to is not factually correct. Have a look at the which website. www.which.co.uk/reviews/kettles/page/faqs/

A Quooker on average will cost 3 pence per day to run. A kettle each time you boil it costs between 8 and 10p.

Most kettles are boiled twice per use as well, so if you assume this happens 50% of the time you can add 50% more to the cost of running a kettle.

Convenience is also a major factor, no more waiting around for the kettle to boil.

The quality of the Quooker water is far superior also as it is filtered prior to being dispensed.

It is also immeasurably safer than using the kettle (did you know that 60 people a day are scalded by kettles in the UK, and thats just the ones reported to ROSPA!).

[TheDailyWail]

Mr quookerman, how long have you been waiting for a thread to come along which you would be able to answer?

I would love a quooker, if you could get me a Quooker tap for £100 I would be your Quookergirl!

[PatriciaHolm]

The Quooker is great, with the only caveat being be careful how you fill a pan etc - if you put it too close to the tap you get splashback of boiling water, not good!

[Quookerman]

TheDailyWail - If you could get me one for £100 I would have another one too!! :)

[bitzermaloney]

My friend has a Quooker but it has completely furred up in the first year of usage (she's in a very hard water area). If you have the same hard water issue you might need to get a second filter fitted before the water reaches the Quooker.

[StanHouseMuir]

Quookerman - your kettle running figures are plainly way out. A ketle does not cost 8-10p each time you boil, more like less than 1p

[cleggy36]

SHM is right. QMan's figure are not right - if a Quooker was perfectly efficient 3p would boil around 2-3 litres of water. It would cost more than that to boil that amount of water in a kettle, but not vastly more, and the boiling twice business is a bit of a red herring - I often boil mine twice but not from cold, the second boil usually takes about five seconds to reboil already hot water. I can see that a Quooker is handy but I would never try to justify one one cost grounds.

[Dancergirl]

I also wanted one when we did our kitchen 2 years ago...but after taking advice from our builder we didn't and I wouldn't recommend one.

You need FRESHLY boiled water for making tea, coffee and for cooking. The problem with these boiling water taps is because the hot water is instant, it's been hanging around for ages picking up all sorts of nasty things.

My builder knows his stuff and thinking about it, it makes sense.

I wouldn't touch one personally, sorry.

[Jix]

Hi there, I'm researching this as well, and came across this enviro website. There are a few comments there also questioning whether the Quooker really saves energy.

www.treehugger.com/files/2005/10/quooker_the_boi.php

Having said that I have a friend who swears by hers and uses it all the time - so in that case might be more energy efficient.

[ChinUpChestOut]

I have a Quooker, I put it in when I renovated my kitchen. It's incredibly convenient - as Rebeccaj said, it gets used all the time when filling the saucepan for pasta, vegetables and of course tea/coffee. I live in a hard water area, but so far (4 years down the road) I haven't had a problem with furring up.

But. I miss my little English tea ceremony. You know, the one where you go "Oh lets put the kettle on and have a nice cup of tea" after you've come in from a cold walk. Or when your friend comes round and you're chatting as the kettle boils. It's very "instant gratification", and actually, I miss the time it takes to make a cup of tea. It's all a bit too quick.

Yes, there are splash back issues - you wouldn't want one if you had a wood work surface, or where there were any joins on a composite work surface. You can't really put it on full blast unless the tap is well inside a tall saucepan. I ended up getting mine for free, as the kitchen installer made a massive mistake with cutting the granite for my sink. I got the Quooker as compensation.

To be honest, I don't think it's worth it. It's a gadget. A new kettle is probably so well designed these days that it's easily as cheap to run. It also doesn't cost £800 to buy. I certainly wouldn't pay that to have one again.

OP spend your £800 on pharmacy cabinets - now they were worth every penny!

[Spirael]

This is a very old thread from 2010 and I suspect OP has decided by now.

[darleydame]

might be an old thread but the last persons comments were very helpful!

[treesntrees]

We have one at work and find that unless we run it for a second or two the tea doesn't taste very nice. Standing water in pipe going off boil I presume.

[PlasticPinkFlamingo]

Are there any Quooker defenders out there? We're doing the kitchen shortly and are debating getting one. This thread is changing my mind.

[futret]

We have a Insinkerator one from John Lewis. I don't imagine it does save cash however it's really efficient and convenient. I love it cos it also filters the water; it has filtered boiling water and filtered cold (drinking) water.

It was cheaper than Quooker and we preferred the design.

[mikeyboywillis]

Very expensive to buy and install, I've been looking but £800 is too much for the convenience of not boiling a kettle, as far as I can tell you will need to look at the filter costs.
I might just buy the best kettle money can buy.

[mikeyboywillis]

I have a friend with a tea shop who insists on 90 degree waiter to make his tea, try it with earl grey, boiling water ruins it.

[IAmAPaleontologist]

Zombie thread!

But since it has been revived.......I've been thinking about one of these as we pretty much don't have hot running water in the summer which gets very annoying in the kitchen. But MIL who likes to be a fountain of all knowledge when in reality she doesn't know all that much and will go on and on about what she has done because that is the only correct way has just built a new house and decided against getting one and says they take up an entire cupboard space underneath. Is that true?