Boiling water taps, revolutionary or crap?

We have one at work. It is in constant use - hundreds of cups of tea and coffee a week and it is absolutely brilliant. I already planned for one in my next kitchen remodel, except that I want one which is fitted over a stove to avoid carrying pots back and forth from the sink.

We had one that was there when we moved in but didn’t replace it when kitchen was done a few years back and I really don’t miss it.
If I pop kettle on then by the time I’ve got out mugs/tea/coffee and grabbed milk from fridge it’s boiled so it doesn’t save much time and if I need a pan I just use the hob (we have an induction one and it heats to boiling very quickly). I can see the appeal of them with saving the worktop space but am not bothered enough to be willing to pay for a new one & decided against having old one refitted

I love my Qooker, I did have my reservations but now I've but couldn't be without it now.
Definitely go for it!

Surely nobody’s life is so busy that they can’t wait a maximum of two minutes for a kettle to boil 🙈

We had one at work. The boiling water was ever quite hot enough for a decent cup of tea though it was fine for coffee.

We have them at work. I don't like the splutter and I think it makes my tea taste funny.

Don't they use a lot of energy, an extra cost, or is that a rumour?

Very happy with mine, developed arthritis in my hands so it's gone from being a "nice to have" to a godsend.

I've had a quooker for about 15 years. I wasn't keen on the idea but after using it for a while I wouldn't be without it.

It has had one or two small replaced parts over the years which were IIRC supplied free of charge by quooker and easily fitted at home. It had its first full service last year when it turned out to need a new boiler. The current boilers aren't compatible with the old taps and they could have just offered me a discounted (but still expensive) whole new system. But the engineer took it on himself to get someone to search the stores for an older boiler, which was eventually found and sent to me. He then made another appointment to come and fit it. All for the cost of a regular service, which as I recall was less than £200. So absolutely minimal maintenance costs and excellent customer service.

Long term Quooker owner here. Ours went in in 2012 so it's 12 years old.

We've only had it serviced once.

Occasionally I remove the filter on the end of the tap and descale it.

Revolutionary for us, and I am fussy about tea.

Necessary? of course not. Useful and nice to have? You bet. Can you honestly say everything else in you new kitchen is going to be 100% necessary and there is nothing that's just nice to have and a bit of a luxury? We used to think of dishwashers as unimaginably luxurious but would you be without one now?

It is actually cheaper than the kettle as

1. it only boils the top. I mean how really do you fill the kettle with only the quantity of water that you need
2. you re not supposed to re boil water that already been booles as the oxygen is gone

Beat piece of kit in this house.
no maintenance needed.
we got the 3 in one which include sparkling water as we drinks lots of it.

change the filter on e a year and buy sparkling cartriges as needed.

job done. Enjoy.

I have Quooker and love it and it is definitely faster for multiple people than a kettle. I run a B&B so am doing tea and coffee for up to 12 people at a time and it is absolutely brilliant - much faster than before I got it when I had to have two kettles on the go to keep up.

One thing to look out for is that some taps don't send out boiling water but merely very hot water which makes a difference when making tea. The Quooker (and probably some other brands) is pressurised which means that the water is genuinely boiling hot.

We have an Insinkerator hot tap. We use it all the time, love it. It only does hot water though, not cold or sparkling etc. The temp of the water is 99 degrees

Not just 1/10th of the price, 1/50th of the price. And that doesn't take into account servicing etc.

There is a thread on here about them every other month. I think they must be the latest thing for the middle class to spend (waste) their money on.

I have seemed them described as "life changing", "game changer" and a "life saver" and other nonsense hyperbole.

It's almost as if using a kettle somehow goes beyond peoples ability once they start eating avocardo on toast.

I do get that if you are disabled they may be more convenient than trying to move heavy kettles around, but my guess is if this is a problem for you then your house will already be appropriately modified.

I voted crap. This is based on the kitchens at work (two separate workplaces) having boiling water taps that are out of order frequently. And also a whole cupboard being taken up by the equipment (not an issue at work but would be in my own kitchen).

I love my boiling water tap. Best thing in my kitchen! Can’t remember where mine is from but it’s not an expensive branded one. Can’t recommend it enough, and never had any issues with maintenance either.

We love ours, although now drink way too much sparkling water, which apparently isn't great for the enamel on your teeth.

To the 'tea tastes weird' brigade - one of our friends is a sommelier, make him a cup of tea and he can practically tell you by smell what day and in what country the leaves were harvested. They did their kitchen recently and were on the fence, so we did a blind tea tasting, with a number of teas, for him - he liked the kettle boiled one better with lemon ginger and chamomile, quooker with spearmint and rooibos chai, and detected no perceptible difference with English breakfast, Earl Grey or Assam. He did question the sanity of anyone who drinks chamomile by choice.

I've eaten with the man many times. He has an extraordinary sense of taste and smell. If he can't tell the difference, I don't believe the average tea drinker can.

@AnywhereAnyoneAnyTime I can't imagine people get a hot water tap to save money as the primary goal? They'll be doing it for the convenience.

I have the Quooker aged brass tap and have had other makes in previous houses. I love a boiling water tap, would not be without one.

I’m getting one next year and will get the one with sparkling water added to it - I can’t wait 😂😂

It amazes me how many people spend more money not less on saving money.

For the price of that tap you could buy 50 kettles, so more than you will ever need in a lifetime.

It’s the same with those heated airers. Ridiculously expensive to buy and more expensive to run than a tumble drier. Because although they apparently only cost about 12p an hour to run, what they don’t tell you is that whereas a tumble drier will dry your whole load in an hour, the heated airer will take about two days by the time you’ve dried five items at a time because it only dries things that are touching the bars. So it works out more expensive to run.

It was indeed a novelty!

For camping, a Kelly Kettle is superb.
Volunteered with forestry commission a few years ago, and they had Kelly Kettles where there was no electricity out in the woods.

Even on a down pouring day {like today} a Kelly kettle made a good hot drink - very quickly.

https://www.kellykettle.com

I think Quookers come in different tank capacities but our new one is very neat as as you can see, definitely doesn’t fill our (very untidy) undersink cupboard. It’s on the right hand side at the back if this photo.

Pull out hoses are wonderful.
DS has one in his new kitchen, and it's so civilised for swooshing around the sink.