Boiling Water Tap - thoughts?

[CTupsanddowns]

Thinking of getting a boiling water tap in my kitchen. Has anyone got one? What do you think, are they any good / worthwhile? Where's best to buy?

Take a kettle with you, you clearly own one. But if this is your hill to die on don't visit.

We had a "hot water" tap so it got to about 96 degrees, had that about 4 years then upgraded to a Quooker which is a boiling water tap. We would not be without it.

To turn the boiling water on you need to depress the grippy collar down twice and then turn it. Hardly difficult or fiddly. If you leave too much of a gap between the two presses down it won't dispense any water when you turn the collar.

The thing I like about it most is that you can turn the tap to cold and turn it on, then do the collar thing and add boiling water to the stream mixing the two together. It makes it easy to wash out a pan quickly. I am loathe to run water until the hot water finally makes it to the kitchen tap. I never fill a sink anyway as I have a dishwasher and most things go into that.

@Wish44 would you not consider a whole house water softener? If the water is hard it would benefit all the pipes and taps being protected from limescale.

Our Quooker tap is our favourite thing in our new kitchen!

No other tap (that I know of) heats up as hot. We also have the Qube add on that gives us chilled and sparkling, I save a fortune on not having to buy bottled water and pop, I get the sugar free syrups from soda stream so the kids can make lemonade Or Pepsi by mixing it with the sparkling water, if they fancy that for a change.

We could never be without it now! It does have a specific double push down and turn to actually get the hot water out, so I don’t see it being easy for accidents and we have never had any issues.

Definitely recommend if it’s doable.

Ooh! I didn’t know that about mixing the boiling and cold together!! My main gripe was waiting for the hot to come through the normal tap!
Amazing! Thank you!!

Blimey, how children can operate one I do not know - they’re quite fiddly! Also, they automatically turn off as soon as you let go of them.

We have a number of them at work; they make crap tea and are always breaking. The flow rate is very poor too.

My Quooker does not turn off until you return the collar to the original position. This might be different on other models but it means I can hold a pan by both handles whilst resting it on the bit between the full sink and teeny sink. I can also swoosh the very hot water round the sink with my hand on the curved bit over the top with a Dishmatic in the other hand cleaning the sink. The neck of the tap does not get boiling hot, it is insulated.

The Quooker also has a visible tundish meaning if anything goes wrong it releases water through the pipework under the sink straight down the drain, not into the sink.

Having owned 2 different brand of taps I am unsure how a power cut would make a tap release the boiling water as suggested by someone's neighbour. They all require a physical action to turn on. My original one was a stand alone mini tap and still required you to push it down and then backwards. That did require you to hold it in place to dispense the water. That was 15 years ago though.

@Nannydoodles my friend had a new kitchen fitted and had had a full Quooker demonstration at the kitchen shop. I only found out as I saw her do it in her house. So this was me paying it forward. Get into the habit of cold on, collar, collar OFF then cold off otherwise you are just left with the boiling water on.

This isn't true. It can't turn itself on - but even if it did, the tank would very soon empty itself.

We have a Quooker. It works brilliantly until it doesn’t (two services in 6 years so far). Wouldn’t be without it - I now find it irritating to have to boil a kettle and wait. V spoiled I know.

Other brands are cheaper but get rather mixed reviews. I believe Qettle is good.

My DSis has this one - had it several years and it’s still like brand new.
www.diy.com/departments/liquida-ebt311ch-3-in-1-chrome-instant-boiling-hot-water-kitchen-tap/5060953715487_BQ.prd

We have a quooker. It’s fab, would definitely get another if we ever move.
No way it could keep running boiling water in a power cut as it’s only got whatever’s in the tank. I think safer than a kettle as kids couldn’t pull it in to themselves/spill it. My gran really used to struggle to carry a kettle when she got frail so it’d have been great for her.

I have a Qettle. I love it. Much safer than heavy kettles full of boling water and trailing cables. I would 100% replace it if it went wrong.

Quooker here with a water softener attached.
I wanted one as I was used to similar at work. DH was sceptical but didn't argue. We both agreed it was a luxury in our new kitchen. 7 years on we agree that if it went wrong it would be replaced. Basic model, just boiling water.

We have a Quooker - 7 years old now. I love it because it means one less thing out on the worktop. And I'd definitely have another one if we ever moved.

However. We have had to have it serviced twice now, at £200 per time. And a replacement cartridge for softening water costs £90. So have to be prepared for that. It also takes up a fair bit of room in the cupboard under the sink.

Can't comment on how well it makes tea as we're a coffee-drinking house.

Have a Quooker, expensive but hate kettles. Live in SE so limescale is a problem and need to get the tank regularly serviced at a cost. Don’t regret it and would hopefully get another if I moved.

I’m in a hard water area and neighbours have one which they like. My mum has one too. I don’t see the need to get one fitted so I won’t. Funnily enough the hot/cold water tap like it at work is good and makes good tea, no idea of the make.

Love mine but I do drink about 10 coffees a day.

My sister has a Qettle. Despite needing a plumber out every year as she can't change the filter herself, and it's flooded her kitchen at least once, she's very wedded to it and plans to bring it with her when she moves house.
I don't get it. Boiling a kettle is not a hardship to me. It's usually a couple of minutes of peace and quiet, or done while other jobs are doing.
Hers is very splashy and the tea tastes weird, in a mug that gets all wet from filling it. Also our late mum kept scalding herself as she kept forgetting which direction was boiling and which was filtered.

i suggest your sisters tap is faulty. Our Qettle is completely reliable, easy to change the filter, tea tastes lovely, it doesn't spit nor make the outside of mugs wet. It's pretty much impossible to scald yourself with it - if you turn the tap the wrong way you'd get cold water, and there's a safety button for the boiling water. We've had ours for 5+ years, never needed a repair, always very simply changed the filters ourself.

I don't doubt that it is faulty, but she's still inexplicably wedded to it. And not impossible to scald yourself if you turn it the wrong way because you can't remember which way is which and can't make out the tiny logo on the side of the tap.

You can get a Quooker model that does the pre-mixing for you so you don't have to do it and therefore easier and no splattering, just turn the lever to hot like any other tap and ot comes out pre-mixed, it's been a game changer for us as our nornal hot water tank is a long way from the kitchen.

Impossible to scald yourself turning it the wrong way. If you want boiling water and turn it the wrong way = cold water, no scald. If you turn it the wrong way when you want cold water, you can't due to the safety button = no water, no scald. You need to turn it the right way and deliberately push in the safety button to get boiling water, which is impossible to do "accidentally".

It’s the best thing we put in our new kitchen ! The Quooker with the fizzy water and I love it every time I used it feel pleased . I didn’t really want it DH did but I’m the convert now

Love mine. Very safe to use. No chance of small kids accidentally turning it on as it has a mechanism similar to a medicine bottle. And there is no way it could get stuck on - once the hot water tank has emptied (around 5 litres) the water stops.