Boiling water taps, revolutionary or crap?

[BoilingTap]

We’re in the process of having a brand new kitchen done. I’m really keen on a boiling water tap (Quooker) whereas my partner thinks they are a waste of money (it is over £1k) and we can just get a kettle. His argument is we can get a nice looking kettle for a tenth of the price, it’s no faff, if anything goes wrong you just replace.

I quite fancy one as I cook a lot of pasta, rice, potato’s, as well as making teas and coffees. I also like the idea of having more worktop space and reducing the amount of things plugged in. Obviously it’s a big expense and I’ve also read they need regular maintenance, I don’t fancy spending over a grand on a tap and then shelling out hundreds in maintenance. Can anyone who owns one shed any light?

YABU - team DH, they are a gimmick and crap.

YANBU - team BoilingTap, they are revolutionary, go for it!

We ummed and ahhed. Decided to get a standard tap instead with a single hole (cut in the quartz rather than two bar version) so if we decide to change our mind later we can.

I don’t like the spluttering. And they aren’t great for tea imo. Always tastes a bit bubbly to me.

When we had our new kitchen we decided against it. You lose some room under the sink for the unit to go in, but that wasn’t the main reason. We probably have two hot drinks a day each, my DH and I. I went for an induction hob that heats a pan of water super fast so didn’t see the need for one there either. Some people love them and wouldn’t be without, I would just think about whether you would use it enough to justify the cost. Enjoy your new kitchen whatever you decide.

I had a new kitchen recently installed and we have a Quooker tap in antique brass. I bloody love it. I love not having a kettle out on the worktop and I find it so convenient. Worth every penny and very low maintenance.

I've got a vellamo...fantastic, would never go back to a kettle.

Have a Quooker and love it - best decision ever to get it. To avoid any splutters just make sure the tap is inside the rim of the mug/saucepan.

You call THAT Medieval?!
We had a power cut locally, and I was desperate for a coffee.

I made a small fire 🔥 in a large terracotta flowerpot {Outdoors} with finely chopped kindling and put a pan of water over it..and within 10 mins had a cup of very nice {albeit instant} coffee.

The only downside was having to clear smoke residue from base of saucepan.

I like having the Qooker, it makes good tea (I'm a tea snob), I'd probably miss not having one now I'm used to it. It fills a pan with boiling water for pasta really quickly.

It's not essential but it's nice to have.

I’d never have stumped up for a Quooker tap or any other hot water tap but we moved into a house where one was left and my God! It was fantastic! We drink a lot of tea and both cook quite a lot so it got a lot of use and it is more economical than boiling a kettle each time. I also love the fact that you gain worktop space by not accommodating a kettle. I now live in Portugal and when we first moved there was no distributor here, however I recently changed worktops and idly checked and some had recently opened to we got one without hesitation and we love it. It’s better than the one we inherited as it’s one tap for boiling, cold, and mixer. Ours has also got a pull-out hose which is great for cleaning the sink and washing up.

We have a virgin pure machine which has boiling water and filtered cooled water on tap, I absolutely love it, but it's a subscription service so pricey, if we were getting a new kitchen done I'd absolutely get something built into the taps.

That sounds much more fun than a Quooker! But possibly a touch less efficient.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

@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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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

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.

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.

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