Qooker? Me: yes! Dh: NO!

[Dilbertian]

I want an instant boiling water tap in our new kitchen. We have an old-fashioned boiler/tank thing in the staff kitchen at work, and I love it. Even better than the no waiting about for the kettle to boil, is the lack of grotty gritty limescale in your tea.

Dh absolutely rejects the idea of having one. He's worked in much newer buildings than me, with flashy, gizmo-filled staff kitchens. He says that the instant hot water taps there never made good tea and were always breaking down.

I think
a) He's wrong.
b) Maybe they were hot water taps, rather than boiling water taps.
c) He's wrong.

But then I've never had a cup of tea made from a Quooker, so what would I know?

How do I persuade him? (Or does he have a point?)

We love ours, we’ve never had a problem with it. My husband is differently abled so can’t use a standard kettle, where as he can use the quooker independently and safely.

We have one, been in for four years, one service, very hard water area. Dh and I love it. I would have another in a heartbeat, you can fill a big pasta pan of water with no bother, no idea what @Terminallysleepdeprived was using but it can't have been a quooker

I have one. It's great. And it definitely gets hot enough to make great tea ( I like mine boiling hot). I now let the property out and it's never had any problems in last three years.
Basically, who spends most time in the kitchen? If that's you, you get to decide. And if he still wants to, he can boil water on the stove for his tea.

Basically, who spends most time in the kitchen? If that's you, you get to decide. And if he still wants to, he can boil water on the stove for his tea.

I spend most time in the kitchen, but he drinks the most tea.

He’s right
We have them at work ( not that I have been there for a while…)
They are not instant boiling water, they are instant nearly-boiling water and they make awful tea
We have about 6 at work, and I reckon there’s a service engineer out about once a month.

There's a reason why my workplace didn't bother replacing the bastard things and bought a batch of domestic kettles.

Mainly that tea tastes rubbish.

For full disclosure ours was a freebie but I absolutely love mine.
I always make tea the (IMO) proper with teapot and have noticed absolutely no difference to the quality or temperature. We were invested enough to have done a taste test with kettle boiled v's boiling tap tea
It's useful for filling pans and mop buckets.
Ours is three years old and hasn't needed any maintenance aside from filter change which is easy.
For us the space under the sink wasn't an issue as it's in a corner cupboard so it's not taking up usable space.

Absolutely love our Quooker. Makes perfect tea, but the best thing is minutes saved in the morning to get eggs boiled for my kids.

Something about instant boiling water from a tap gives me the boke!

Is it just sitting there boiling all the time waiting to be poured? Or does it pass over a hot plate to boil on demand?

@NeverDropYourMoonCup

There's a reason why my workplace didn't bother replacing the bastard things and bought a batch of domestic kettles.

Mainly that tea tastes rubbish.

I agree! Tea tastes crap when made with boiling water. It should be made with 70-90 degrees temp depending of the type of tea. So all that extra cost and messing around for an inferior tasting cuppa

It’s a no from me because Quooker tea just isn’t very nice.

Tea tastes crap when made with boiling water. It should be made with 70-90 degrees temp depending of the type of tea.

I disagree, as does dh. Black tea should be made with 100C water.

I would happily have a hot water tap (and dh could keep descaling his manky kettle) because I mostly drink green tea, which should be made with 70-90C water, and herbal teas. Getting an expensive boiling water tap would be a concession to dh's tea-habit.

But you know what really grinds my gears in this debate? Dh, Mr I Don't Want To Make My Tea With Water That's Been Kept Hot, reboils the kettle I'm the one who swills it out and fills it with fresh water to make tea. He doesn't. And even if I've literally just boiled the kettle he'll switch it on again for his cuppa.

Previous posters are right when they say people are comparing office water taps with Quookers.

The ones in offices are NOT the same, and yes, they're shit. Partly because of the heavy use but mostly because it's not 100 degree water (I think because of health and safety? Or maybe just cost).

You cannot compare the high end boiling water taps to office Zip taps. If you're prepared to put up with the lost cupboard space and increased energy implications then they are brilliant, and I think your DH would be converted by day 1.

(Also black tea needs bubbling boiling water - the temperature and the oxygen in the bubbles is important for flavour. It's the other teas and coffee that need under 100 degrees).

I have had a quooker for over 5 years and love it. I was dubious before getting it as I had also had the Zipp ones at work that were always breaking down. However, the ones at work were in constant use whereas in a domestic setting they get much less wear and tear.
We got it to free up worktop space in our new kitchen as we wanted room for a seating area. If you have loads of worktop space, it really is a bit indulgent having one as you can buy a lot of kettles for the price of a Quooker, so I do see your husband’s point. The best thing about it is my cup of tea first thing in the morning, no faffing about with the kettle, no waiting for it to boil. The kitchen sink is also miles from the hot water tank, so if you want warm water quickly, say for hand washing, you can turn on the cold and boiling water together to get nice warm water.
We did look into the safety features - some brands are way too easy for a visitor/child to turn on accidentally. Although I love it, if I was on a tight budget/has acres of worktop I might think twice though as they are expensive.

I don’t think they make good tea. This has been discussed on here before and I think the reason is that ideally for tea you want fresh boiled water. The Quooker keeps the water hot before dispensing it.

I love how people who decided against one themselves think that's proof they're a waste of money!

They are bloody excellent. All my doubting family and visitors are converted. It makes perfect tea. So handy for starting veg and pasta etc. Great for oven trays with stubborn food on them. You won't believe how you lived without it.

Unless you decide against it and then you will spend your life telling everyone they're a total waste of money and always break.

My friend has one. It makes shit tea. So it's a no from me because you still need a kettle to make a decent cuppa.

It’s a no from me, sorry OP. Takes up too much room in cupboard, my plumber discourage me from purchasing a boiling tap, as we live in a hard water area, says it wouldn’t last long. I went for a Brita filter tap & replaced the ceramic hob to induction hob, that boils water really fast. Good luck with whatever you chose.

@NiceGerbil

No.

They look exciting but

I bet they have to be serviced. Pita. Money.
If they go wrong I bet £££ to fix.
Changing all the different water canister thingys they show on the ads
Keeping water boiling 24/ 7 in case you want some can't be very eco friendly and would cost (prob not much though but still)

Kettles are awesome.

They don’t need servicing, just a new filter every couple of years

I’ve not known one go wrong so don’t know how much to fix but most of the common problems can be fixed yourself

‘The water can is get thingys’ - do you mean the gas canisters for the ones that make fizzy water? That’s the tap we have and they need changing a lot less often than the sodastream we had before. And it’s just as simple. Screw out the old one, put in the new one

The manufacturer claims it uses a lot less electricity than boiling a kettle in the average household so is more eco friendly than a bog standard kettle.