Hot water taps

[SunnyUpNorth]

We are planning our new kitchen and I’m a bit lost by the world of hot water taps.

I was looking at Quookers, but can’t easily work out the difference between all the different models. Some of the more expensive ones seem to be because they just hold a larger capacity of water, is that correct? Not sure that is worth it.

I’ve seen Qettle and Intu ones mentioned but don’t know much about them. Some seem to be way cheaper than Quooker. Is the Quooker really much better than all the others?

Also any idea how much they cost per day roughly? A kitchen guy who came to quote recently said they cost around £3 per day which surely can’t be right!

My main gripe against them is that I much prefer a drawer under a sink so having to sacrifice that for a cupboard is annoying me! Has anyone managed a drawer with one? I wondered if the tank could be positioned in the middle of the under unit area so I could get those drawers that are cut out in the middle.

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I have no experience of a drawer under a tap but we got an insinkerator boiling tap installed in our last house 4 years ago, in bright Orange & it was one of the best things we did. I never looked at quooker as they were just so expensive but ours cost us £400 inc vat & was amazing. We had an issue with the tank spluttering after 2 years & they sent a free replacement no quibbles.

We had a cupboard underneath where we could put a piece of wood across in front of the boiler and it then had enough room for cleaning stuff, dishwasher tablets & bits

Don't know if you can see it properly from the pics but it was fab. Had a child lock.
When we moved & DH was asked "what would he miss" the boiling tap was top! We will be getting another 😂

Quooker have (or had until recently) a patent on 100° boiling water, so made a name for themselves as 'the best'. The reality is that others get just as hot but can't guarantee it.. also quooker have a built in flexi hose, though that's present in some others now too.

As for size - think about what you'll use it for. Takes roughly 4 mins to reboil the unit so if you empty it of boiling water you'll need to wait 4 minutes. If you use a large pan of boiling water frequently then go for the bigger tank, otherwise the 1.5 litre will be fine.

Thanks both. @Minster2012 that tap sounds great, I’ll have a look into it.

I don’t particularly like our current normal tap however it does have a removable hose thing on it which I really like. I’m wondering if most people find it useful to have a normal tap with hose and a hot tap aswell or if the hot tap work hose is sufficient.

I know the hot taps have child lock features on them but I still worry a bit about the kids using it.

We have a Quooker Flex. Got it through www.discountappliancecentre.com who were a few hundred quid cheaper than Quooker's RRP.

The flexible hose is great, but you'll need to have enough space at the back of your kitchen cupboard for the hose to go up and down. We have dishwasher hoses and the Quooker tank in there but the kitchen fitters just cut out a bit of the unit to make space, didn't seem a problem.

You have to double push and turn a completely separate part of the tap to turn it on so there's no way a child could do it by accident. As soon as you turn the tap to put on normal water the boiling bit turns off.

It does "spit" a bit when in use. We got the 3 Litre model which is fine and can fill a big pot easily, I think the bigger ones are aimed more at offices.

Thanks Ecthelion

Our insinkerator boiled to 97 degrees (which I was always told you shouldn't put absolutely boiling water on coffee anyway), on the child lock the boiling side was a push down & pull forwards to make it work, my DS is now 3 by the time we loved hadn't worked it out. I never drained the tank & it was only the small one & I did Xmas dinner for 16 so I wouldn't worry about that but I wouldn't want a spitting tap!

Never had a hose so not sure what that adds we literally had hot water, cold water & boiling on the fixed tap

@Minster2012 I’ll check out the insinkerator one too. Definitely don’t want one that spits. On our current tap I find the hose really useful for rinsing large things like roasting tins and also for rinsing the sink down after washing up.

I have a Qettle, I love it! The Qooker is slightly sleeker looking I think because it only has a handle on one side and they have more options for pull out hoses etc (but they add to the cost!). I don't have a draw, just a cupboard but there is stilll enough space in the cupboard to fit a few things so not a total waste of space.

Thanks, I’ll take a look at that too!

I haven’t decided exactly what sink to get yet and hence haven’t decided what size cupboard I need yet. But do the tanks tend to fit in a standard 600mm unit? I’ll most likely get a slightly bigger sink unit but just incase would be good know the min size cupboard they need.

Our Qooker lives happily in a standard single sink cupboard below the sink & plenty of room for other stuff ( but is is a cupboard , not a drawer.) - at the time it was the only one which did 100 degrees - 97 is fine for coffee but not quite so good for tea I think . But each to their own.

56 cm wide by 54 cm high ( my under sink cupboard. )

Ours has lasted for ages - needs a service every so often but fine.

We had an Insinkerator hot/filtered cold tap in our old kitchen. It is quite small and sat next to the main tap. It worked perfectly. The temperature was great for tea, too.

We've got a Quooker now as the main tap, as I wanted an "all in one", but I wouldn't have any qualms about having another Insinkerator one.

We originally had an Insinkerator but a separate little tap to the side of the sink. It was good. We upgraded to a Quooker this year for the main tap and the hole that was left by the Insinkerator tap is now the air switch for the waste disposable unit.

I don't have a flex hose mainly because I only have a 60cm wide cupboard with a 1 and a 1/2 bowl sink and I have a lot of pipework going off to different things like the dishwasher feed, the fridge (filtered water) outside tap and the cold water feed for the rest of the house. Plus the waste disposal unit.

My friend has her Quooker tank in the neighbouring cupboard right at the back, I have a dishwasher next to mine so I can't relocate the tank and the tank pipes are limited in length. I think it takes up a teeny bit more than 1/4 of the width of a standard 60cm wide cupbpoard, the Pro 3 which is what I have is 150mm wide in all directions so relatively small and only 40cm high.

Re spitting, it sort of does a little bit as it is aerated but you can put the cup closer to the tap or the pan and it does stop it. I wouldn't consider it dangerous at all. I also like that I can put the tap on for normal water either hot or cold and add the boiling water to that stream by activating the knob, very good for just cleaning a pan out etc for washing up.

No way does it cost £3 a day to run. This is Money says 3p a day. Child safety feature wise occasionally I miss turn it so it doesn't come on. It is 2 pushes down in quick succession and a turn. Unlike my Insinkerator where I had to hold the tap in the on position the Quooker stays on until you turn it off.

My children were 10 and 7 when we got the Insinkerator one, they are now 18 and 15. Much safer than a kettle. Any other questions, just ask.

Also just to say the Qettle does 100 degrees water too, it's not just qooker

Ooh, some more replies. Thanks for all the info, useful to know the other brands are good and worth looking into too. And thanks for the info on how much space it takes up, sounds like it will be fine. Thanks all.

We've got a Quooker in a 70cm cupboard, it takes up most of the width of one side and aboug half the depth, I have several spray bottles and a pack of DW tabs around it on the same side. We have the one with the pull out hose inside the tap which is really useful for cleaning the sink and rinsing large items like fridge shelves.

Yes @ExcessiveIyDisorganised that’s what I really like my current tap hose for. Great for roasting tins etc.

The other thing I like about ours is that we have a system boiler with a hot water tank which is a long way from the kitchen, takes about a minute to run hot water to the tap. This model is cold water fed straight from the mains and provides instant hot water as well as cold and boiling so far less waste when you just want to quickly wash something and far nicer when you want to wash your hands.

@ExcessiveIyDisorganised so does to automatically do that? Doesn’t add too much hot and accidentally burn you?! So if that when you use the normal hot tap function on it rather than the boiling water function? It just knows to add some hot until the normal hot water comes through? Sounds great.

We bough an Itho boiling tap (Dutch company) - I think they've been bought by Franke now. The reason we went for Itho was the tank is under the kick board, so doesn't take up any cupboard space and it gives water at 100C (as a tea drinker I wanted boiling water). If you don't want to lose cupboard space / want drawers, have a hunt for one that has the tank under the kick board - there are options around.

I've just put a 3 in 1 quooker - I just want hot, cold and boiling, but you can get filtered or aerated water with a 5 in one. I love it and the tank is tall and slim, but it's a cupboard. I imagine you could have a drawer but I don't know because I didn't ask!
I have one in a rental too and after four years no issues at all.

The regular hot water isn't connected at all, it just mixes boiling from the tank with cold to make hot. So it might not have enough capacity for huge sinkfuls of hot water but as we have a dishwasher we don't need that.