Quooker cube - very hot in cupboard

[365nice]

We've finally succumbed to get a Quooker unit, and just had it installed but I notice that the cabinet its in gets very hot - and the cube unit itself is very warm to touch on the outside.
Is this normal? The quooker installer said they recommend a bit of ventilation in cabinets with cubes - and so they suggested drilling a larger hole to feed the pipes to it - which we did under their supervision but I'm still quite alarmed at how hot it gets. It even heats the dekton composite worktop above it - which may be great for heating plates but can't imagine its great for the device (unless like a fridege, its supposed to have a certain temperature).

Are their any Cube owners that can advise or confirm how hot theirs run:?

I also notice that its quite noisy as well - something else I had quite expected - having sourced quiet appliances, I'm a bit annoyed I didn't think to check the acoustics of this thing.

Just a word of warning - as I notice that there are many fans of quooker on here - but I'm a bit shocked to learn (and possibly this is a fault of the kitchen company that sold me the Quooker unit) that the cube is like a Small fridge - actually more like an Xbox - it needs serious ventilation, and when you dig into it - they recommend a 20cm x 20cm hole - which is seriously big in a modern kitchen! Without this (and potentially even with it) - the cupboard its placed in will get very hot and there is some serious fan noise while it cools down...

While I love the idea of filtered chilled fizzy and still water - looking at a gaping hole and hearing an aircraft take off in my kitchen... is not the dream I was sold on.

I'm still debating how to vent ours (possibly under the plinth may work - not convinced) but I think it may end up going back... i'm seriously not impressed and think its on the verge of false advertising its not 'The CUBE can be installed at the bottom of the kitchen cabinet next to the Quooker tank.' - unless your kitchen cabinet has no side on it.

grrrrr, such a shame

Thought I would update on this - we complained and got our cube unit replaced with the newer model that came out just after ours was installed. The newer model seems improved with regards to heat and so our cupboard doesn't turn into an oven anymore. This said - you do need a big hole in the back of the cupboard to vent the heat it produces (a seriously big hole) and ours opens into the plinth of an island unit and it still gets warm and causes the fan to noisily operate unless you open the cupboard door a bit and let the heat fully escape (I have a push latch which lets it stay open a bit to vent out).

Whole it works, I think Qooker should be a lot more honest about venting requirements. I think it's a tricky option in an island unit (so be very careful), and the cupboard it goes in needs to be spacious, meaning you can't cram stuff in or I suspect you will have overheating issues. While our family likes the fizzy water I'm still a bit divided - it's also also a bit of a scam that the tap option for fizzy is too easy to enable , so you waste co2 when you may just want cold water (and not fizzy) - the control sequence should be reversed so fizzy is harder to get (in my opinion).

Good this helps someone else

How much do they cost out of interest?

I think they are 1150, but it was sub 1k when I bought it .

I think the boiling water option is very good, I'm on the fence with the cube

A further update on this - a circuit board failed on the cube in 2025. They did replace it, but I had to pay a call-out charge. Apparently this is a common failure (the installer wasn’t phased and knew what to do - we compared boards when he took it out and it seems like they’ve made some improvements to the design).
I feel annoyed about this but with all the talk about microplastics in water, having filtered water is probably a good thing, so I’m torn on whether it was a good investment.

iI anyone does read this, I think the decision on the Cube is a tricky one. Mine does run hotter than it should (so you need a bigger vent hole than they say), and I find the water a bit too cold (you can’t adjust the temperature to have only slightly chilled - it’s fridge cold and gives a brain freeze if your thirsty).

I also think the tap control is confusing (even years later), we serve far too much fizzy water by mistake (the sceptic in me wonders if this is a ploy to sell more co2).

So it’s not perfect and maybe there are other companies that now do better. I’d certainly check before you go with the devil we you know and if you do accept it will be a bit ropey (which is a shame).

Hope this helps anyone trying to decide.

I'm sorry to hear about your issues.

Just on the flip side, we also have a cube and, while it does warm the cupboard to some extent, we haven't had any of those issues. We've had it for almost 5 years with one maintenance visit (we're in London so have very hard water) and no problems at all, but ours isn't in an island, so our experience may differ in part due to that.

And we don't find the control confusing, although it took about a week to get the hang of it.

I actually wish our water was a little colder 😅