Talk to me about Quooker taps (or similar hot water taps)

[johnworf]

I was at a barbecue at the weekend with my husband and used a Quooker tap for the first time. I was really impressed with it and was thinking how wonderful it would be to do away with the kettle and literally have boiling water on tap.

Now I know the price to buy is high and the costs to run are similar to a kettle but would really like one when we move house in October. My husband thinks they're a gimmick and seriously not worth the money. I know there are similar taps on the market that are cheaper but have no idea what these are like to use or maintain.

So mumsnetters, talk to me about yours - good or bad experiences! Get one or don't bother?

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Love ours!
So much faster than a kettle and great for filling a pan for cooking.

Safety feature means the kids can't accidentally turn it on.

Down side is elderly grandparents are baffled so can't make themselves a cuppa!

thecatsonthematagain I did have to be shown twice how to operate it! It's good that children can't accidentally turn it on.

We're moving to a house with one of these and I too would like to know more.

I've had a few in offices. They kept breaking and I imagine they aren't cheap to fix.

Love our Quooker! So convenient, don’t miss the kettle one bit.

We’ve had ours for 2 years, no problems, and I LOVE it. Use it regularly everyday. Would never go back to a kettle now. Deffo deffo deffo worth the investment. Some kitchen fitter companies throw them in for free if you spend a small fortune certain amount.

I have had a boiling water quooker tap for 3 years and have had to had it serviced twice due to issues caused by limescale.

We have one at work - great for cold filtered water but crap for tea. It's just not quite boiling enough. Maybe it's just the brand we have.
And echoing others in the trail with one at work: constantly breaking down which is impressive given how few people in the physical office since lockdown.

Bloody love our Quooker

We used to have a crap one at work too. It was nothing like the Quooker.

We've had ours a year and no problems so far.

I love ours - it has revolutionised tea making! I think as you only pour the water you need so no energy wasting in boiling an over-full kettle, and you avoid having to re-boil a kettle if you forget about it, the energy costs aren’t significantly more. There are maintenance costs though, such as the water filter cartridges.

I've had mine a year and love it. At first I weirdly missed the ritual of waiting for the kettle to boil but it's great not having to have a kettle taking up space and I would say the main benefit is cooking, no constant boiling of multiple kettles when you cook a big meal or need boiling water to cook with and rinse with. I would say it's not life changing so wouldn't have stretched myself massively to get it but if you can afford it it's great.

We considered one for our new kitchen but decided against it as we wanted a ceramic Belfast sink and we're told it would crack under the regular extreme heat.
Also the cost of getting them serviced or lime scale too.
But watching here with interest in case this lot can persuade me to go for it!
They seem to have a great rep.

Had ours for ages - 7 years? - they were very new and I love it. For us it saved £ as our hot water tank is two stories up so getting hot water to the kitchen was hugely wasteful (ours also supplies the hot water tap, not just boiling water).

Thanks for all your responses.

I wonder if the ones that broke down were genuine Quookers (just out of interest)? I know there are cheaper versions out there.

Also, I think I've read that the filters on Quookers only need changing every 5 years.

We have had ours for a year since refitting the kitchen. It is the thing I love most about the kitchen. Had no problem with it. It's also so easy to use for hot/cold water. Lifting the little lever better than turning a tap.

Would definitely get one again if we moved.

We also have a Belfast sink and no problems with the Quooker causing cracks etc, but I can't think I've particularly had the need to run the boiling water straight into the sink. It's going into a cup/pan or boosting cooled washing up water.
If running the boiling water straight into the sink is needed for your purposes then yep I'd probably check about the type of sink.

We have a Qettle, about £1200 all in, so cheaper than a Qooker but still very good quality. We have a 4 in 1 so have filtered chilled too. Would not be without it now!

I’m just about to put a Qettle in our new kitchen and I’m hoping it’s as great as the Quooker that my mum has. I don’t particularly like the look of the Quooker taps which is why I went with Qettle and the lower price was a nice bonus. My mum’s Quooker is great other than I don’t really like how it looks, SIL also has one and thinks it’s excellent too. Think there’s a world of difference between the proper 100°C taps (used to just be Quooker but there’s Qettle and quite a few others now who do 100°C) and the ones that do 97/98°C which would be crap for tea.

I’m also hoping that it isn’t an issue with the ceramic sink we’ve chosen too. Although I don’t see that I will ever be likely to run the boiling water straight on to the ceramic any more than I would if I was using a kettle so I think it’s unlikely to be an issue if I’m honest.

I will go against the grain and say I looked at them and other brands for my lovely new kitchen but just couldn’t see the appeal. I also wanted really beautiful heritage brass taps to match handles in shaker kitchen and none of the hot tap designs came close. I’m more excited about having a rinse tap in the devol tap set I’ve gone for than boiling water. Plus decided was better off spending the money on a water softener as live in terrible hard water area - so tired of limescale. I also really enjoy ritual of boiling a kettle for tea and have gone for an induction hob with fast heat. I know some people love them so it’s really each to own - hope you find the right one OP.

I've used them at work and at friends houses. The water doesn't seem to stay hot as long, its initially boiling but seemed to cool rapidly. Gave me tepid cups of tea and coffee.

I bloody loved ours, DH didn't as he kept burning himself on it (user error not the taps fault). It was so handy.

We didn't have it for long before we moved so I don't know if it lasted or would have needed fixing. DH won't get another one so we just use a kettle now.

We have an Insinkerator hot tap. I use it for coffee and herbal tea. DH uses a kettle for tea and coffee. It was in the kitchen when we moved in. I often use it for washing up (just add cold water) and cooking.

Filter, a bottle thing that you screw in, is a little tricky and needs changing every 6 months.

Each outgoing one weighs a lot more than the new one. All that is limescale. We live in a very hard water area though (East London).

I find it useful but I think it only gets up to 98 or so, not boiling point

We've had one for 3 years now with no issues at all. We do have a water softener in the house though as we have very hard water.

It's wonderful and I don't know how we lived without it which is really pathetic. All grandparents and visitors have been successfully trained to use it and no one has accidentally burned themselves as yet!