Boiling water taps

matthewr

does anyone know if these really are as efficient as they claim to be?

moonrakerz

They should be efficient - just about the same efficiency as an electric kettle !
The only advantage might be that they only boil as much water as you need - but I can easily do that with my kettle.......
I don't know how well they would cope in a hard water area, when your kettle gets "furred" up you throw it away and buy a new one.

At £300 - £400 plus installation against £4.99 for a kettle - I think I will stick with my kettle..:D

Pincher

The economics is totally distorted by the filter cartridge.

I have an Insinkerator HC-1100, which does hot and cold filtered water. The 2.5 litre hot water tank is insulated, whereas a kettle cools down really quickly. I keep the dial down, so the reheat occurs less frequently. The hot water comes out at about 90C, and I give it a 30 second blast in the microwave for making tea or coffee.

I would say if you have a large household, and use it frequently, you probably save on electricity by having the HC-1100. Don't forget the time saved, too. I can get the spaghetti done in less than 10 minutes: not undercooked al dente!


It also means I don't waste worktop space for a kettle and a Britta filter jug.


Back to the cartridge. The Maxtra cartridge for the Britta filter jug and the standard cartridge that come with the HC-1100 are the real money wasters. You are looking at up to £150 a year on cartridges. To add insult to injury, they are single general purpose cartridges, so the filtered water is not necessarily that great. I have a two cartridge Pozanni system, which allows you to select cartridges for your local water. For one set, it's about £35. For a 5 bedroom house, they expect two sets a year, so £70.


The cartridges deal with limescale anyway, but I also have an electronic descaler on the mains water supply to be doubly sure.
The electronics descaler is about £100, plus installing a permanent socket for the power supply.


So, you can easily spend £1,000 overall, when you could get a 3kW kettle for £30.


I love it, and if it lasts ten years, I will consider it money well spent.

If I win the lottery, I will get the ZIP Hydrotap.
How can they justify that price? It's INSANE!

tomoney

we have a quooker at work and its dangerous, water spits out and has lightly scoulded some people reulting in dropped/smashed mugs. The handle gets really hot and it gets limescaled up quickly and looks unsightly.

Nowt wrong with my smart price £3.99 kettle!