CH4 Property ladder - hot water tap....

niftyfiftyfive

Hi,

We have recently moved from a large house, to a bungalow, which needed serious refurbishment by hubby, and a few builders. We decided this was the opportunity to buy a Quooker as I have Rheumatoid Arthritis (hence the move to a bungalow).
I was having difficulty during flareups with lifting even a small filled kettle. At the time I started to look at quookers; last Xmas, I could only find one supplier, but they were really helpful and took VAT off etc because of my arthritis, and advised on which model was easiest for me to use, with my hand problems. :T

The advice they gave was; it was worth buying if you were to stay in the property for at least 5years. It would then pay for itself. It is SUPERB, boiling water for drinks, boiling stuff on the stove, blanching veg ready to freeze etc. Another really useful thing is sterilising stuff; I also have bronchiectasis and use a nebuliser at least 3 times a day, with tongs I hold the masks/mouthpieces under the boiling spray to sterilise them. It shows a similar thing with babies bottles on the Quooker website.

I was worried about the size of the tank under the sink, but this is actually fairly small. It projects sideways and to the front approx 20cm max; so you lose very little cupboard space. It is tall so you have to cut a hole out of the top shelf for it to come through.
When we bought it we were even advised not to bother buying the bracket to hold it in place; the guy said he had one that just sat in place under the office sink. With water in it is obviously fairly heavy anyway. To be on the safe side my husband got a square of MDF, about 23cm square by about 3cm deep. He cut a circle out of this slightly bigger than the quooker cylinder and ours sits in this(which is screwed to the bottom shelf) quite safely. The quooker itself is extremely well insulated.

Quookers are apparently very cheap to run, last winter, when we initially researched this, it was under 12p a day, left on all the time. We have just started turning ours off overnight. It heats up again in the morning extremely quickly - about a couple of minutes max. This will cut the cost even further. Hubby suggests you fit an isolator switch on the wall above the worksurface.

I have recently seen a picture of a quooker on an eco gadget advert, can't remember if this was in the ecologist. Everyone that sees ours is SO impressed. It has always had enough boiling water for everything I've wanted to do so far, large pasta pots; cooking huge family meals for 23+

I can honestly say it's one of the best investments we've ever made. We aim to stay in this bungalow 20-40years, until we're carted off somewhere in our dotage or die!:A

I think there are now a number of suppliers if you do an internet search, so price wise you could play one off against the other, ours was from liquid-design.me.uk

Hope this helps, best of luck
Ann

27col

Nice set of photos cfw1994. Looking at them reminded me of my two self builds. I took progress photos but back in those days I did not have a flash gun so there were no decent pictures of the inside. How much easier it is today with our digital cameras.

cfw1994

Andrew-b I don't think I was suggesting you would recoup your investment on this "luxury item" any time soon - it isn't cheap! I would agree that if you plan to stay where you are perhaps 5-10 years then the convenience (plus perhaps "wow" factor, in my opinion !) might help justify it....
& certainly if you feel you make minimal use of the kettle, then I guess I would agree, it is an unnecessary expense.

However, my point was that we measured (ie, used a socket-based energy tool) the kettle for a period totalling 30 days prior to installing the Quooker, which indicated a cost per day just over of 14p - at our rates then (which have of course since increased !) .
The quooker indicated 11p per day.

We are a 4-person family, children 10 & 12, and this was just for regular use (eg drinks, occassional pasta, etc). I guess we probably boiled the kettle 4-6 times a day for various things, mostly drinks.

I'm really not suggesting it was hugely scientific, but I did want to know whether it was costing us more or less after we installed it, hence my "trial". Of course if it had cost more I'd just be upsetting myself, but since it doesn't, I'm happy :cheesy: I guess what I really wanted to know was that it wasn't costing a huge amount more.

I like the fact that we can just get boiling water as we want it. I like "steaming" our cutting boards to clean them, and I like the extra worktop space. Perhaps posting our experience on the "moneysavingexpert" site isn't the most appropriate, given the perhaps unlikely (or at best, very lengthy in the private home) payback, but having researched them myself prior to buying I had found little information, so wanted to share !

minghis - good point on the filtered option for Hydrotap, I was put off that specific device when I saw one in a company I visited & yet they boiled me a kettle for tea....when I asked, they told me "it wasn't hot enough for a decent cuppa" !! Plus the device took up an entire 600mm wide unit: the Quooker is tiny in comparison, we have a sink above and all squash bottles in a 500mm cupboard with it!
Just my views....I have no affiliation with Quooker !

Sidmill - no idea on the filter cost, but at least it was only a 5-year one, the Zip Hydrotaps were annual, IIRC...

Niftyfiftyfive, some great points: given we saw it only measuring 1W when not actually pouring I'm not convinced you would save much energy turning it off overnight since it then has to bring the water back up to boil, but if it works for you, great.

thanks

Phirefly

cfw1994 wrote: »

http://picasaweb.google.com/ikklefatch/Extension/photo?authkey=YG3ekxqRYsw#5221438363866049730 for ours in situ.

Your kitchen's great. Its not often I like other people's interior choices but I like yours

point3

cfw1994, that kitchen looks great! What's the veneer on the kitchen doors? I've been looking for that wood everywhere.

The Quooker is hot! - you've given me an idea for what to do with the second sink in our kitchen .

Coreyjenkins

I found the Quooker Boiling Water Taps to be brilliant.
I done some price checking before I bought i a few weeks ago and this pace seemed to be the cheapest - delivery was fast too.
Cant post link as newbie but if you type in 'quooker boiling water taps hedley interiors' - you should find the page.

lisahobden

Has anyone bought the ISE hot water tap? Delivers 98 degree hot water instantly... for just over £300. Am thinking of buying one for my new kitchen... any views?

CKdesigner

Hi

I have only sold 2 of these ISE hot water taps, both went wrong, not impressed with them, won't sell anymore. I think you are better off with a kettle.

The Zip boiling tap is the best but silly money for what it is.

I would go for the Quooker - have sold a few, no problems as yet and it does provide boiling water at 100 degrees. Very economical as the water is held under preasure. Start at £775, expensive but much better value than the Zip and will last a decent time over the ISE and Franke taps.

Hope this helps.

lisahobden

CK - What is the cheapest you could sell me a Quooker for?

reefbore

Just inherited a Zip Hydro in new home. Annual servicing contract is over £500. Our unit has 2 filters need replacing every 6 months - cost about £70 each. The original tap was replaced after 2 years (hence presumably why contract costs are so high). Takes up almost whole cupboard and makes cupboard very warm. Would take it out but am left with hole in counter surface. Don't go near them.