Boiling tap

[leenowell]

Hi All,

I was thinking of buying one of those boiling water taps to replace my kettle in the kitchen. But on further investigation, it seems that maybe it is not such a good idea. The "problems" seem to be around...

1. they store and keep hot a fair amount of water so the energy efficiency of only heating the water you need seems to go out of the window.
2. since they are continually heating the water, I have heard, this makes the tea/ drinks taste funny.
3. they are relatively expensive and take up a lot of room below the worksurface.

At the time, they seemed like a great idea but now I'm not so sure.

Does anyone have one of these things? What do you think?

As usual, all help appreciated.

thanks Lee.

[Scott M]

You've basically listed all of the reasons not to have one in the home. They also don't provide boiling water, merely 'very hot' water which is pants for a decent cuppa. They're designed for offices, etc. where there is a stream of people wanting drinks and it reduces the time wastage of people standing round waiting for kettles to boil.

If you have a lot of hot drinks (and, even if you don't), consider a 3kW kettle such as the Breville Lightning. I've got one of these and would never go back to a 2kW standard job. I'm so used to it starting to make heating noises within a few secs that I assume every other kettle I use is broken as they are just sooooo slow by comparison.

[RubberBiker]

I can't comment on your points 2 & 3 - but when I checked out Quooker's energy figures, the standby power level seemed low enough that provided you have a few tea breaks a day (and/or use boiling water for cooking) - that you would be ahead overall.

[PeterC]

Agreed. It's essential to get all of the air out of the water or the tealeaves will just float. Tea made at even 1000m up is pissy.

My Tescrot 3kW job for £10 works OK. Even on about 243V on load it's only about 2.95kW, but so much unworse than 2 - 2.4kW.

[The Medway Handyman]

What about one of these;

[ARWadsworth]

And the old favourite if 2 phases are available

[leenowell]

The Tefal Quick Cup looked almost perfect (would have been nice if you could plumb it in) but having a quick search on reviews, it seems like it delivers water at around 85 degress which isn't very good for tea. Does anyone have one?

The brevil seems good - how long does it take to boil a full kettle and say a couple of mugs full?

thanks Lee.

[Bob Mannix]

Yes - only useful for high usage areas

They don't make tea as the water isn't boiling, they just irritate the tea leaves (and the drinker) and the standing water tastes sh*t and you can taste it. Fine for coffee as it doesn't/shouldn't use boiling water and tastes stronger.

They also scale up like you wouldn't believe.

[damduck-egg]

Yep ,It got used twice before being slung in the shed. Absolutely useless for brewing Tea. Was going to put in the local jumble sale held in the village hall but it would be unfair to inflict it on anyone I might know.

G.Harman

[John]

these seem good at my place of work - but over sink.,

[Bob Eager]

We have one of the HydroTaps at work. It's not over-sing - it has a mesh drain let into the worktop, with a pipe to a nearby drain.

Delivers hot and chilled water - I can't vouch for making tea as I don't dribk the stuff, but I like really hot coffee and it's fine for that (once I've purged the pipe from the heater...)

[S Viemeister]

Is it instant coffee you mean, or do you use the hot tap for filter or cafetiere brewing?

[Bob Eager]

Sorry, I use it for instamt, but others (fussy people too!) use it for cafetieres.

[The Natural Philosopher]

My experience of these echoes the antis. Its a good water heater, but boil it doesn't do.

And although not a tea drinker, it wasnt up to decent proper coffee making. Instant was acceptable.

It may be that some models are better than others, but its a warning to the OP to at least find out what the unit is specced to and be cautious.

[Rod]

Maybe very hot drinks are not such a good idea?

[Bob Eager]

Yes, I saw that one. But...(a) I drink coffee [although I've cut down from the 11 pints a day I used to drink] and (b) I like it hot because by the time I've got it back to my office it's already cooled down a bit...!

[Rod]

I was unsure when I read the article whether it actually applied to any hot drink - sort of assumed it would.

And, yes, the walk back bit is an excellent reason for serving very hot. (So long and elfin saftey doesn't stop you... :-) )