Philipe van der Loo, managing director, Quooker Emirates, shares the advantages and the flip side of having a boiling water tap in the kitchen
PROS
Instant boiling water
With boiling water tap, you don’t have to wait for the kettle to start whistling. Turn the faucet, and you have instant access to boiling and hot water. Quooker’s patented vacuum tank allows for water to be kept at 110°C under pressure. This technology keeps the water hot without needing to use much energy. The water only boils when it exits the tap – so it is not constantly boiling inside the vessel. But remember, if the water temperature is not 100°C at the point of delivery, you will not be able to replace your kettle!
Takes up less space
These taps can dispense all types of water- cold, chilled, hot, boiling and even carbonated. This means you can have one tap to replace not just the kettle but water dispensers and sparkling water bottles too. Perfect if you’re designing a minimalist, contemporary kitchen or have little worktop space in a small kitchen. So you can instantly reduce plastic bottle usage and make more space in the fridge, too.
Better for the environment
On average a kettle uses the same amount of energy to boil a litre of water as it takes to run a fridge for about seven hours. In contrast, using a boiling water tap is quick, efficient and instant meaning you use only what you need because the 100°C boiling water is there, ‘on tap’ which saves time, money, energy and water. When you dispense water from a Quooker tap, you use the exact amount of water you need. Unlike with a kettle, whereby people often boil more water than needed…or decide to re-boil it because the water has cooled down, wasting lots of energy!
A safer option for family homes
Every year, hundreds of people suffer burns from boiling water. Boiling water is a particular hazard for small children. Boiling water raps are a safer option as they are affixed to the work surface, meaning they cannot tip over. A kettle, however, can tip over, as can a pan of water on the hob. These two cause the vast majority of accidents with boiling water. But you do need to make sure that the boiling water tap you buy is a ‘child-friendly tap’ – meaning that the sides won’t get hot and that the child-safety feature ensures that neither kids nor adults turn them on by accident.
They can make water taste better
Quooker’s Cold Water Filter has been designed to allow you to quickly switch from tap water to cold filtered water. The water also passes through an activated-carbon filter which ensures the water tastes and smells better. Most higher-quality boiling water tap will filter tap water, removing those odd-tasting chemicals that may be in your water supply. The higher-end range of boiling water taps will also aerate to make the water softer – which is ideal if you’re in an area that supplies hard water only.
CONS
You will need to sacrifice some cupboard space for the hot water tank
In most cases, the boiling water tap tank sits in the cupboard below the kitchen sink – an area that is typically used for the kitchen bin or cleaning product storage.
Will need professional installation
Boiling water taps sit on the worktop, have to be plumbed in and the water tanks need to be connected to electricity to work, so it’s best to hire a professional technician to install them.
They will require periodic servicing and filter changes
Some boiling water tanks will require to be serviced every 6 months, all Quooker boiling water tanks are equipped with HiTAC water filters that require to be serviced, on average, every 5 years.
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