Boiling water tap - Quooker, Zip or ??

[steveatesh]

We are needing to replace our aged and no longer functioning Zip hot water tap in the house. Whilst it’s been great to own it doesn’t produce true boiling water and support has been patchy despite having the annual service/maintenance contract.

So before we choose a replacement we are looking at alternatives and Quooker seems to be a popular option.

So anybody with a Quooker can comment please on how they perform in the real world? :-
- Is it actuallyTrue boiling water?
- When using the boiling water, does it come out smoothly or splutter and splatter about (alleged by the Zip salesperson).
- Flow pressure - is it quick or a dribble?
- Reliable?
- Is the ambient cold water filter good enough to remove the taste of chlorine?
- Any other comments good or bad?

Or indeed any other make that anybody can recommend please?

Thanks in advance.

[Origin Unknown]

steveatesh said:

- Is it actuallyTrue boiling water? It is true boiling water

- When using the boiling water, does it come out smoothly or splutter and splatter about (alleged by the Zip salesperson). It's boiling so there is a small amount of splutter, but it's predictable and manageable

- Flow pressure - is it quick or a dribble? Not too slow, not too fast

- Reliable? 3 years, hard water area, still functioning as good as the day it was installed

- Is the ambient cold water filter good enough to remove the taste of chlorine? Pass, we have a fridge with filter for cold drinking water

- Any other comments good or bad? It is absolutely necessary? No. Is it mega convenient? Completely, I would not be without one now.

Thanks in advance.

Unfortunately, this thread will be plagued by people who haven't actually ever had one but will insist on telling you why you don't need it.

ETA: I discovered I can use it for immediate warm water, run the boiling tap and then open the cold feed. No waiting for warm water to come through.

Edited by Origin Unknown on Sunday 13th April 19:54

[miniman]

- Is it actuallyTrue boiling water?

Yes

- When using the boiling water, does it come out smoothly or splutter and splatter about (alleged by the Zip salesperson).

The reason the Zip flows smoothly is because it’s not boiling. Quooker is a bit lively, because it’s boiling.

- Flow pressure - is it quick or a dribble?

Quick

- Reliable

Perfectly over past 4 years.

- Is the ambient cold water filter good enough to remove the taste of chlorine?

Ours isn’t filtered.

- Any other comments good or bad?

It’s brilliant, way better than any Zip or equivalent.

Here’s a little demo, on that side of things.

[Zaichik]

True boiling instantly. Splutters a bit as there is some steam - it’s boiling. Flow rate is pretty much the same as the normal tap. I don’t have the cold filtering. Transforms everything from cooking to the volume of tea and coffee we have. Brilliant purchase. Running six years. Hard water area. One service. Will do next one myself as the sell the service kit and is super simple.

[miniman]

Zaichik said:

True boiling instantly. Splutters a bit as there is some steam - it’s boiling. Flow rate is pretty much the same as the normal tap. I don’t have the cold filtering. Transforms everything from cooking to the volume of tea and coffee we have. Brilliant purchase. Running six years. Hard water area. One service. Will do next one myself as the sell the service kit and is super simple.

Exactly.

[BigBen]

To add you can change the flow rate by chaning the pressure on the incoming (pre-hot) flow.

Love our Quooker

[steveatesh]

Well that was quick and very very useful, thanks everyone and Miniman thanks very much for the video, really useful!

[OutInTheShed]

My brother has one of these, £500 from toolstation.
It's 98degC, which is about as hot as 'boiling' water really is by the time it's left a kettle.
Easy to use, you get used to a few cc of water coming out after you've turned the tap off.
Simple push the safety button, turn the tap to operate.
Normal mixer tap on the other side.
Some alternatives are a bit non-intuitive IMHO.

Big question is how much 'lectricity it uses in a year?
https://www.toolstation.com/calmag-square-neck-3-i...

[bmwmike]

We've got a quooker installed last September and it's fantastic. We switched from gas to induction too. The boiling water on tap is the bigger revelation. Not just tea but good for pasta, getting faster warm water as mentioned above, handy for cleaning, etc etc. so good.

[Cheib]

Quooker installed in the last couple of months.

We also have the cube which is the cold filtered water which can be still or sparkling. We used to consume a lot of bottled water….everyone likes the taste of the filtered water. It does seem to go through gas canisters at a fair rate though.

Only issue so far is that the mains pressure for the normal drinking water seems low….we have a Quooker engineer coming out to look, about a three week wait time which I don’t think is great.

[Notsofastfrank]

I confirm everything Miniman has to say, and add that the cold water filter does take away the taste of chlorine. The flow rate will depend on your water pressure, we live in The Fens where pressure is often low. The tap has never stopped working but is a little slow at times.

[Cheib]

We’ve got very high pressure…about 6 bar despite living in a rural location. Although we’ve had to have a pressure reducing valve put on to limit the pressure to about 3 bar for the house. It seems that the Quooker set up with the Cube includes a separate pressure reducing valve…at least that’s what came with ours.

[CrgT16]

I think it’s great tech if you are at home and use it often during the day. If it’s only to make 2 cups a tea a day then it’s a waste of energy.

[miniman]

CrgT16 said:

I think it’s great tech if you are at home and use it often during the day. If it’s only to make 2 cups a tea a day then it’s a waste of energy.

We use ours for cooking and hot drinks. They are super insulated. The light on the tap comes on when it’s heating water - it’s rarely on.

[langy]

We have had a Quooker tap for about 7 months and it's brilliant. Not measured the temperature, but it's boiling in a pan in seconds.

So handy for many, many things. The only thing i don't like using it for is filling hot water bottles.... apart from that, would recommend to anyone.

[outnumbered]

I actually view the sputtering of the Quooker taps as a safety feature. Makes it much less likely that anyone accidentally washes their hands under it. We've had ours for 10 years, it's very useful.

[eltax91]

Had a Franke one installed 6 years ago when these were rare and hardly anyone made them.

It died. More than once. Pile of crap.

Gave up 2 years ago and swapped to a quettle. Been absolutely spot on.

[sleepezy]

10 year old Quooker here. Great thing, true boiling water, no spluttering as long as the nozel is clear. Very reliable.

I've had to change the filter once, a service item, as it became clogged with scale and the flow rate reduced (slowly over time, when refreshed it was remarkable how much of a difference it made)

[miniman]

outnumbered said:

I actually view the sputtering of the Quooker taps as a safety feature. Makes it much less likely that anyone accidentally washes their hands under it. We've had ours for 10 years, it's very useful.

Yes they do describe it that way.

[48k]

steveatesh said:

We are needing to replace our aged and no longer functioning Zip hot water tap in the house. Whilst it’s been great to own it doesn’t produce true boiling water and support has been patchy despite having the annual service/maintenance contract.

So before we choose a replacement we are looking at alternatives and Quooker seems to be a popular option.

So anybody with a Quooker can comment please on how they perform in the real world? :-
- Is it actuallyTrue boiling water?
- When using the boiling water, does it come out smoothly or splutter and splatter about (alleged by the Zip salesperson).
- Flow pressure - is it quick or a dribble?
- Reliable?
- Is the ambient cold water filter good enough to remove the taste of chlorine?
- Any other comments good or bad?

Or indeed any other make that anybody can recommend please?

Thanks in advance.

Yes the Quooker is true boiling (I think it's the only one on the market that is). The pressure tank holds the water at 110c and the tap injects air to the flow when it is dispensed which is the "spluttering" some people refer too.
Having moved to a house without one and going back to a kettle I'm really missing the Quooker, both for the convenience of boiling water on demand and the flex hose in the tap when washing up. Can't wait to have another one.