We're trying to plan the kitchen for our new house, and this seemed an reasonable idea. However we have been cautioned against it, reason being we are in a hard water area . The only person I know with one likes it but lives in Northumberland (soft water).
The problem apparently is scaling, the cost and frequency of de-scaling, and the damage and cost that ensues if it gets out of hand.
I'm thinking we don't need one if we have an inline water filter so we can fill the kettle directly from the tap. At the moment we faff about with a filter jug and decanting into a kettle for making tea. Without filtering, we get scummy tea that we don't like.
Bit of a first world problem, and I think the solution is to forget it, but does anybody have relevant experience?
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Friend of mine specced one in their new Kitchen. after 18 months it was broken, 5 years later it never got fixed.
Thames Valley water. Apparently if you spec one you need to spec a water softener as well. They didnt.
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I had a previously installed one in the US. I liked the idea but it didn't work very well and when I spoke to the previous owner he told me it had always been a pain and he stopped bothering with it.
However, in the UK I got this thing, looked like a kettle, sat on the surface and boiled water as it dispensed it. That was brilliant.
This seems to be a later model than mine, but you get the idea.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184160319586
It's brilliant and used a lot. And of course easily cleaned. Mine has been going for almost 10 years now and without any issue. Maintenance just the same as for a normal kettle.
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The boiling water is for drinks I assume. If you are considering a water softener on a drinking water system you will want to do some research. It’s not a total no-no but has a number of health considerations especially with regards to safe levels of sodium.
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>> The boiling water is for drinks I assume. If you are considering a water softener
>> on a drinking water system you will want to do some research. It’s not a
>> total no-no but has a number of health considerations especially with regards to safe levels
>> of sodium.
Quite right, I wouldn't want softened water from the boily tap. We have softened water in the house we are in now but we don't drink it and it isn't piped to the kitchen sink.
We will have a water softener but not for this.
I'll can the boiling water tap. The other comments here from Zero and Mark match the caution from the local kitchen shop - the individual advising against them is the chap who sells them!
We'll just go for the filter - you can get a 3 way tap for hot/filtered/softened or hot/filtered/untreated which we'll go for. We don't need softened cold at the kitchen sink.
Softened water is great for showers/baths. Just like being back in Yorkshire. I think our water comes from Anglian, although we pay our rates to Thames. It's middling hard anyway.
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Those instant hot water gadgets were a 'thing' about 15-20 years ago here...I remember them being launched now...I'd forgotten about them. They didn't really catch on.
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>>They didn't really catch on.
I wonder why not. I get through a lot of hot drinks in a day and I love the on-demand boiling water.
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>> >>They didn't really catch on.
>>
>> I wonder why not. I get through a lot of hot drinks in a day
>> and I love the on-demand boiling water.
We had one in the office. The water wasn't quite hot enough for tea. Of course you still have to fill it up like a kettle, albeit less frequently because you fill it completely. The selling point IIRC was that you only heated the the water you used. And of course they aren't really instant because they don't store hot water, or at least ours didn't.
The UK is kettle country, probably a poor market for it. Maybe they go better elsewhere?
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I think they were pretty pricey, perhaps seen as a bit of a novelty. I think I read that they had a rep as being a bit unreliable. From what I gather the water was more hot than boiling.
One of those wall mounted water boilers are probably a better bet but I guess it depends on how much hot water you need in an average day.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Mon 20 Jul 20 at 20:43
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The one I have, and have been using for years, is absolutely boiling water. I have to refill it about every 5 or 6 cups of something.
I wasn't motivated by cost saving, just by convenience. And that it brings.
As for catching on, they don't even exist here. I think I saw them in Brazil and obviously in the US.
Common in France, apparently.
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>>and I love the on-demand boiling water.
Same here. As I mentioned on another thread, we moved house just before the country ground to a halt, and one had been fitted about 4 years ago when a new kitchen was installed. It's not something we would ever have given a second thought to, but I doubt Mrs CS would wish to be without it now.
And it produces proper boiling water, too.
Last edited by: Clk Sec on Mon 20 Jul 20 at 21:36
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A son has had 3 - the 3rd one seems reliable BUT tea made from that tap is not great.
It's hot water but not freshly boiled.
About a year ago my wife commented on the tea & how good a cup. The granddaughter then chirped up that the hot tap was broken & the kettle was in use.
In theory it was £400+ but even if they paid £200 a kettle at £30 seems better value and it only burns the leccie when required rather than on "all the time" in the case of the hot tap.
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>>A son has had 3 - the 3rd one seems reliable BUT tea made from that tap is not great.
It's hot water but not freshly boiled.
The one I had in the US was not on all the time nor did it have a reservoir. It was on-demand heating.
Brilliant, actually. It's only it's delicacy that prevented me having one.
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A son has had 3 - the 3rd one seems reliable BUT tea made from that tap is not great.
It's hot water but not freshly boiled.
About a year ago my wife commented on the tea & how good a cup. The granddaughter then chirped up that the hot tap was broken & the kettle was in use.
In theory it was £400+ but even if they paid £200 a kettle at £30 seems better value and it only burns the leccie when required rather than on "all the time" in the case of the hot tap.
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Seems like a clever idea - but in reality they are just a very expensive gadget (cost £750-1500 + installation) which is easily replaced by a £20 kettle.
In fact you could buy 50 or so kettles for a single boiling water tap.
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>> they are just a very expensive
>> gadget (cost £750-1500 + installation) which is easily replaced by a £20 kettle.
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>> In fact you could buy 50 or so kettles for a single boiling water tap.
>>
Us cheapskates don't want to be left out of this debate!
How about a £6.50 kettle?
www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/281016235
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Fortunately I live in a soft water area.
When in Spain we always make tea using bottled water. We can tell the difference on blind tastings because we’ve held them.
Yorkshire Tea bags of course. More habit than anything I suppose.
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>> When in Spain we always make tea using bottled water. We can tell the difference
>> on blind tastings because we’ve held them.
Double or single blind?
>> Yorkshire Tea bags of course. More habit than anything I suppose.
Northern twaddle.
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>>Fortunately I live in a soft water area
"Calcium and magnesium ions are required for normal metabolism in many organisms including mammals. Reduced number of ions give rise to concerns about the health impacts of drinking soft water, including sudden cardiac death".
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_water
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That's what my consultant told me years ago! - nothing causes premature organ failure faster than soft water! - I now take 2 x bicarb capsules every day!
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>> How about a £6.50 kettle?
>>
>> www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/281016235
They've gone up, last one was £5.
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'Boiling' water taps - Zero
