Here in the UK, I only know one person who has a boiling water tap (they've been renovating an old cottage and are a fan of tech) though I wasn't a fan went I went to visit and tried it out (not why I went to visit). I'm more of a fan of the Unix/Linux philosophy of "do one job and do it well" as appliances are more likely to break when they have multiple jobs to do, so I was slightly against the idea of it anyhow. The main criticism I have of it is that it's far more likely to cause scalds/burns as you have to bring the container to the tap (specifically an Aeropress) and it's more difficult to control the flow of water. With a kettle, you can move the kettle to the container and it's far more controllable in terms of water flow. I'm also not a fan of the tap needing to keep pre-heated water in an insulated container all the time - only a small use of energy, but it seems unnecessary to me.
I'd be interested in an overall energy use comparison between a kettle and a hot water tap. I know lots of people who boil far too much water for a single cup of tea or coffee (partially due to kettle designs).
This problem is solved in its entirety by simply microwaving a cup of water. No wasted water.
If the same / similar cup is used, one can choose the desired temperature of the resultant hot water simply by varying the time. Seasonal variation of ambient water temperature may need to be taken into account.
I tend not to drink coffee, and I prefer to make tea with less-than-boiling water.
YMMV
</opinion.
Now that I’ve written that, I’ll have to put a power meter on the microwave and a kettle and report back with the results. My kettle recently broke and I hadn’t intended to replace.
I've tried that, and there are two problems. One is that water has a tendency to superheat and then boil all over the place when you put the tea in, or it suddenly produces a big bubble and water goes everywhere. The other is that it is hard to get a consistent temperature. Even if you measure it with a thermometer it seems problematic (although perhaps the grocery store thermometers go out of calibration easily). If you're doing herbal tea it might not matter as much, but for something like Chinese green tea, it was always hit or miss. I bought the Bonavita kettle as soon as I found out about it, and now I always have consistent tea with no fuss or mess.
My daily driver, a flatbed Panasonic microwave, does a good enough job, but yeah actually boiling the water in a microwave is a recipe for a way too hot cup, and half the water boiling over.
220ml, regular ceramic mug, one minute forty, does what I need, but I’m not tea or coffee connoisseur, just a prole with a box of Twinings loose leaf.
Thanks for the kettle reference, I have been meaning to find a temperature controlled unit.
I recently picked up an inexpensive Thomson branded electric frypan with digital temperature and time controls, well impressed.
I'd guess that a microwave would "waste" more energy as it's got moving parts and the energy isn't completely directed to heating the water. A kettle also "wastes" some energy as you end up heating the kettle too (from the hot water).
If a microwave was more efficient, I'd expect to see premium kettles that used microwaves instead of a simple heating element, though maybe there'd be design problems with preventing leaking microwaves.
I don't have a comparison to a kettle because I don't have one, but our Quooker tap took a fraction of a kWh over a couple of months that I measured the energy usage, and my wife uses it daily for tea and we use it most days for boiling water for things like cooking.
The 3L tank that holds the hot water, under the sink is well insulated and it takes almost nothing to keep it at temperature.
Given that it uses such negligible energy that I needn't care, the benefits of instant boiling water whenever we like and not having an extra appliance no the counter-top make it a clear winner for us.
Interesting, thanks. I really like the idea but the thing I'd miss from our kettle is the ability to change to lower temperatures for different kinds of tea. You shouldn't really use boiling water for some kinds of green tea, for example. I guess you can mix in some cold water to reach close to the right temperature, but I'd miss the convenience.
I've never come across a kettle that changes temperature, or is it that you can stop it boiling when you feel it's about right?
My wife drinks tea (I'm a coffee drinker) and I make tea (just simple, English Breakfast with milk) for her quite often, and we both use it for cooking. It was something she'd always wanted, and she's not much into "gadgets" but she's been very happy with this, so I'm happy.
I've got the OXO adjustable temp one. It lets you select a temperature between 40 and 100 °C in one degree increments. I wish it were a bit smaller and could heat to a lower temp (for e.g. proofing yeast), but otherwise it's pretty nice. As it's an American market product it's limited to 1500W, which is still pretty quick but nowhere near the speed of something designed for 240V mains.
The biggest problem I've had so far was that Amazon seems to only stock used/counterfeit units. Buying direct from OXO got me on that hadn't been used and didn't reek of volatile organic compounds on the first try.
> The biggest problem I've had so far was that Amazon seems to only stock used/counterfeit units. Buying direct from OXO got me on that hadn't been used and didn't reek of volatile organic compounds on the first try.
This is slighly terrifying; and interesting that something like this would be counterfeited. I too would make any and all efforts to ensure I was using something legit where mains (240V for me) are concerned.
I once bought a knock-off hot-air soldering station without knowing, and once I looked into it, people were complaining they'd received units where the live was "grounded" to the case.
I opened mine to check, not quite as bad, but the live in mine wasn't attached to the metal case, just bare, and within about 1cm of it. I reported it to the retailer (we all know which major online retailer this was), and they did nothing. Let's just say things changed, seriously, for me that day when it comes to buying anything mains powered with uncertain origins.
This may have been the tipping point for me. I got two from Amazon. One was obviously used and had lots of hard water deposits. The other had a very strong VOC odor to it. Around this time I'd started looking more closely at items purchased from Amazon and they'd often appear to be lower quality (if not blatantly counterfeit). Even if I didn't despise Bezos this would've put me off Amazon.
ThermoWorks refused to sell their products on Amazon for quite a while. Apparently they've changed their stance but I wouldn't risk it.
Anyways the kettle is nice to have that I use daily for coffee even though I now have an induction stove with burners that are far more powerful than the kettle. Stateside, circuits for electric ranges are 240V, 50A (occasionally 40A on older buildings).
Probably due to him making a fortune by exploiting and underpaying his employees. His workers are reduced to pissing into bottles to save time whilst Bezos is mucking around flying in space.
> I've never come across a kettle that changes temperature, or is it that you can stop it boiling when you feel it's about right?
There's several around - I've got one that allows you to choose between 70°C, 80°C, 90°C and boiling (along with a keep-warm option that's never used). I use the 80°C option all the time for making coffee (Aeropress) and use the 70°C for things like green tea (black tea should be 100°C of course).
It's a mistake to use boiling water when making coffee - it'll extract a bitter flavour.
> I've got one that allows you to choose between 70°C, 80°C, 90°C
That's really cool, I suppose I haven't really looked, being a coffee drinker, a kettle was never important to me.
> It's a mistake to use boiling water when making coffee - it'll extract a bitter flavour.
I have two espresso machines, one in the kitchen and one in my home office, I also have an Aeropress like yourself, love it, but I only use that for travelling. Wouldn't dare pour boiling water over my freshly ground coffee :)
Ah that looks cool, got a sort of retro-coffee filter machine for the office look to it too (I love Bosch appliances).
I never understood why so many kettles always put the fill indicator behind the handle, which of course you'd be holding when filling it up. The first time I saw one with a large, clearly graduated window on the side (and wasn't also a cheap, white plastic kettle) I was impressed, being the nerd I am.
When I was trying out my friends' boiling water tap, I had to much around with putting in some cold water into the Aeropress first, before then adding the boiling water. If I had to use one for longer than a weekend, I'd probably use a small jug for mixing the water to the right temperature first.
Very good point, it's good for when you want water at that specific temperature but could end up being an inconvenience depending on how you intend to use it. I have a few different thermermometers in the kitchen, plus a laser one and my Pixel now has one (for some unknown reason) so I use those to check the temps of things in the kitchen when I need to know.
Hot drinks can be a bit of a ritual, as I'm sure you understand as an aeropress user, so I don't mind a bit of work to get the right brew if I need to do it, in fact one of the things I enjoy about taking my aeropress when I'm travelling whether camping or any other break, is having my coffee ritual with me.
Here in New Zealand they seem to be installed in every new or renovated office kitchen. Prior to that a boiling water tank that is mounted on the wall and allows instant near building water for tea.
Those boiling water tanks would be very hard for a child to access without a lot of effort. Those boiling taps are sometimes close to the cold/warm water tap.
As far as I can tell, the target market for steaming hot water taps is office kitchens.
When a kitchen serves 100+ people things like limescale will inevitably be a problem. If the steaming hot water tap is plumbed in, with replaceable water filters and a regular service contract - that's an advantage, not a disadvantage.
Steaming hot water taps can supply lots of hot water fast, so even if a load of people are making drinks at the same time in between meetings, they can keep up.
There's also a safety argument that if you've got a kettle and a mug, that's two things of boiling water you could drop, and eliminating one of the two makes things safer. And because the steaming hot water tap is directly above a drain, the impact of a spill is much reduced. And a lot of these taps make water that is steaming but somewhat below boiling, which might be safer or something?
I have a Quooker tap, and no kettle. It's a game changer in the kitchen, need boiling water for cooking and it's instantly available, and my wife can have tea in a second whenever she wants, no waiting around or boiling a certain amount in the kettle, also one less appliance on the counter-top.
The energy usage is indeed minimal; I've measured it with a power meter over a couple of months and barely used a fraction of a kWh.
There are other boiling water taps, but Quooker is incredibly well built, really simple, and was created in an era of making things to last, it's got a price tag to match, but well worth it in our households opinion.
