Journal
We felt it was about time for a Quooker tap review. In pretty much every first meeting we have with our clients, the inevitable question about Quooker taps arises. There is still scepticism around these appliances, particularly from those of us born before 1980.
We have three Quooker taps here at the Guild Anderson design studio in Wiltshire. They get regular daily use and I think its probably fair to say that we’d all miss them if they were removed. Returning to a kettle would seem a little archaic.
Apart from the obvious, what does a Quooker do? As well as providing instant boiling water, the Quooker taps with the Cube attachment let it deliver sparkling and chilled filtered water from the same spout, meaning you can free up space in the fridge of plastic water bottles.
IS THE QUOOKER ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY?
This is a very fair question, and it’s one most of our kettle using clients ask. Quooker’s response is also fair. When using a Quooker for hot drinks, you are only using the exact amount of water that you need, whereas with a kettle, more often than not you are using energy to bring more water to the boil that you will actually use. So with a kettle, you are usually boiling the same water two or three times, which is a huge waste of energy
The key to Quooker’s claims that it is more environmentally friendly than a kettle lies in its patented vacuum flask which keeps the water in the Quooker tank hot without needing to use much energy, and because the water only boils when it exits the tap, it is not constantly boiling water inside the tank. It’s a bit like a large Thermos flask that is just topped up with heat every now and then.
IS IT SAFE?
Quooker, naturally, has put a lot of research into answering this question as it will be one of the top barriers to purchase. With a Quooker it‘s impossible to turn the boiling on accidentally. It requires a double- push and turn on an inconspicuous ring mechanism, which is completely separate from the regular cold and hot. The water is injected with air, and so is a fine spray which ensures the avoidance of accidental scalds or burns. Quookers have a double insulated spout, and so are cool to the touch, unlike kettles. Last but not least, you cannot accidentally knock, tip or ‘spill’ a Quooker as one can with a kettle or pan of boiling water.
Their research on Boiling-water taps and the risk of burns can be read here if you’re interested in going deeper, but the summary of the research concluded that the Quooker replaces the kettle, which being portable is actually the cause of more injuries. This research did not find any burn incidents from using boiling-water taps. It thus seems that by replacing kettles with boiling-water taps, the risk of serious burn incidents among young children is reduced.
WHAT IS A QUOOKER USED FOR?
Apart form the obvious; making tea and coffee, the Quooker can use used for many other household tasks such as boiling and egg, steaming or blanching vegetables or even sterilising baby bottles and cleaning dirty pans and chopping boards.
DOES A QUOOKER COST A LOT TO RUN?
Boiling a single cup of water in a kettle will cost around 1.3p for your standard 3w electric kettle. Boiling the whole kettle will cost around 7p.
In comparison, the stand-by energy consumption of a Quooker is about 3p per day, mainly due to the patented high-vacuum insulation, which keeps the water at the right temperature in an energy-efficient manner.
DO I NEED THE CUBE?
If you want sparkling and chilled filtered water from your Quooker, you’ll need a Cube which enables the carbonation and cooling of the water.
The CUBE can be installed at the bottom of the kitchen cabinet next to the Quooker tank. It includes one or two filters that makes the water just as pure as the bottled water you buy in the shop.
The CUBE is attached to a CO2 cylinder that gives you 60 litres of sparkling water from your Quooker tap. A separate filter then filters bacteria, chloride, chemicals and pesticides from the water.
Since 1970 Quooker is the boiling-water tap that has become an indispensable tool in kitchens all over the world. The Quooker was the very first boiling-water tap in the world.
Their ambition is to supply as many private kitchens as possible with boiling water, in a smart and responsible way. To achieve that Quooker employ over 450 people working on new technical ideas and design solutions to make the taps even more efficient, even easier to use and even more attractive.
So if you have the space it is well worth considering the Quooker tap as a modern indispensable tool within a contemporary kitchen design.
