Want a Quooker?
I want a Quooker! But it'll have to wait until I re-do my own kitchen (which could be a while yet ... I want to make major alterations to the walls). I'd seen pictures of the Quooker before, but actually saw it in the "flesh" (steel?) at Bathroom & Kitchen Expo.
I mentioned hot water dispensers briefly in my Kitchen Design Guide ... and the Quooker is possibly the best one to have. It'll currently cost you around £700 - 800, depending on the tap finish you choose (and there are lots to choose from - in four different styles). This is more expensive than more basic models (which you can get from Franke or InSinkErator)but it does seem to have a good combination of features.
With the Quooker, the water is held in an insulated tank (under the worktop), under pressure (from the mains water pressure) allowing the temperature to be maintained at 110 degrees C. When you turn the tap on, the water comes out at boiling temperature. (The other models produce water at lower temperatures). I'm not a big tea drinker ... but I hear from friends who are, that boiling water is essential for a good cuppa ... and it's certainly good for filter coffee.
The water is filtered (through activated carbon) as it enters the tank and it is also claimed that a "calcium conversion" takes place to reduce scum formation (without specifying how) ... so drinks made with the water should taste good.
The taps have child proof push-and-turn handles, are double walled for insulation and produce the water in a fine spray, rather than a solid jet ... all safety features to prevent scalding.
Using a hot water dispenser obviously means that you don't need to have a kettle always on the go. Kettles are a well known safety hazard in the kitchen and we also tend to heat up more water than we actually need; to tip out old water and re-fill the kettle quite frequently; and to forget that we were planning to have a drink and have to boil the kettle up again. The Quooker saves on water consumption and even on energy consumption because, although the water in the tank is kept hot, it is extremely well insulated.
Apart from hot drinks, you can use the hot water dispenser for :
Speeding up the cooking of pasta and vegetables by filling the pans from the Quooker
Preparing baby formula feeds and sterilising teats
Rinsing mixer and blender blades, chopping boards, jam jars and other awkward items
Blanching vegetables, peeling tomatoes
Melting candle wax
Poaching eggs or fish
Heating up plates and serving dishes
Now, do you see why I want one?
If you'd like one - pop over to the Quooker pages at Appliance City and see what taps are available and check up-to-date prices.
If you do buy, after clicking through from here, we earn a small commission which goes towards the upkeep of this website.
UPDATE AUGUST 2009: Majjie moved house and never did get a Quooker ... she's now thinking about a Quooker Combi - have a look at her Quooker Update
Comments
Hi Anonymous ... sorry, I'd forgotten all about your comment until I re-visited the idea of a Quooker recently.
It does seem like a serious problem that you're describing ... so I asked Neil Hartshorne, National Account Manager at Quooker UK, what his response would be.
It appears that limescale is a serious problem for Quookers in the UK ... but only in a "handful of areas". Also, it's no more of a problem for Quookers than it is for dishwashers, washing machines, steam ovens ... or any other appliance that uses tap water. So, it doesn't seem like a good reason for not using an appliance.
Quooker advise that, if you know you have a limescale problem, then you need to fit an "in-line limescale filter in the water feed to the Quooker". You can buy these from Quooker ... or any other outlet that sells plumbing accessories. And,as Neil says; "It might even be worth looking at using the filter to protect your other appliances in the kitchen at the same time!"
Incidentally, he also mentioned that the internal filter in the Quooker will need changing more frequently in hard water areas ... every 2-3 years ... instead of the normal 4-5 years. (Replacement filters are available from Quooker - with full instructions for changing them).
Actually a Quooker will almost certainly NOT save you energy but use more and this is a significant issue in the battle against global warming!
Please read the results of this study and then save yourself some money (and save the world some more carbon emissions) and don't buy a Quooker!!!
http://www.savingtrust.dk/news/archive/consumer_archive/boiling-water-on-tap
Actually Marcko, I don't think it's that simple.
Obviously, if you buy a Quooker and you care about your energy consumption, then you need to evaluate it ... in comparison with your current water heating methods ... and you need to be careful not to use a lot more boiling water than usual, just because it's there.
You can't just compare the Quooker with use of a kettle, though. The study you link to, criticises the Quooker because it uses electricity to heat water, instead of gas or oil ... but I have a ceramic hob ... so every time I heat up water in a saucepan I'm using electricity to heat water. I'd need to take that into account - making a Quooker more favourable in my situation.
The study you mentioned also criticises the Quooker because - if you don't use it - you can use water heated by "district heating". That may be common in Denmark - where the studies were performed - but it doesn't apply in the UK. (There are very few local heating schemes here ... and certainly none in Nottingham.)
Majjie
P.S Your link is also critical of using boiling water to "shrivel tomatoes"! Somehow, I don't think they were cooks, the people doing the study. I was talking to a friend the other day about cooking tomato sauce and how tedious it would be to spend hours peeling tomatoes ... if you didn't know that pouring boiling water over them, makes them easy to peel!
Hi Bal,
Well, you'd probably be better off asking Quooker themselves ... but I'd have thought softened water would be ideal for a Quooker. The Calcium and Magnesium ions - which cause limescale - will have been removed from your water before it gets to the Quooker.
Thanks Cali ... you know I never gave a thought to drinking the water ... I was only thinking about how it would affect the Quooker!
After doing a bit of research, it turns out that whether or not you can drink your softened water depends on how hard it was in the first place. The problem is that some softened water will have too much sodium in it. And by the way, softened water is different to filtered water - which is designed for drinking.
I found a website which explained how to find out if that applies to your water. Here's the explanation directly fromHarvey Water Softeners website. Harvey - by the way - looks lovely ... and I'm sure he won't mind me stealing his explanation (in return for a link):
"The simplest route is to call the customer services number for your water supplier. Ask for the sodium level in the water supply and calcium carbonate hardness (N.B. both sodium and calcium carbonate hardness must be expressed in mg/l). Divide the calcium carbonate hardness level by 2.175 and add the sodium in the water supply. This result should be no more than 200 mg/l of total sodium to comply with the Water Quality Regulations. As a “rule of thumb” if the calcium carbonate hardness level of the water supply is greater than 400 mg/l, there is a higher probability that the softened water will be close to or above the sodium limit in the Drinking Water Quality Regulations."
Thanks Harvey.Dear Majjie,
Thank you very much for using our explanation. I have seen a few enquiries come in regarding Quooker taps. I have asked our lead engineer and can confirm that it is absolutely fine to use softened water with them.
Even in particularly hard water areas, the amount of sodium exchanged during water softening is still negligible. For example, on average, one glass of milk has more sodium than a litre of water. It is only really an issue if you have been medically advised to avoid sodium (where every little bit counts).
Softened water is actually best used for cooking and hot drinks, it is like a stronger solvent, more readily absorbing aromatics. Many of our customers have bought a softener in pursuit of a better tea, coffee (or whiskey). For most applications where you would use a Quooker, softened water would be preferable. Hard water is generally only really used for a standalone drinking tap.
Using a water softener with a Quooker should improve it's longevity by keeping it away from troublesome scale and scum too.
By the way, we love your site at Harvey Water Softeners HQ :). Thanks for the plug.
Thanks Shashi - and you're welcome.
I liked your site too - it's always good to find useful information on a commercial site, I think. Shows just that bit of extra commitment to customer service.
And thank you for the extra info. Interesting - about there being so much more sodium in a glass of milk!
You have answered ALL my queries. I already have Harvey's softener, but use a mains fed tap for drinking water. If I buy a Quooker, fingers x'd, I can get it to feed off Harvey.
Hoping to move, and taking Harvey with me might not be possible, as the mains tap position might not be suitable for hiding pipework. Concrete flooring, so I'm not digging it up!
Now to find the best prices!
Glad to be of service Geraldine ... and good luck with the move!
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