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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 w

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.

teruakohatu 2y ago
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.
- ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
  The ones that I'm referring to are a single kitchen mixer tap that does the usual cold and hot, but also a boiling option.
frereubu 2y ago
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).
- TheSpiceIsLife 2y ago
  <opinion> 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.
  - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
    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.
    - TheSpiceIsLife 2y ago
      Agree, at least to some extent. For my use cases, I’m not looking to actually boil the water, bringing it up to 80 plus degrees suffices. The inefficiency kettles bring is the tendency of certain users to heat way more water than their immediate needs.
  - prewett 2y ago
    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.
- alias_neo 2y ago
  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.
  - frereubu 2y ago
    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.
    - alias_neo 2y ago
      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.
      - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
        > 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.
alias_neo 2y ago
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.
michaelt 2y ago
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? Not sure why you'd want one for home though.
paulluuk 2y ago
Sorry, I meant that they are installed in nearly all newly built houses, at least in my country. I don't imagine you'd find many in older kitchens.

teruakohatu 2y ago

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.

ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
The ones that I'm referring to are a single kitchen mixer tap that does the usual cold and hot, but also a boiling option.

frereubu 2y ago

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).

TheSpiceIsLife 2y ago
<opinion> 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.
- ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
  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.
  - TheSpiceIsLife 2y ago
    Agree, at least to some extent. For my use cases, I’m not looking to actually boil the water, bringing it up to 80 plus degrees suffices. The inefficiency kettles bring is the tendency of certain users to heat way more water than their immediate needs.
- prewett 2y ago
  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.
alias_neo 2y ago
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.
- frereubu 2y ago
  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.
  - alias_neo 2y ago
    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.
    - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
      > 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.

alias_neo 2y ago

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.

michaelt 2y ago

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? Not sure why you'd want one for home though.

paulluuk 2y ago

Sorry, I meant that they are installed in nearly all newly built houses, at least in my country. I don't imagine you'd find many in older kitchens.