boiling water tap

[ryder72]

Quooker or Insinkerator for me with Quooker being the tap offering true boiling water. Pretty reliable too though they are starting to change things on the tap to generate more service revenue. Nothing that anyone with some working knowledge of electrics/plumbing and a decent set of tools cant do.

[PeterW]

11 hours ago, ryder72 said:

Quooker or Insinkerator for me with Quooker being the tap offering true boiling water. Pretty reliable too though they are starting to change things on the tap to generate more service revenue. Nothing that anyone with some working knowledge of electrics/plumbing and a decent set of tools cant do.

 

The Insinkerator ones seem to be about half the price of the Quooker - are they any good ..?

[ryder72]

I am of the opinion that they are the best alternative to Quooker. Not as good as Quooker in that it isnt true boiling water, smaller tank, but its a proven product. I know Jeremy has had a very good experience with Itho. Ours with Franke (made by Itho) has been unsatisfactory on 3 of 4 we have supplied so on that basis, I dont recommend them.

 

Amol

 

[Ferdinand]

I am with PeterW in drinking more coffee than team so my water needs to be deliverable at 90 degrees C.

 

So I still go with the thermostatic insulated kettle, and Gaggia.

[Jeremy Harris]

15 minutes ago, ryder72 said:

I am of the opinion that they are the best alternative to Quooker. Not as good as Quooker in that it isnt true boiling water, smaller tank, but its a proven product. I know Jeremy has had a very good experience with Itho. Ours with Franke (made by Itho) has been unsatisfactory on 3 of 4 we have supplied so on that basis, I dont recommend them.

 

Amol

 

 

Out of interest, was it the taps that failed with the Franke?  The reason for the failure of our tap (2013 model, now superseded with a different design) was the drilling in this photo being far too close to the edge of the ceramic valve base seal:

 

 

You can clearly see where the bottom drilling is right where the seal should be seating (the mark is the stain left by the seal).  On the new design that drilling isn't there,  it comes in from the side of the bored hole, leaving the bottom of the recess flat for the seal to bed on properly.

 

[ryder72]

I think there were an assortment of problems, 2 IIRC related to some aspect of the tank and one with the push button to activate the boiling water supply.

 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

1 hour ago, ryder72 said:

I think there were an assortment of problems, 2 IIRC related to some aspect of the tank and one with the push button to activate the boiling water supply.

 

 

 

I do hope we don't have any tank problems, as that would be expensive to sort, now that the price has been hiked up so much.  It's been OK for a couple of years, so fingers crossed it's got over the initial part of the reliability bath tub curve. 

 

There was a change to the design of the push button that pre-dated our first tap, as Itho have instructions on how to replace a moulded plastic part with a newer design of metal part on their website.  Our old tap already had the newer part fitted, it just had the drilling flaw.

 

I get the feeling that they may have marketed this before they'd ironed out some reliability problems, from the sound of things.  At a guess, I'd say it may well have been a consequence of trying to get a combination 3 way tap to the market before some of the competition.  When we were looking around in late 2013, early 2014, the choice was limited.  The Qooker at that time looked a bit dire, and when I found the Itho, at a better price than the Qooker, it looked like the best choice.  Since then, Qooker have revised the styling, and if we were looking to buy one now I'm pretty sure it would be a Qooker.  In some ways it's a pity that Qooker didn't update their range a year earlier.

[ryder72]

I think Blanco rushed in with a tap around that time, based on the Itho and withdrew it within months. Itho  is an established company so hopefully they were teething problems. However from experience I know when a company launches something which isnt part of their core product line and simply buy it in to react to market conditions, it usually ends up in tears if the product isnt very good. The launching company doesnt have the service network to support the product and there is a frustated consumer at the end of it all.

 

Quooker are strong on their marketing and I do sometimes feel they are being a bit greedy, but their product reliability and service is really very good so on balance its hard to fault them.