25 years – time to really get the party started

You might think that having invented the original boiling water tap and being the first to provide truly 100°C boiling water on demand was enough of an achievement to last a lifetime; especially as the inventors patented so many aspects of the technology as to make it pretty well impossible to copy.  Some have tried, but most have had to settle for ‘almost’.  Close, but no cigar, as they say.

And for 25 years Quooker has been entirely focused on being a dedicated boiling water specialist, not bowing to the pressure to develop more diverse products. It was rather like the old adverts for Carlsberg – people were thinking, “Quooker don’t make three in one taps, but if they did they’d probably be the best in the world.”  So if we were going to make a tap that did even more than deliver true 100°C boiling water, it would have to be exceptional, or we didn’t want anything to do with it.  

The quarter century mark was, therefore, no time to rest on our laurels, but the complete opposite; the starting point for a whole newer era of Quooker innovation and invention.  In fact the rather brilliant Quooker boffins had been perfecting a range of new products made to their exacting standards, and our 25^th anniversary celebrations proved to be the perfect platform from which to launch them.  

We’ve never wanted to create new products for the sake of it, so innovation has to advance our core values of saving time, energy, water and money.  It also needs to serve our aim of helping homeowners to streamline their kitchens, both in terms of design and how they use them too.  We’re here to facilitate a relaxed lifestyle for busy people and to make using the kitchen easier.  Once installed, the Quooker rapidly becomes the most used appliance in the kitchen – bar none – so if you’re going to innovate, getting it absolutely right is vital.  

The birth of the new Nordic series was a very well-considered and thoroughly thought out response to customer demand for designer looks and even greater convenience. 

Quooker Twintaps - first of the Nordic series

First in the new Nordic series, the Quooker Twintaps, in Round or Square versions, is our design led set of beautiful matching taps, the first in the UK to provide an exact match for 100°C boiling water and separate mixer taps.  Up until then, designers had to find a ‘best match’; now they have a perfect pair.  But as looks aren’t everything, we also added a host of new safety features to ensure that there was no possibility of mistaking one tap for the other.  We were aware though, that this wouldn’t be enough for everyone, and the time had come to create our first three in one 100°C boiling, hot and cold combined single tap.  

Quooker Fusion - our first three in one tap

So this month, we launched the second in the Nordic series, the Quooker Fusion, one tap that really does do it all, with the same great designer looks that so defined the Twintaps.  

The safety features we developed for the Twintaps were key here too – if you are going to use one tap to do everything, you need to build in safety to ensure that turning on the 100°C delivery is a deliberate action, which it most certainly is with the entire Nordic series.  A double push and twist mechanism, a specially grooved mechanism and an LED light all ensure that you know it’s the 100°C boiling water that you’re turning on. 

Essentially it’s down to individual choice – some people want one tap that does everything, while others want a dedicated boiling water tap for that one purpose.  What we want is for everyone to be safe and everyone to be happy.  Because once you’ve got a Quooker, it really does become an integral part of your lifestyle.  

That’s why we think a foundation of 25 years of development and perfectionism is just about the right basis for a whole new phase of Quooker innovation in the kitchen.  

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Why we offer sublime support on scale

One of the things we are often asked about is limescale and how it might affect the Quooker boiling water tap.  The Quooker’s design actively discourages the formation of scale and makes it easy to combat.  Fortunately, scale only affects some parts of the UK, where there is hard water, while soft water areas have no scale build-up at all. 

Limescale build up is due to the presence in your domestic water supply of calcium and magnesium salts.  Higher concentrations of these minerals signify what is known as hard water.  You can look up whether you are likely to be affected by limescale on the Drinking Water Inspectorate’s national hard water map.  If you do live in a hard water area, you should also be able to find information about limescale on your local water provider’s website. 

The Quooker system is designed to make scale maintenance as simple and straightforward as possible.  Firstly, the tap head has a removable aerator which can be unscrewed and removed for regular local cleaning.  This actually helps to prevent the build-up of scale. 
Secondly, the Quooker tank comprises a cylindrical vacuum flask, which means that most of the scale will collect in one place and is therefore easy to find and simple to dispose of.  We can guide you through cleaning the other places where you may find it in the system.  Many rival systems use boilers or heaters, which allow limescale to collect in widely spread multiple points, and make them far more difficult to maintain.

We are determined that you should enjoy many happy, trouble-free years with your Quooker, so we’ve designed ease of maintenance into it as a feature.  If you do live in a hard water area, we offer three options for combating scale without any fuss. 

There are three simple ways to tackle scale:

1. Self-cleaning.  This is perfectly possible for a competent DIYer, and we’ll give you a free cleaning kit every time you need to descale your Quooker. 

2. If you don’t feel confident with DIY, you can prevent limescale from ever reaching the tap by having a descale filter installed. When it needs changing, you simply clip off the old cartridge and clip on a new one in no time at all. 

3. If neither of these options appeal, you can simply give us a call and we’ll send one of our skilled engineers to service and descale your Quooker for you. 

All three options work equally well, so the choice is yours.  We’ve done everything we can in the design of the Quooker to help you combat scale in a hard water area, because we want you to relax and enjoy a trouble-free, kettle-free future.  

That’s why we offer sublime support on scale.

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Why you should ask a few vital questions when choosing a boiling water tap

 

There are a few practical questions, aside from aesthetics, you should ask when deciding whether to ditch the kettle and install a boiling water tap instead. 

Firstly, does it actual provide 100°C boiling water?  We invented the boiling water tap to do just that, but not all imitators can match the 100°C that is so important for brewing perfect tea!  Don’t settle for second best. 

In the spirit of safety first, it is unsurprising that the question people often ask us is how safe can 100ºC boiling water tap really be? Many of whom are often surprised to find out that having a Quooker tap is much safer than using a traditional kettle. 

You should ensure that you install the safest.  Ask about safety features.  In 25 years, Quooker has never received a single complaint about scalding from a Quooker boiling water tap – despite there being 250,000 Quookers in use.  

Such an outstanding record can be attributed to Quooker’s dedication to safety.  The Quooker tap is always installed at the back of a worktop, over a sink. Unable to be pulled forward or knocked over, the Quooker tap helps keep even small children safer in the kitchen. 

Despite the aerated flow of the Quooker tap meaning that it is possible to pass your hand underneath the tap without scalding yourself, you still want to be as safe as possible!  We’ve designed a push and twist turning mechanism that means you cannot simply ‘knock’ a Quooker tap on – further protecting you and your family. 

Another key point of interest when choosing your boiling water tap should be; how manoeuvrable is the tap itself?  The Quooker tap has the built in capability to rotate as well as extend up and down, whilst some boiling water taps are fixed and others are able to pivot only.  

With a Quooker tap, you no longer have to be frustrated after finding out that your pans or cafetiere do not fit under the tap, or have to place your pans in the sink in order to fill them. No longer do you have to manoeuvre pans of boiling water around rigid taps and out of the sink. Instead you can fill your pans, cafetiere or teacups on the work top.

 Aside from practicality of use, the height adjustment feature is also an added bonus from a safety point of view, allowing the Quooker tap to be used in the most practical way possible.

Many people are interested to know; can a boiling water tap save me money?

The answer is yes!  With a Quooker tap energy is no longer wasted boiling more water than you need in a kettle.  You also avoid paying to heat the hot water that just sits in your pipe and loses down between uses – over a year that adds up to the equivalent of a swimming pool full.  Day to day you’ll save energy and that means lower energy bills.

With a Quooker tap you can use the precise amount of water you require for that much needed morning brew, and do your bit for the environment to boot!

A Quooker also saves those precious minutes we all spend waiting for the kettle to boil. We estimate you can save up to 90 hours a year – over three and a half days!

The answer to the most vital question is simple; should you ditch the kettle and install a Quooker?  Oh yes. 

That’s why you should ask a few vital questions when choosing a boiling water tap.

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Why playing safe in the kitchen should mean installing a Quooker…

The UK’s much loved soap opera, Coronation Street, often tackles important issues in its plotlines, and we were glad to see it tackle the problem of kettles and scalding accidents last week.  It’s something we’ve spent the last 25 years tackling ourselves. 

Boiling water needs treating with respect, so it’s no surprise that the first thing that a lot of people ask us is whether it’s really safe to have a tap which dispenses 100ºC boiling water in a kitchen.   What is sometimes a surprise to them is the realisation that it’s actually much safer having a Quooker tap than a kettle in the kitchen.

Hopefully, seeing Tyrone scald himself seriously with a kettle, putting his hand out of action for some time – not a good thing when you’re a mechanic – will make more people think seriously about how safe their kitchen is.  In case you’re among them, here are a few facts to consider.

According to The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), around 7,000 people visit A&E Departments every year due to kettle-related accidents.

In 25 years, Quooker has never received one single complaint about scalding from a Quooker boiling water tap.  That’s despite there being 250,000 Quookers currently in use – the equivalent of over a million years of regular use.

RoSPA recommends placing the kettle towards the back of the worktop where it will be out of reach for a small child. 

The Quooker tap is installed at the back of the worktop over the sink and cannot be pulled towards the front of the worktop. 

A kettle, once boiled, contains an average of between 1.1 and 1.7 litres of boiling water.  If this is tipped over a person, particularly a young child, it can do serious, extensive and sometimes, sadly, permanent harm.

The Quooker tap dispenses boiling water in a steady flow in a spray format.  The aerated form allows you to pass a hand through the flow without scalding yourself.  Naturally, you wouldn’t want to keep your hand in the flow of boiling water, but you wouldn’t – you’d snatch your hand away as soon as you felt the heat.  What makes a huge and critical difference is that by comparison you may get a few drops of boiling water on your skin or clothing – you won’t be soaked by over a litre of it. 

Even so, we don’t think you should take any risks with boiling water, which is why we added the additional feature of a twist and turn mechanism to turn the tap on in order to dispense the water.  We also made sure that our tap can be raised and lowered to suit the vessel you’re filling.  You can also rotate the tap with ease so that you can fill a pan placed firmly on the worktop next to the sink, rather than holding it at any awkward angles over the sink. 

We love being able to use boiling water on demand in the kitchen – it helps with cooking, cleaning and getting hot drinks in busy offices or homes.  BUT – we never forget that safety is important.  After 25 years, 250,000 Quookers and many millions of hours of their combined use, no-one has ever told us that they’ve had an accident related to a Quooker. 

That’s why playing safe in the kitchen should mean installing a Quooker.

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Why all boiling water taps are not the same…

First things first – there are quite a few pretenders to the title ‘boiling water tap’, but only one genuine article.  We know this to be true because the patents that we hold on the genuine boiling water dispensing Quooker tap make it pretty impossible for anyone else to achieve 100ºC boiling water from a tap. 

Some of our competitors would have you believe that this is a good thing.  They say that 100ºC boiling water is steam.  Clearly anyone who has ever boiled a kettle knows that while some steam is given off when water boils, it doesn’t all turn to steam – or there would never have been kettles. 

They may also tell you that 100ºC boiling water scalds tea and coffee, so slightly off the boil is better.  But boiling water doesn’t scald if you dispense it in an aerated stream so that the air in it prevents scalding tea and coffee – or anything else you want to prepare in the food line. 

This also makes our tap safer than a kettle – the aerated stream is far safer than a constant stream from a kettle.  It’s possible to pass your hand through a Quooker tap boiling water stream without scalding yourself.  Don’t ever try that with a kettle! 

You also can’t accidentally knock a Quooker over, pouring litres of boiling water everywhere.  The Quooker has a safety push and twist action which also helps to reduce mistakes – you can’t turn it on by accident.

The turning point for taps is quite literally, their turning point.  Being able to rotate from side to side makes a tap so much more versatile, and this too has positive implications for safety.  It means that you can place a pot or saucepan on the worktop to fill.  You don’t have to sit it in the sink then lift it out – which can be tricky and precarious.  Instead you can grasp it easily and firmly to place it on the cooker.

Rising to the occasion is important too.  The long and the short of it is that if you’re going to invest in a boiling water tap you want to know that you can fill things with it – large saucepans and stockpots, for example, or tall flasks for boardroom meetings or even picnics (should the summer settle down into nice weather).  In colder weather you may wish to fill hot water bottles too.  The Quooker tap gives you a long or short neck – you just lift it up or push it down as you wish. 

They say looks aren’t everything, but we believe that if you’re investing in a boiling water tap it should also look great.  The Quooker does, and it comes in traditional or contemporary styles to match your kitchen. 

Finally – and we think, importantly – it’s backed by great customer service.  We know that everybody claims that, but like our tap, we really do deliver on our promises.

That’s why all boiling water taps are not the same.

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