They say a watched pot never boils, and it can feel like waiting forever to see those first bubbles pop. A boiling water tap can save time and effort and look great on the countertop too.
They’re not cheap though and need to be installed professionally and will require maintenance, servicing and replacement filters. So, is it worth the investment?
Easy to use
Boiling water taps are a convenient alternative to kettles for dispensing hot water at a high temperature. They work by taking cold kitchen water from your existing taps and heating it in a small thermally-insulated tank or boiler fitted below your sink. When you turn the handle, the tap dispenses a stream of boiling water into your sink or work surface and keeps it at the desired temperature until you stop it.
Using a boiling water tap is a lot quicker than waiting for the kettle to boil and can save you energy and time too. You can use it for making a cup of tea, coffee, instant soups and drinks, or scalding up a pan of pasta to cook dinner.
Many boiling water taps have a setting for the ideal temperature of a cup of tea (between 90 and 98 degrees, not 100 degrees). The limit ensures that your water is not too hot to drink but also doesn’t scald or burn the coffee beans, ruining the flavour.
Blanco’s smart boiling water taps combine a streamlined mixer tap with a separate boiling water heater that can be fitted in the cabinet below your sink. This helps declutter your sink area and reduce clutter, and they are available in a range of finishes to suit your design scheme.
Safe to drink
Boiling water taps look just like your regular kitchen tap but with a few extra features. They maintain a small tank of water at near boiling temperature ready to be dispensed at the touch of a button. These taps are often well insulated and minimise energy consumption by heating only the amount of water you need at a time. This means that over the course of their lifetimes they can pay for themselves in water and energy savings – although it will take some time for these savings to become evident.
Aside from dispensing boiling water these taps can also dispense cold filtered water and some models even offer the option of ambient and fizzy water too. This makes them a great addition to any modern office kitchen, particularly as they can be used for more than just cups of tea. They can be used to prepare meals and hot drinks for staff during lunchtimes or break times, as well as providing a welcome alternative to the kettle for anyone who prefers not to boil their own water.
Another bonus of using a boiling water tap is that they are much safer than a traditional kettle. The spout of the tap is usually affixed to the work surface which keeps it stable and prevents tipping. This is a big plus for younger users of the office as scalding injuries are a major hazard when pouring boiling water from a kettle. In addition to this, many boiling water taps feature a child-safe spring lock which closes the tap when you release the handle, helping to reduce the chances of scalding accidents.
Great for the environment
Boiling water taps are not only a great addition to any modern kitchen and look great too, but they also make cooking and cleaning much quicker and easier. From boiling eggs to washing vegetables and removing the skins from them, they’re also perfect for making noodles, rice, instant coffee, frothy milk and tea. Using a boiling water tap is much faster than heating a kettle and much more energy efficient as they only dispense the amount of water that is needed, which can reduce your household electricity bill.
These kitchen taps work with a thermally-insulated vacuum cylinder or tank heater underneath the sink which stores the boiling water ready for demand. When you press the handle, cool tap water flows into the tank to displace the near boiling water which is then pushed through the spout and out of the tap. As soon as you release the handle, the tap shuts and the boiling water stops flowing.
Many of these taps only dispense boiling water at 100°C but some also offer standard hot and cold water as well as filtered cold water, making them a very versatile kitchen appliance that will make any household more efficient. They’re also a lot safer than using a kettle as they’re fixed to the sink and cannot tip over like a kettle can, which is what causes most accidents with boiling water.
Versatile
There are hundreds of different models and styles of boiling water tap to choose from, so they can fit into any kitchen. They all look sleek and chic, with the added advantage that they can replace a kettle and even some water dispensers and sparkling water bottles too, saving space on the worktop.
The way they work is that the water comes through your normal tap, but it’s instantly heated to a high temperature by an electrical heating element before being pushed out through the spout. The spout itself is often thermally insulated so it doesn’t get hot to the touch and many have safety features such as child locks and hand-safety clips.
One of the main reasons why people choose to install a boiling water tap is because it can make cooking on a busy family dinner night much easier. You can fill pans with boiling water from the tap and then cook things like roast dinners, pasta lunches or homemade soup.
Boiling water taps are also great for the environment as they don’t use nearly as much energy as a traditional electric kettle. This is because they only dispense as much water as you need, unlike some people who overfill their kettle and then re-boil the same amount of water again and again which wastes energy. instant boiling water tap