I have just finished installing a 4-in-1, 100°C Boiling Water Tap from Qettle. It may have been years in the making, but our shiny new kitchen is getting very close to actually being finished!
We’ve been fancying installing a boiling water tap since the start of ‘project kitchen’ and have looked at various options. We have been debating between a generic ‘nearly boiling’ tap, or the proper real deal – a 4-in-1 100°C boiling water tap…….well, Qettle had a Black Friday sale and had a good offer on their 4-in-1 true boiling water tap with 4 litre boiler, so we splashed a bit more cash – but it’s much cheaper for example than the likes of a Quooker!
A huge box was duly delivered. As is tradition, I asked the cats what they thought. This lovely one seems to approve of the box quality.
I have installed this myself, so this is written from the viewpoint of a jolly keen DIY person, who doesn’t mind a bit of light plumbing. Don’t judge me too harshly plumbers, yes, I know you will anyway 🙂
At first glance it appears to be horrendously complicated, with loads of hoses and wires. I am pleased to report it really isn’t. There’s only actually one extra connection to be made to your existing under sink plumbing, if you’re not starting from scratch like we are. That is an extra T from your cold supply. Oh, and a connection to the waste.
It has 4 hoses and a wire pre-attached to it, so you don’t have to worry about connecting the hoses to the wrong place. If you actually follow the instructions on which order to push the hoses through the 35mm hole in your sink or worktop, then they all push through nicely (just) without getting stuck. Following a bit of light yoga, the fixing nuts can be attached from the underside with the supplied box spanner.
Once said shiny tap is in position, you can start having a ponder about where to put things under the sink. Ours is a 600mm wide sink unit and I would say you may as well abandon all hope of having any shelf or anything else in it once done. A pot of dishwasher tablets is all we have managed. If you are normal and have a double sink cabinet then you will have plenty of space for all your usual under sink stuff!
It’s supplied with a leak detector which sits on the cabinet base and cuts off the cold supply to it if any water is detected lurking where it shouldn’t be. There’s also a shut off valve and water filter. There’s a timer unit which I think beeps at you to suggest you change the filter at suitable points. The boiler unit itself sits in a drip tray. I’m pleased to report it doesn’t seem to drip!
There’s an attachment to the sink waste included which I hadn’t realised. This it seems is quite a vital pressure release point for the boiler if needed. It’s supplied with very precise instructions about why it’s needed and how best to attach it.
I really like that the flexible hoses are supplied with plastic nut attachments so that you’re not tempted to get all ham fisted with spanners when all they need is to be sensibly hand tight. They’re also clearly labelled hot and cold for example, or designed so you can only plug/screw them into the right spot in the system.
Do read the instructions and follow them. Some bits are obvious, some less so, some need doing in a certain order. Once it’s all hooked up as instructed, you can – slightly nervously – turn on the water supply and hope your amazing plumbing skills don’t let you down now. Following a check of everything, we amazingly seemed to have no leaks yet! Again, follow the instructions about how to begin to commission the system. Do not turn on the power until instructed. You’d be crying if you killed your new boiler at this stage!
Once the system is turned on, you have around 20 minutes to wait while it initially boils….. then hopefully you have boiling water……..we do 🙂 So, first impressions. Well, we have got rid of our kettle (note spelling) and are fully embracing the Qettle. The 4 in 1 bit, gives us filtered cold water too, which is great for us. We’re in a hard water area and I believe the filter deals with this, or maybe I need to buy a different filter. But I’ve definitely read somewhere that Qettle can cope with this. Must do some more research on this.
We weren’t intending on having a 4 litre boiler and were content with the base 2 litre model, like all the generic cheap eBay ones. However, at the time of ordering they were out of stock of the 2 litre model so decision made and this feels like a worthwhile upgrade. We’ve not ran out of boiling water yet. And that’s despite Mrs Wonders having some seriously huge pans/cauldrons.
It’s proving itself amazing and I can really see ourselves very quickly wondering how we managed without it. It’s so far been used for, cups of tea, filling pans, rinsing rice, making pot noodles (shush snobs), sterilizing jam jars. Probably more besides but that’s as much as I can think of right now. It initially felt a bit alarming with a quite lively delivery of boiling water. This appears to have settled down after the first few uses, I wonder if there was air in there somewhere.
Do we need 100° water, would 98° water have been fine for example? Yes, we would probably have been fine with 98°, but I would feel like we had missed out. Also, I have been very pleased with the quality and ease of installation. Thought has been put into it to make sure I didn’t have to keep popping out to B&Q for extra plumbing bits. Plus, spares availability should be guaranteed if needed. Not sure the same could be said about a random brand from eBay for example. So overall, we are very pleased with our shiny new tap from Qettle.
