Are you tired of boiling hot water for tea or coffee and then waiting for it to cool down to the right temperature to drink? And what about that awful feeling of burning your tongue with a sip of hot tea? Spoiler alert: there is a solution to that!
The conventional kettle is giving way to better, faster, and easy-to-use solutions for boiling water. That’s when an instant hot water dispenser comes into play. The number of people preferring this convenient alternative to a conventional kettle has been on an uptick over the past few years.
If you are looking to choose the best instant hot water dispenser, you have landed on the right article. This expert guide will provide an insight into the 7 most popular models available on the market today.
Instant Hot Water Dispenser Buying Guide
An instant hot water dispenser is a long-term investment that will serve you and your family for years to come. Therefore, it is important to find one that has all the right features to effortlessly fit into your kitchen and accommodate your needs. This guide will provide details on the essential points to pay attention to when purchasing one.
What You Need To Know When Buying an Instant Hot Water Dispenser
Modern instant hot water dispensers available on the market look pretty much the same. Most models are comprised of a compact unit to hold the interior tank and a heating element that heats the water at the required temperature.
Hot water dispensers also have a control switch on the exterior that makes it easier to control the temperature and turn on/off the dispenser. And of course, the most important part is the thermostat which is responsible for turning off the heating element when the water reaches the required temperature.
Your instant hot water dispenser will be only as good as its thermostat. That being said, with time and use, even a very good-quality thermostat is likely to fail. Therefore you should be looking for manufacturers that offer free fixes and product replacement in case of damage.
Tank Material
Most modern instant hot water dispensers are made of stainless steel. It is known for durability and lasts significantly longer than rubber bladder tanks. It is common knowledge that inexpensive rubber bladder tanks are most likely to fail on you within the first year of usage, that’s why stainless steel ones are a wiser investment. A good quality model will save you a lot of money and headache in the long run.
The Size and Power of the Tank
Most popular instant hot water dispensers are equipped with water tanks that are capable of holding up to 1/3 or ½ gallons of water. With these models, the power range is somewhere from 500, to 750, and to 1300 watts. For instance, around 60 cups of hot water per hour can be produced by a 750-watt and ½-gallon tank.
If you are looking for a hot water dispenser for commercial spaces, you should consider more powerful tanks that are capable of producing over 100 cups of hot water per hour. If you are looking to install the hot water dispenser at home, the tank size solely depends on your family size and preference.
Faucets – aka Sink-Top Spouts
Most instant hot water dispensers available on the market do not include a faucet. But there are some that do come equipped with a classy faucet. Overall, it depends on your preferences whether you would like to have a separate faucet for hot water.
Now that you have learned what to look for when choosing the right hot water dispenser for your family, it’s time to think about the installation process.
How To Set Up an Instant Hot Water Dispenser?
The installation process requires that your sink should have a hole that can receive the spout of the dispenser. Ideally, you should install a hot water dispenser during the remodeling of the kitchen, so that you buy an appropriate sink for it. But that’s a rare scenario.
So if your sink does not have an extra wall there are still some workarounds. You can detach the sprayer and use its hole, or ask a plumber drill a hole in your sink.
Once that is taken care of, you can follow the steps below.
Insert the dispenser spout in the sink’s hole and tighten it from underneath with the help of a large nut.
Depending on the model, you will need to mount the tank either onto the cabinet wall or under the sink. Once this is done, it’s time to connect the tank to the water supply pipe. This can be done by clamping a saddle valve on the cold-water pipe to tap into the tap water supply. Then the appliance can be connected to this saddle valve with the help of ¼ inches of copper tubing and compression fittings.
The final step is connecting the spout to the tan. The spout should have two plastic tubes (a red one for hot water, and a blue one for cold water) for delivering water from the tank. The connectors of these tubes need to be plugged at the top of the tank.
Kettle vs Hot Water Dispenser
Instant hot water dispensers generally outperform the conventional kettles in multiple aspects. As the name suggests, they provide hot water instantly and you do not have to wait for it to boil.
Even the fastest kettles require 3-4 minutes to boil the water and properly turn off, depending on how much water you have poured into one. The longest time it takes a dispenser to produce hot water is less than a minute.
The next advantage is cost-efficiency. Since hot water dispensers only boil the exact amount of water that you need, they do not reboil the entire supply of the existing water and therefore save energy.
There are some disadvantages to consider, though.
With an instant hot water dispenser, you cannot pour a large quantity of water into a bottle at any one time. If you need to make several cups of tea/coffee for the family, you will need to wait for it to reboil between the pours, which consumes time and energy.
And if you do not give it a chance to cool down properly, the dispenser might overheat and cause issues.
Cups
The standard cup size is considered to be about 300 ml of water. Keep that in mind when trying to determine how many cups of water you can get out of each model before having to refil.
Capacity
The capacity of the tank depends on how much you and your family need to use it during the day. It is better to invest in a bigger capacity model than having to constantly refill the tank.
However, it is good to know that some of the largest capacity dispensers might have a hard time getting to the boiling point when they are too full, thus it might be wise to limit the water quantity.
Temperature Adjustment
If you are a true coffee lover, you know that boiling point wanter can ruin the taste and the quality of the drink.
For example, 96 degrees is considered the perfect temperature for coffee, and boiling it to 100 can be too high. For green tea, it is about 70 degrees.
Instant hot water dispensers will let you control the temperature of your drinks and adjust it to your tastes. And you will not have to worry about burning your tongue and not tasting anything for the rest of the day.