Quooker power usage

A few weeks ago, after far too many hours flat on my back under the kitchen sink, I plumbed in my new Quooker tap successfully.

But why?

There are, of course, those who will immediately say “£1200 for a tap”?

And, despite the marketing, let’s not pretend this is about saving money.

My excuse was that I don’t have a lot of counter space in my kitchen, so being able to ditch the kettle helps with that.

But let’s be honest, it’s aspirational. Making a cup of tea in the morning without having to wait for the kettle to boil? That’s how you know you’ve made it.

And, I should add, I found mine on eBay for a decent percentage off the full price. Throw in selling my old kitchen tap the same way (taps are expensive!) and the whole enterprise was under a grand.

So how much does it cost to run?

I left the plug-in power meter in place for 39 days, and measured 13.51 kwh.

That translates to 0.34 kwh per day, or about 9p at my current rates.

Measuring the old kettle, I recorded 0.07 kwh to boil three cups of water. Did I do that 4.85 times per day on average? Probably more like twice. So the new regime is more expensive, but not horribly so.

So should I get one?

For aspirational reasons, or space saving reasons, sure.

To save money? Not so much.

I personally dislike the way the “dispense boiling water” function can be locked in the “on” position (like a tap, sure) - I’d rather it was a “dead man’s switch” arrangement. But you soon get used to it, and the trick of operating the thing means visitors won’t hurt themselves, they’ll just be confused if they’re trying to make tea and you haven’t shown them how.