Staying Cool with A Hot Tap
Which kitchen hot-tap really nails chilled and sparkling water for British homes?
Picture this: it’s Saturday morning, the doorbell rings, and your friends stride in clutching reusable water bottles ready for a relaxed walk in the park.
With one twist of the Quooker Fusion, you’re filling them with water that’s fridge-cold and lively with bubbles; five minutes later, the same tap is topping a saucepan with boiling-hot water for cooking lunchtime pasta.
The age of the “boiling-water tap” has matured into something subtler: a single fitting that can replace the kettle and the fridge jug, cutting plastic and clutter in the process.
WhICH Works Best For You in 2025?
Hobson’s Choice have long paired their Quooker hot-tap installs with Quooker’s CUBE chiller tank.
To see whether that still makes sense for domestic kitchens in 2025, we lined it up against three UK-available rivals:
Simple StatISTICS
*Stand-by figures are manufacturer data with no water drawn.
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If you are thinking about a new kitchen renovation, it is always advisable to have a conversation with an expert. Their knowledge, expertise and experience can open up new possibilities whilst potentially saving you money, stress and time.
To help you get started, we have put together this guide to help you think about what you want from the new space. This document highlights some of the obstacles you may encounter and the questions you may like to ask designers when you venture out into the world of kitchen design showrooms.
Why a cold-water hot-tap makes life easier
The breakfast run
A CUBE-equipped Quooker fills a 500 ml school sports bottle in 12 seconds at roughly 6 °C, icy enough that fruit cordial stays sharp and children stop hunting the fridge for juices. Empty the 2-litre reserve, and the compressor needs half an hour to get back to spec; most households never notice.
The mid-morning Zoom
Remote workers often reach for a mug instead of a glass – hydration slips. A chilled tap puts a frosty tumbler one gesture away, and filters out the chlorine taste that can plague older UK plumbing.
In a small office, Zip wins on throughput, capable of 75 litres an hour without losing its chill. At home, Quooker and Qettle prioritise silence over sheer cooling muscle, which suits an ad-hoc work-from-home day, especially when the kitchen sink is less than a few metres from your temporary dining table office desk.
Aperitivo hour
Carbonated water is where the CUBE pulls clear for families: the 425g gas bottle yields 60 litres of fizz at roughly 29p per litre, cheaper than flavoured cans and far lighter on recycling. Zip’s beefier 1 kg cylinders stretch to 150 litres but cost more to swap; still, they’re gold for the keen spritz-maker.
CO2 Cylinder details: quooker.co.uk / Zip.co.uk
Walk up to a Quooker Fusion and everything feels geared to the home cook: the pull-twist safety collar for boiling mode, the insulated spout that never scorches small hands, and now, courtesy of the CUBE, a softly illuminated display screen that shows how much chilled and sparkling water is left.
At 5W in standby mode, the CUBE and boiling tank together sip less energy than a Wi-Fi router, saving an estimated 70kg CO₂e a year versus buying bottled water and running a separate kettle.
Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (CO2e) is the unit of measurement for the warming effect of greenhouse gases.
Where the alternatives shine
Zip HydroTap Celsius Plus – If your weekends mean the entire junior-football squad come back for lunch, the G5’s ice-bank cooler keeps pouring 5 °C water long after other units pause to recover.
The sparkling setting has bar-style bite, and the colour touchscreen can be timed to sleep when you’re away on holiday. It does, however, need a full 500mm cupboard and a vent grille to stay cool.
Qettle + Chiller – A neat retrofit if budget or cabinet depth rule out a complete new system. The chiller slips into the corner of a 600mm unit, and delivers a crisp 4 °C first glass and costs less than half the price of Quooker or Zip upfront.
Perfect for keeping filtered water handy for gym bottles; however, sparkling water fans will still need a separate SodaStream to get ‘busy with the fizzy’.
Abode ProBoil 4E – For households who only need boiling and filtered ambient water, Abode offers the quietest boiler here and a generous 4-litre capacity (around 100 cups an hour).
Pair it with a stand-alone fridge jug or an add-on chiller of your choice when space allows.
Every day Considerations (no drama, just planning)
Space & ventilation – All chillers need airflow. Quooker’s cylindrical tank takes up less footprint but runs warmer; Zip and Qettle insist on a few drilled vents in the plinth or cabinet back to operate smoothly.
Filter reminders – Each brand builds a countdown into its electronics; ignoring it risks scale build-up that can dull the flavour and decrease the system's performance over time. Setting a secondary six-month phone reminder can help ensure regular maintenance isn’t missed.
Cylinder logistics – Both Quooker and Zip supply a prepaid returns box for carbonated cylinder empties. Keep a spare charged bottle so the sparkle never stops mid-birthday toast.
So, which tap earns pride of place?
For most UK homes, the Quooker Fusion or Flex teamed with the CUBE remains the sweetest spot: child-safe boiling, genuinely fridge-cold still water, sparkling on demand, and the lowest day-to-day energy draw. It’s the appliance that quietly replaces three others – kettle, filter jug and soda maker – and rewards the switch with cupboard space, calmer mornings and a lighter recycling bin.
Upgrade paths certainly exist: Zip for volume, Qettle for value, Abode for simplicity. Yet the Quooker package feels closest to what kitchen design is really about in 2025: making the everyday ritual – brew, bottle, cheers – feel effortless, efficient and just a little indulgent.