Quooker boiling / drinking water supply connections
Discussion
Im about to buy one of these Quookers for my kitchen. I currently have a water softener and a separate unsoftened drinking water filter cartridge. The water filter cartridge (from Harveys) is currently connected to a 3rd drinking water tap.
I intend to use a What I want to do is take the output from this filter cartridge and use it as a feed to the Quooker boiling water tank and the Quooker cold drinking water supply only. (the hot / cold for the sink will be connected to the softened water supply)
Has anyone sucessfully done this and not used Quookers own filter? Those that are familiar with this system - do you see any issues?
Also quookers prerequisites state that you need a 2bar pressure for hot and cold supply - surely this is only for cold supply or it wouldn't work with anyone that has a gravity hot water supply?
Quooker are currently offering me a 15% discount on the list price for self installation (Im happy with the DIY bit)
I intend to use a What I want to do is take the output from this filter cartridge and use it as a feed to the Quooker boiling water tank and the Quooker cold drinking water supply only. (the hot / cold for the sink will be connected to the softened water supply)
Has anyone sucessfully done this and not used Quookers own filter? Those that are familiar with this system - do you see any issues?
Also quookers prerequisites state that you need a 2bar pressure for hot and cold supply - surely this is only for cold supply or it wouldn't work with anyone that has a gravity hot water supply?
Quooker are currently offering me a 15% discount on the list price for self installation (Im happy with the DIY bit)
We've had our Quooker for 15 years now (so not a 'modern' one).....but having seen the amount of crud inside when we had our plumber descale it, I'd be inclined to run it past the softener if you have one.
That said, I've no idea how 'bad' water would taste through the softener....or indeed how good the modern Quooker softener is!
Interested to hear, as I suspect we ought to be planning to change our one in the next few years next time it needs a service - they are just mini-boilers, & boilers don't run forever (although I have to say it is the single most useful item in the kitchen!)
That said, I've no idea how 'bad' water would taste through the softener....or indeed how good the modern Quooker softener is!
Interested to hear, as I suspect we ought to be planning to change our one in the next few years next time it needs a service - they are just mini-boilers, & boilers don't run forever (although I have to say it is the single most useful item in the kitchen!)
There is no hot feed to the Quooker tank, that just goes to the (Quooker) mixer tap. The tank just takes a cold water feed and then outputs filtered
Quooker offer two filter options, Scale Control R which reduces / stops scale build up in the tank, and a cold water filter which filters the drinking water itself. You can have both. Both have filters that get replaced.
If you don't have them, it may affect the taste and / or amount of other maintenance (e.g. descaling) you need to do. Remember the Quooker tank is basically a kettle that is always heating up water so a hard water feed would likely scale up quite quickly.
Quooker offer two filter options, Scale Control R which reduces / stops scale build up in the tank, and a cold water filter which filters the drinking water itself. You can have both. Both have filters that get replaced.
If you don't have them, it may affect the taste and / or amount of other maintenance (e.g. descaling) you need to do. Remember the Quooker tank is basically a kettle that is always heating up water so a hard water feed would likely scale up quite quickly.
Just to add, we have a water softener but run the Quooker off hard water with a Scale Control R and the cold water filter. We also have the Cube so you get chilled and sparkling water. With 'just' the Quooker you get boiling water and potentially 'filtered' water at room temperature, but not chilled water.
If you just use it for boiling water then I agree, you can run it directly off softened water. If you are going to drink the (cold) water then it depends how much you like or dislike the taste of softened water.
If you just use it for boiling water then I agree, you can run it directly off softened water. If you are going to drink the (cold) water then it depends how much you like or dislike the taste of softened water.
Somebody said:
We had a Quooker with a Scale Control. Ditched the SC and installed a water softener, which now supplies the Quooker. No difference in boiling water taste before and after. Did highlight how much better the softener is compared to the SC.
Due to location, I don't think we would have a convenient place to put a full on water softener here.....so perhaps I can read that as 'Scale Control works well if you just want to soften the Quooker' ?!mikeiow said:
Somebody said:
We had a Quooker with a Scale Control. Ditched the SC and installed a water softener, which now supplies the Quooker. No difference in boiling water taste before and after. Did highlight how much better the softener is compared to the SC.
Due to location, I don't think we would have a convenient place to put a full on water softener here.....so perhaps I can read that as 'Scale Control works well if you just want to soften the Quooker' ?!The Harvey filter I have currently for drinking water is exactly the same as the quooker one but cheaper and replaced more frequently..
So my intention is to feed the boiler and the drinking water part of the tap from the Harvey filter. It has also done a great job of keeping scale out of my kettle so I’m sure it will work fine as long as I can connect it up correctly.
What I can’t see from the manuals is whether the quooker flex tap has 4 separate feeds..?
So my intention is to feed the boiler and the drinking water part of the tap from the Harvey filter. It has also done a great job of keeping scale out of my kettle so I’m sure it will work fine as long as I can connect it up correctly.
What I can’t see from the manuals is whether the quooker flex tap has 4 separate feeds..?
FuzzyLogic said:
The Harvey filter I have currently for drinking water is exactly the same as the quooker one but cheaper and replaced more frequently..
So my intention is to feed the boiler and the drinking water part of the tap from the Harvey filter. It has also done a great job of keeping scale out of my kettle so I’m sure it will work fine as long as I can connect it up correctly.
What I can’t see from the manuals is whether the quooker flex tap has 4 separate feeds..?
Can I ask what you are buying ? tap etc. Flex or Fusion or the stand allows Nordic?So my intention is to feed the boiler and the drinking water part of the tap from the Harvey filter. It has also done a great job of keeping scale out of my kettle so I’m sure it will work fine as long as I can connect it up correctly.
What I can’t see from the manuals is whether the quooker flex tap has 4 separate feeds..?
Quooker taps don't work with gravity hot water, if you have gravity you will need the combi tank.
If you run the Harvey filtered water through the boiler it will scale up in no time.
Quookers own Drinking fitter works for drinking water as a long press on the knob turned on the blue light for filtered water.
You are better off running the Quooker boiler on the softener for best results.
Using the scale control r filters is an expensive way doing it.
If you need any advice let me know, we fit them all the time (link in profile.)
johnoz said:
Can I ask what you are buying ? tap etc. Flex or Fusion or the stand allows Nordic?
Quooker taps don't work with gravity hot water, if you have gravity you will need the combi tank.
If you run the Harvey filtered water through the boiler it will scale up in no time.
I am looking at the Flex but the hot water pressure question is an issue.. I’m not going to buy a combi when I can see some or the competitors will operate on a lower pressure. I will look to see if any of their other taps work on lower pressure but this seems like an significant limitation Quooker taps don't work with gravity hot water, if you have gravity you will need the combi tank.
If you run the Harvey filtered water through the boiler it will scale up in no time.
FuzzyLogic said:
I am looking at the Flex but the hot water pressure question is an issue.. I’m not going to buy a combi when I can see some or the competitors will operate on a lower pressure. I will look to see if any of their other taps work on lower pressure but this seems like an significant limitation
If you use the flex with the pro3 with gravity hot water you will be waiting an age to fill a sink with water (HOT)They are taps designed for high pressure, and like any high pressure tap they don't like low pressure.
FuzzyLogic said:
Agreed thanks. The biggest problem with their combi system from what I can see is that it doesn’t allow me to separate softened hot water from unsoftened boiling. We don’t like the taste of our boiled water softened so it looks like I’m going to be looking at other suppliers.
Think you will struggle to find what you need, as it’s all the same water.As I said running it on just the filtered water you will get scale in the tank.
If you want a boiling tap go for the stand alone Nordic and keep your kitchen as it is that way you can have soft hot and cold, and filtered from your 3rd tap that way you can then fill the tank with your filtered water.
Expect to service the tank yearly to remove the scale.
Should you go down the Scale Control R route to combat the scale, my advice would to use your soft water.
Hope that helps.
Somebody said:
mikeiow said:
Somebody said:
We had a Quooker with a Scale Control. Ditched the SC and installed a water softener, which now supplies the Quooker. No difference in boiling water taste before and after. Did highlight how much better the softener is compared to the SC.
Due to location, I don't think we would have a convenient place to put a full on water softener here.....so perhaps I can read that as 'Scale Control works well if you just want to soften the Quooker' ?!The scale control R is just softener resin and will slowly become exhausted and will stop softening..
We have a similar setup. Very hard water area. Large water softener (not in the kitchen, its in a cupboard near where water enters house) which softens water supply to most house functions. But we also made a hard water bypass line to the sink.
My wife has quite a strong dislike of the softened water taste, but I cant really tell the difference. So, for the Quooker we have the normal hot/cold coming from softened cold and softened hot water. Then for the 'feature' water, we run the hard water cold supply through the Quooker Cold Water Filter, and for the boiling water feature, the hard water supply runs through the Scale Control R before it hits the Quooker boiler tank.
A month or so ago, we moved to the new Scale Control R, whereas we used to have the old Scale Control Plus. They are very different approaches to removing scale. The R is in effect just another water softener. So I had considered avoiding buying the R and simply running our already-softened cold supply into the Quooker boiler. However, that would incur the wrath of the missus.
So I asked Quooker what's special about their water softener compared to my household one, and they said:
"In the Scale Control cartridge there’s a SAC-sodium exchange resin and this also removes the total hardness. The great benefit of this resin is that it has no effect on the pH value. It remains as it is. Some believe that sodium gives a salty taste to the water, but this is not likely. Few can taste the difference when 200 mg/l Na+ is solved in the water. With the Scale Control the water never reaches this value. It will add around 90 mg/l Na+ to the water. In a cup of tea will be 22,5 mg added. For comparison; in a brown bread roll there’s 310 mg Na+ used. People on a salt free diet, should watch their salt intake of course. The effect of the softened water from the Scale Control won’t be one of big importance."
So there is a difference between the Quooker R softener and your household softener. So far, the missus has not complained on the taste, so it does have an effect. Again, no difference for me, but everyone has their own differing reactions to taste I guess.
My wife has quite a strong dislike of the softened water taste, but I cant really tell the difference. So, for the Quooker we have the normal hot/cold coming from softened cold and softened hot water. Then for the 'feature' water, we run the hard water cold supply through the Quooker Cold Water Filter, and for the boiling water feature, the hard water supply runs through the Scale Control R before it hits the Quooker boiler tank.
A month or so ago, we moved to the new Scale Control R, whereas we used to have the old Scale Control Plus. They are very different approaches to removing scale. The R is in effect just another water softener. So I had considered avoiding buying the R and simply running our already-softened cold supply into the Quooker boiler. However, that would incur the wrath of the missus.
So I asked Quooker what's special about their water softener compared to my household one, and they said:
"In the Scale Control cartridge there’s a SAC-sodium exchange resin and this also removes the total hardness. The great benefit of this resin is that it has no effect on the pH value. It remains as it is. Some believe that sodium gives a salty taste to the water, but this is not likely. Few can taste the difference when 200 mg/l Na+ is solved in the water. With the Scale Control the water never reaches this value. It will add around 90 mg/l Na+ to the water. In a cup of tea will be 22,5 mg added. For comparison; in a brown bread roll there’s 310 mg Na+ used. People on a salt free diet, should watch their salt intake of course. The effect of the softened water from the Scale Control won’t be one of big importance."
So there is a difference between the Quooker R softener and your household softener. So far, the missus has not complained on the taste, so it does have an effect. Again, no difference for me, but everyone has their own differing reactions to taste I guess.
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