Tefal Quickcup 'hot water in 3 seconds'

copacetic

Anyone have one of these? They are €90 in argos.

http://www.quickcup.co.uk/

It sounds great, depending on how hot the water gets. Not sure
it will be hot enough for tea? Doesn't seem to actually boil the water
just pass it through a coil. Sounds perfect for instant coffee though but
I'm a tea man when making it myself.

3 secs to get 'hot' water is the claim.

Mr Magnolia

copacetic wrote:

Anyone have one of these? They are €90 in argos.

http://www.quickcup.co.uk/

It sounds great, depending on how hot the water gets. Not sure
it will be hot enough for tea? Doesn't seem to actually boil the water
just pass it through a coil. Sounds perfect for instant coffee though but
I'm a tea man when making it myself.

3 secs to get 'hot' water is the claim.

It looks funky.

I'd imagine it is hot enough for tea and instant coffee. I drink my tea black so it is probably perfect for that. It would also be very energy efficient, and hot water in 3 seconds :eek:

You considering a purchase?

copacetic

yeah, have looked at all the reviews now online and it seems it is ok for coffee but not really hot enough for tea with milk. At least according to the reviews. I do like very hot tea as well at making it without boiling water wouldn't give the same flavour either I suppose.

They also say the water starts coming out in 3 secs but takes 20 or so to get a cupful.

As you say very energy effiecent though and I am forever boiling water that isn't used..

ruprect

You can bring 10L of tap water to around 95-100C using 1kW in 1hour. A normal household socket will handle 3kW max in Ireland, so you could get 30L of water in 60mins, 0.5L per min. So in 20seconds you can expect 167ml of hot water. Quoted "cups" are usually 180ml in Ireland/UK.

Looks like it will not be boiling and water should be absolutely boiling for tea. It looks a good idea for instant coffee or brewing coffee. The quick heating to below boiling will mean the water is still pretty fresh and aerated- relative to overboiled kettle water.

Some flat based kettles allow for a single cup, or you can use a microwave for small amounts.

Gran Hermano

ruprect wrote:

It looks a good idea for instant coffee or brewing coffee.

Instant coffee is never a good idea

For using with a French-press it might be useful, depending on how quickly it
can produce enough hot water for a 6 cup press.

ruprect

Gran Hermano wrote:

For using with a French-press it might be useful, depending on how quickly it
can produce enough hot water for a 6 cup press.

It is a 2.8kW element, and I expect that is UK so it is slightly lower here again- 2.6kW.

You can get 3kW kettles here, so if you are boiling water for 6cups it is going to be past the elements, so it will be faster to use a regular 3kW kettle, about 15% faster.

They have yet to find a way to alter the specific heat capacity of water , but reading some of the marketing tales/lies you would swear they did indeed change the laws of thermodynamics.

Mr Magnolia

Did you decide to make a purchase copacetic? I may have to purchase a second kettle soon myself.

copacetic

no, I had a good look online and the popular reviews were all that it was quick but the water wasn't hot enough for tea drinkers and you would end up having to microwave your cup of tea to get it hot enough.

I'm sure we will see various other versions soon which may be better..

Mr Magnolia

Sound. That's that all but ruled out so.

Thanks.

r3nu4l

I knew there would be a thread about this here As I'm a rabid tea-drinker I won't be getting one either. Pity thery're not a bit better.

Mr Magnolia

It'll probably improve given time and design developments.

copacetic

yeah, i'd be well up for one if they worked well. I notice they have TV ads for them now, maybe we will get a first hand review soon which may shed more light on them

mjslooks

Hi all, this is my first time on this board, I found it because I was searching for a place to buy filters for my quickcup, as the shop that sold it to me does not have them yet...
Anyway, you are right in saying it does not quite get hot enough for tea, but what I have discovered is, fill the cup you are going to use, let it get a bit warm, and then pour contents back into the full water container, this brings up the ambient water temp just enough, that combined with the hot cup, you can make a reasonable cup of tea. The quickcup works well for instant coffee, and surprisingly well if you use a plunger type coffee pot with filter coffee. I drink a lot of mint tea, and it really makes a nice cup of that... The only problem I have had so far is getting replacement filters.
Now before you rush to point out that the time taken to heat a cup, and pour it back in, is probably as long as a conventional kettle takes to do the job... I know, although I reckon it would still beat the conventional kettle...

Though you can also get filtered water out at ambient temperature, if you have just used hot, then you have to discard a bit of the first cup, or it is lukewarm...

To sum up, I suppose it is a compromise.
But hey it nearly does the job, and it looks kinda cool in the kitchen...
so it really is a case of solving a problem that doesn't really exist, with a solution that doesn't really work...:)

Mr Magnolia

It's a great unit to impress the visitors with alright. Pity it's not just up to the job entirely. Remember that water that is boiled twice can drive off the dissolved oxygen, making the tea taste flat. If you're happy enough, don't let me stop you

mjslooks wrote: »

so it really is a case of solving a problem that doesn't really exist, with a solution that doesn't really work...:)

LOL

ruprect

mjslooks wrote: »

Anyway, you are right in saying it does not quite get hot enough for tea, but what I have discovered is, fill the cup you are going to use, let it get a bit warm, and then pour contents back into the full water container,

Be careful of that, the container could well warm if heated too much. Most plastics will deform at 80C+.

The only use I see for this is making instant coffee, or getting water to a good temp for filter coffee in a press. It is not boiling but might be just right for coffee which should not be boiling. Also since it doesnt boil less oxygen will be given off.

You can get boilers that really do give instant boiling water, but you want huge power to get a decent output. Some are 35kW.

mjslooks

ruprect wrote: »

Be careful of that, the container could well warm if heated too much. Most plastics will deform at 80C+.

I agree, but it really only needs an extra couple of degrees above the temp of the cold water tap, the tank is a removable separate unit, and will hold about six cupfulls of water, so adding one hot cup fill means you can barely feel the difference, I think the most gain is had from the heat put in the cup...

copacetic

just a note that i saw these in tesco for 70 today.

cosgrove80

Just thought I'd add my 2 cents to the thread.

We've been using the Quickcup for a few weeks now in our house and yesterday the kettle got plugged back in. As people have said the water isn't hot enough for tea.

I drink green/white tea quite a bit so it's bearable but once you add milk to the equation it's far too cold.
I don't drink coffee so can comment but the others in the house think it's too cold for a regular coffee too. I know coffee isn't meant to be made with boiling water but this time of year you want a cup of lava that you can hold and wait to cool down. If you are making filtered coffee, with the speed the water come out you'll be waiting a while too.

The machine is quite noisy too, annoyingly so in my opinion. The filters, whilst not technically essential also add to the cost.

Although it may improve with future incarnations I'd advise people to give it a miss.

You could buy 7 decent kettles for the same price.

I know this is very negative but my opinion was "it's grand" at first, to a few weeks later where it's simply pissing me off

r3nu4l

That's a good review cosgrove80! Clear and to the point. Thanks

Nevyn

Well it does says 'hot water' not boiled water...

r3nu4l

Thaedydal wrote: »

Well it does says 'hot water' not boiled water...

It does indeed but unfortunately many people seem to equate the two these days so a review spelling out that fact does no harm at all imo. Also the fact that it is obtrusively noisy is interesting. Cosgrove are we talking louder than a boiling kettle here?

cosgrove80

r3nu4l wrote: »

It does indeed but unfortunately many people seem to equate the two these days so a review spelling out that fact does no harm at all imo. Also the fact that it is obtrusively noisy is interesting. Cosgrove are we talking louder than a boiling kettle here?

Fair point about the hot/boiling water. We were using it as a "kettle replacement" so I suppose my opinions should be viewed with that in mind.

With regards the noise I suppose it's not that bad (get cranky without my tea fix ). I guess it about the same as a milk steamer or espresso maker. It coughs and splutters a bit and the motor is quite noisey.

Here's a youtube video I found which is accurate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAQXBQGkZ5c

10-10-20

I'm delghted to say, I managed to get near-to boiling water out of my quick cup at last.
Shameless link: http://10-10-20.blogspot.com/2010/01/tefal-quick-cup-modification.html

Mr Magnolia

10-10-20 wrote: »

I'm delghted to say, I managed to get near-to boiling water out of my quick cup at last.
Shameless link: http://10-10-20.blogspot.com/2010/01/tefal-quick-cup-modification.html

Bumping a 2 year old thread to pimp a blog....tsk,tsk.

copacetic

10-10-20 wrote: »

I'm delghted to say, I managed to get near-to boiling water out of my quick cup at last.
Shameless link: http://10-10-20.blogspot.com/2010/01/tefal-quick-cup-modification.html

weird blog, giving detailed instructions but not providing pics as 'people need to know what they are doing".

Doesn't make any sense at all, either give proper instructions or don't give them at all. If anything the middle ground is the more dangerous of the two for someone who doesn't really know what they are doing but tries anyway without pictures to go by.