Instant Hot Water Dispensers are more than meets the eye!
When you see a kitchen sink with an instant hot water dispenser installed, you may react with the thought that you would not use it. Maybe you don’t enjoy hot tea or hot instant beverages like coffee or hot chocolate. Maybe there is more to these devices than that!
Instant hot water for practical energy saving food and beverage preparation.
Installed below the counter top is a time saver you will be happy you discovered. Certainly you can prepare hot beverages much faster than with a stove or microwave, but there are other uses. If you need to boil water for preparing pasta, for instance. Dispensing water pre-heated to around 190 degrees Fahrenheit, the time to bring this water to boil is greatly reduced. Time saved!
Is this water safe to drink?
This hot water is designed to use in beverages and food. It is different from hot water from your household water heater in two ways. First, it is hotter than what comes from your water heater (to prevent scalding household water heaters are set for 120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit). Second, because there is a longer distance from the household water heater to your cup, there is more tendency for the hot water to contain more dissolved minerals and contaminants from the “delivery system” (the pipes and fixtures) including lead. The presence of lead in plumbing fixtures and piping is reduced in newer construction, but is not often completely eliminated. The higher temperature of heated water will carry more contaminants than normal temperature water, the same way your sugar dissolves faster in hot beverages than cold beverages. An article from the January 29th, 2008 New York Times stated flatly “Hot water from the tap should never be used for cooking or drinking.” Instant hot water dispensers are designed with safe materials in the heating and delivery system, it is safe for us to drink.
Energy Efficient?
According to columnist James Dully, noted author whose “earth friendly” and “sensible” columns appear in 400 newspapers and 35 magazines: “Using hot water from the kitchen faucet is very wasteful of both water and energy.” He explains that this is due to having to run the hot water faucet to clear the water in the pipes, which is not “hot”, and allow the hot water from the tank to travel through the pipes to your faucet. In the end that heated water, and the cost to heat it, is wasted. Further, the hot water that is in the pipes (when you have the hot water you need) will have to cool by warming the air around the pipes. Your cooling system will have to remove that heat from the air! You paid to heat it, and then pay to cool it! Because the dispenser is a small electric water heater right beneath the dispenser faucet there is virtually no waste of heat and no wasted water! The amount of heated water these dispensers hold generally ranges from one half to two-thirds of a gallon. That’s enough for most drinking and cooking “hot water” needs in most kitchens.
Instant Hot Water sounds good. Will it work in my kitchen?
If you are not sure whether you can install an instant hot water dispenser in your kitchen or not, call Paradise Service Technologies. We can help! We can talk to you about the sink you have and the other considerations for adding this dispenser to your kitchen. Perhaps you are remodeling your kitchen and want to include this item in the remodel. We can help you choose the right combination to fit your needs. If you know or already have the model you want, we can install that as well. Call us or use our form on this page to get started!
