A water dispenser is also called a boiling water tap. It is a kitchen appliance, which can dispense water at 201 °F (94 °C) that is quite close to the boiling point. A water dispenser boils the water as well as filters it at the same time too.
History of Water Dispenser
The water dispenser was invented in 1970 and at that time people used hot water to prepare tea. At that time itself, most of the people were health conscious and used hot water for drinking purposes.
Types of Water Dispensers
The water dispensers such as boil-on-demand, hot water tank dispensers, and “Thermo Pot” electric kettle hot water dispensers are currently available in market. Let us discuss about these types in detail.
Boil-on-Demand
The Boil-on-demand water dispensers can boil water very quickly, but they boil only small quantity of water. The Boil-on-demand dispenser is divided in to two segments; small and portable. This dispenser consumes very small place in kitchen and it can be transported to any place easily. Since these are in small size, they are cheap and do not consume lot of electricity to keep the water hot. Another benefit is that they can be installed in kitchen very easily.
Hot Water Tank Dispensers
These hot water dispensers are directly plumbed to supply water. Then, water is warmed in an over-counter tank or below-sink. At the sink, one can get hot water via a faucet. To regulate the temperature of water, each hot water tank dispenser has a water filter and inbuilt thermostat. Unlike boil-on-demand dispenser, the hot water tank dispenser provides lot of hot water, but these are not portable.
“Thermo Pot” Electric Kettle Hot Water Dispensers
It is a combination of hot water flask and electric kettle. Heated water is pumped out with a manual push-down pump or a built-in electric pump. They are portable and need not be fixed separately.
Even in case of these water dispensers, there is a thermostat to control the temperature of water. This water dispenser keeps water hot in all times, but it does consume a good deal of electricity unnecessarily. This is the only disadvantage with “Thermo Pot” electric kettle hot water dispensers.
Operation of Water Dispenser
Any water dispenser has a small thermally insulated tank along with a heater that maintains the water inside the tank always at high temperature. Upon pressing the handle, cool water from tap flows into the tank, and replaces the boiling water, and the hot water comes out of the spout. If you stop pressing the button, then valve closes automatically to stop the flow of hot water.
Usually, the cool water is heated up to 201 °F (94 °C); later, this water can be readily used for drinking purpose as and when required. Some tanks are featured with a 750 W heater, which can give up to 60 water cups in a matter of just one hour. Other models are packed with a filtration system to eliminate the poisonous contents, present in water.
Energy Efficiency
The hot water dispenser boils the water as per user’s requirement to a point and it uses little amount of electricity to heat the cold water. It doesn’t take any additional electricity to keep the water hot either.