The difference between a Hot water cooler and a boiler.

So you’re on the market looking for a machine to make hot drinks for your office or home office and you have seen that there are water coolers with hot and cold water and also water boilers. So, what is the difference, can both of these provide the same amount of hot water. You might also be thinking why is a hot and cold-water cooler only £300/400 and a water boiler is £500+. In short a hot and cold cooler can only supply the occasional cup of hot water and not one cup after the other over a short space of time.

Here is the difference between these.

A hot and cold-water cooler for a start only heats the water to 90 degrees, were a boiler will heat the water to 100 degrees, and that’s only the start.
When the water cooler provides let’s say a 200ml/400ml cup the 90 degrees hot water that’s sitting in its tank, it immediately takes in 200ml/400ml of cold water to top up the tank. This in turn reduces the overall temp of the water in the boiler ready to be dispensed to the next person. When the second person takes a cup of hot water, the same thing happens again and more cold water tops up the tank again. After two or 3 cups there is no longer water at a hot enough temperature for making a hot drink, and the machine would need about 10 minutes to heat the water up before any further warm drinks are dispensed.
So this is not an ideal type of machine to buy if you have a number of people needing water around the same time. It’s also worth noting that the hot water coolers only have a 450w heater internally as opposed to the 2000/3000w heating element that is in a proper water boiler. This means that the hot cooler will take a lot longer to heat the water back up to the 90 deg.

On the other hand, now let’s look at a water boiler. It heats the water to 100 degrees, but also has a much larger storage tank. This means firstly that there is a lot more hot water to draw off at one time. And the issue with the water cooler replacing 400ml taken from the tap with 400ml cold water replacing it, does not happen in the dedicated boilers.
The boilers only allow a trickle of water in at a time, meaning that the water temperature is not noticeably reduced each time someone takes a cup of hot water. And also, the water boiler has a 2000/3000w heater which will rapidly heat the water back up.

So the outcome of this information is to point out that a hot and cold water cooler is suitable for a location where there are few people needing hot water and also not more than one or two cups are needed at any time. The water boiler however can be used in an area where many people need hot water all around the same time.
It is recommended only to use a hot and cold-water cooler to provide hot water if is in a very low demand area, and to use a water boiler in an area which would need more than 3 or 4 cups of hot water dispensed in a short space of time.
I hope this helps you understand what the difference is and helps you choose the correct type of machine for your location.