Addis Thermo Pot Instant Thermal Hot Water Boiler Dispenser, 5 Litre, Stainless Steel/Black

PROS:1) Hot water virtually on tap2) Energy efficiency3) Large capacity4) Quality build5) Ease of use6) No large emission of steam when it boils.CONS:1) Forgetting to fill means you have to wait 40-50mins for a "cuppa"2) Forces you into regular cleaning (by guilt rather than by design)3) Large (as expected) space requiredI was originally looking at a one cup kettle/dispenser which seemed like the answer to my energy efficiency and time efficiency requirements. However, when you realise that a lot of the one shot/cup kettles run on 2 to 3kWh you realise what a lot of energy that is to boil one cup. (Yes, I realise that's the energy per hour, before anyone comments!) This Addis Thermo Pot uses only 680W to boil 5 litres of water and 2W per hour to keep it warm. Thus it's significantl;y more energy efficient. Against a traditional kettle it is more expensive (dependent on kettle) however, against a one cup kettle/dispenser it's fractionally more expensive.I get up at stupid o'clock to commute to London and I often take a flask of coffee. Before this thermo pot I would have to go downstairs and boil it, and after ablutions, have to reboil and make the coffee. Of course at 0400hrs in the morning all noises are amplified, so even though we have a stone cottage, a click of the kettle switch and the boiling of it often sound like the World's coming to an end. The Thermo Pot means that I only make one trip downstairs and the coffee is made in a much quieter and efficient way.I have 4 older kids who turn up with boyfriends/girlfriends and by the time we have my mum and others we can easily have 12 or 13 people wanting a hot drink. That means we need around 4 - 4.5 litres of boiling water. That would mean boiling a normal kettle (1.7L) 3 times to serve everyone at the same time. Since we got this, we all sit round the kitchen table with our drinks at the same time.....brilliant!So what are the downsides? If you don't have a lot of space or sufficient kitchen surface area this is rather large, though the footprint is not much more than a normal kettle. It is however, considerably taller, though it probably will fit beneath a cupboard (I've not tried). The next problem is that if you forget to fill it, and I do try to remember to fill up before I go to bed, it can take between 40-50mins for it to boil. Then the other problem is that you are guilt tripped into cleaning it around once a month. This is time consuming and puts your Thermo Pot out of action for around 2hours. It involves adding citric acid to cold water and boiling it in the Thermo Pot, then running the whole pot empty. Then you have to refill and reboil and empty half of the water to flush the remains of any citric acid. By the time you've topped up the 50% you've spent 2 hours of your life cleaning. If you let it fur up, the efficiency will be reduced and there's potential for the dispensing spout to clog up. Having mentioned dispensing, there's two ways to do this. One, is using an electronically locked button (just requires press of an unlock button). The other way is to push down a manual "plunger" like in normal pump pots (the type you get at workshops, meetings etc). The rate of flow seems "psychologically" faster with the manual pump, but I don't think it is.Other things to note are that this is relatively safe. God forbid a child should pull this over, I wager, that the potential damage is potentially less than if a child pulled a boiling kettle over (please make sure you use common sense!) since there is no opening permanently open. Filling/refilling is accomplished by lifting a well secured lid and adding water via a jug. I have an IKEA fridge jug that requires 3 fillings to fill the pot. This also weighs over 5kg when full (1litre of water = 1kg) so it's not something to attempt to carry around from room to room, though it does have a handle. Lastly, you cannot evacuate the pot completely since it works on vacuum pressure. When you're cleaning this, the last remnants of water need to be tipped out since you can't use either the push pump or the electric dispenser for the last 200mls. That means carrying it to the sink and inverting it which is not an easy feat to keep the lid open, the handle out of the way, and to make sure you don't scald yourself. For this reason, if you are an elderly person or couple, who have no additional regular help, I would not recommend this product to you. However, if you are able bodied, have a lot of friends or family, or just like the idea of having plenty of boiling hot water on tap, this is for you. BUY IT!! It's Dottore Approved!

Item purchased (5L version) from Amazon and was delivered a few days later. No information was received for dispatch or delivery but ended up on the doorstep a few days after ordering. Luckily no tea leaf had decided to re-home the item before I got it. Not good.Unpacking the item I did notice the underside rotating base was flawed as per another review but it stood flat on the work surface OK. Following the usual initial flush through it was time for tea.I've been using a water dispenser (since now gone to calculator heaven as it developed a leak after 5 years) my brew was great, I must have got used to the taste of my old dispenser but this one is so much better. Water is heated to a little under boiling point and is good for tea for my taste.Working from home during the COVID-19 lock down I drink a lot of tea during my many Zoom meetings and this thing works a treat so far. No waiting for my old dispenser to nearly boil, I can just pour the water into the mug onto the teabag and in 5 minutes I have a fine brew of Earl Grey.I've been monitoring scale build up and after a week it's pretty nominal. I did purchase a tub of citric acid power to clean it. I tried out the citric acid powder on my old faithful reserve kettle (when my old dispenser died) and it worked really well so I have few doubts as to it's suitability on this itemIn summary after a weeks use, operation is easy (drop the temperature before refilling for an hour) dispensing hot water without waiting for a mug boil and for me a much more natural tasting tea taste I must have forgotten.One odd thing is that the water level indicator looks like it's calibrated for a smaller capacity as when the item is filled to the max level in the boiler you can dispense a few mugs worth before you see a drop in the water level indicator. Having said that the indicator is very easy to read to give an indication of what is left in the tank.Conclusion, so far very pleased, I will update this review if needed in the future but so far so good.

They customer originally purchased this item as at they time he was struggling with using they ordinary kettle he had previously so standing and waiting around for they kettle and he also believed it would overall be more economical so believed it would show up as been cheaper on his utility bill to use it does take more than 15 minute to get fully boiled but will keep to it temperature when fully boiled.They customer originally was going to us this product himself when they instant kettle is filled with water and fully boiled for him by a different person it would just be a case of filling up they cup but they customer would do that.When in fact a different person would need to fill up they instant kettle with a plastic jug and get it set and boiled for him and also they different person would also fill up his cup with boiling water and make his drink for him.