Zojirushi, or similar electric water dispensers

I’ve heard lots of positive things about the Breville maker too, but that is way out of my price range. :(

I just bought the Breville so I have a higher end Zoji hot water heater for sale (only used less than a dozen times) if you are interested??

Oh sorry Kathryn Ann, I thought you were looking for ideas for your Christmas wishlist. I’m sorry for misunderstanding you. If that’s beyond their budget too, could you tell everyone that’s what you want then ask for money toward it?

if i was going to ask it as a gift the most i’d ask for as a limit would be like $150 even though i could ask for more i just don’t feel like it’s worth that amount of money. ideally i was looking at the smaller zojis that are about 2~3 liters priced at around $100~120. but none of the ones i was looking at seemed to be able to keep the water warm at a specific temperature. they only had around 3 or 4 keep warm options.

Then I would go the route of saying what you’d like money toward. It pretty much does everythng but sing and dance so I think it’s worth a higher price point than something that has less features.

hahah! probably true, but i’d also like to be able to use the hot water for stuff other than tea (such as oatmeal or instant ramen), making the breville not my first choice. Also, i love how zojis dispense water without having to pour anything. Buying a zoji would be a huge step for me, going to stovetop kettle/microwaving water to fancy heating equipment hahah.

Why isn’t the Breville your 1st choice based on that reason? You don’t have to put tea in it.

which one specifically do you have, if you don’t mind me asking. :) can you set it to heat up to specific temperatures?

hmm those are actually the two models i’ve been eyeing. hahah! (well the lcc-30 and the wbc30) the wbc has 4 settings…. hmm thanks!! :)

oh but i was wondering, even though it sets to stay warm at those temperatures, can it be set to heat up the water to a specific temperature? or does it have to be one of the presets?

It has to be a preset.

This one is good, but not as customizable as the Automatic Tea Maker (or Automatic Water Heater as you may want to call it when you aren’t making tea lol).

That’s the Breville I have. I like the added number of temperature settings available and the thing is built like a tank.

While we prepare our whites different, I definitely understand your feelings. Even the Breville Automatic Tea Maker won’t meet my white tea needs since I like mine at 140. (As well as my guyokuro)

I am not a huge fan of nonstick coatings, but do keep in mind that:

The device will always have water in it when it’s on The temperatures the device will reach are way below the temperature at which PFOA / PTFE causes problems. At these temperatures, I don’t think you would see leaching or flaking from the nonstick surface. Used properly, there will never be abrasive stuff coming in contact with the nonstick surface. The coating does somewhat help the problem of scale buildup, which is why these devices usually have a coating. Modern nonstick coatings are fairly safe (to the end user) and durable. However, they are not great for the environment or for workers at the plants that make them.

Most of the hot water pot style dispensers that I know about (Tiger, Zojirushi, Sanyo) have a non-stick coating on most (all?) models. Most standard electric kettles have a mostly stainless, glass, or plastic interior.

I use stovetop kettles (glass and stoneware), electric kettles, and a Zojirushi brand air pot. With the Zoji, I don’t notice anything unusual about the taste from having contact with the nonstick surface of the pot, or from the plastic tubing etc. For serious tea making, I don’t like it because you’re less able to control the pour, and, while I’m not a fan of tea kettles with exact temperature control, I do like to be able to manipulate the temperature by letting the water rest.

We use the Zoji mostly for:

Casual drinking of plain hot water Brewing tisanes and other hot beverages (occasionally coffee) Lazy brewing of tea Rinsing out teaware Other random uses, like soaking dried mushrooms in warm water

Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks.

My goal is to switch from making one big cup of tea in the morning to making multiple smaller infusions, so I can use less tea and get to enjoy all of the flavors. I feel wasteful brewing a good oolong once and tossing it. The problem is keeping the water hot, and not having to reboil constantly. Any advice there? Do you know of an awesome thermos that would keep water at brewing temperature for an hour or two?

Definitely – and getting even smaller pots or gaiwans will help do this in a manageable way, because you can pack the infusions into a shorter period of time.

Personally, I find that a good electric kettle (immersion heating element or induction) will reboil pretty quickly, like within a few minutes, or quicker if the water is already hot, so if you don’t need hot water throughout the day, I would be tempted to say just use a standard electric kettle. That’s what I do at work, where I’m usually drinking tea lazily through the morning.