Morphy Richards Hot Water Dispenser 131004 Redefine Black, 3 Litre

We bought this after our second filter kettle failed after only 18mths. We nearly sent this dispenser back after only a few days but decided to persevere for a bit longer and have had it 9 months now so thought it was time to review it.Right, bad points first and you will have seen a couple of themes running through other reviews so there are common issues.So, unpacked unit, read instructions ( I had read all the reviews so wanted to ensure I had done everything " correctly")Instructions say boil and dispense the max amount several times before using for drinks. I boiled and dispensed 9 litres of water then tried the next cup ful, it tasted disgusting, just like TCP which seems a common complaint. One reviewer said they had solved this by putting lemon juice in tank and running machine so I got a couple of bottles of lemon juice (250ml?) And put whole bottle into tank and topped up with water. I then set to machine to dispense 1.5l and boiled it, and left water in boiler for a 10 minutes before dispensing. I did this 4 times ( 2 x 1.5l from a thankful of water/ lemon juice) twice.After this I ran clear water through machine a couple of times to get rid of lemon juice and the TCP taste was gone!!.It seems that the material used to make the seals between the element and the body in many kettles reacts with chlorine in our tap water and forms a chemical similar to tcp.So the main criticism of this unit now seemed ok although a lot of messing about to get there.The next rather irritating characteristic of this machine is that when dispensing into 2 cups the right hand nozzle always dispenses a bit more than the left so when filling a couple of mugs, set volume to 480ml and the left mug will have about 8 teaspoons less water in it, most of the time.A lot of folk complain about water splashing all over the place. Its inevitable that if you use shallow cups there will be some splashing as the dispense nozzle is fairly high up but if, like us, you normally use mugs the odd little splash is not a deal breaker.Another thing that I will list as negative although it's not actually a fault is the colour. Its described as a stainless steel front but the metal is more a golden colour which doesnt match the other stainless steel appliances beside it.The last little whinge is about the water capacity. You fill the top of the tank then the water gradually filters through to the bottom, if you want to stand around for several minutes you can then refill the upper tank again then as you use water more filters through and you can use about 2.5l before refilling The 3 litre claimed capacity is not all useable as the machine stops when tank gets down to the last 1/2 litre or so.So what's good about this machine?I like the ability to specify exactly how much water to heat, ordinary mugs 240ml, bigger mugs 260ml, thermos 440ml.If you want to make quite a few drinks at the same time you can heat, let's say 1.5litres then dispense it into 6 mugs using the dispense button to start and stop the flowHeating just the amount of water you need is quicker and more energy efficient than heating a kettle full each time.You can set it to boil water or select lower temps for different beverages. Some reviewers have noted that the water is never really boiling, I have checked the water stream temp as it exits the nozzle and it does heat water to boiling but then the water goes through the nozzle and gently streams into a cold cup several centimetres below so it's off boil by the time your cups full.For anyone who has a problem carrying a hot kettle and pouring hot liquids safely this machine solves that problem as you just put your cup or jug under the spout and press go.An unsighted person might struggle with this model because the the liquid volume is selected by the rotary control with a digital display, as you turn it there is an electronic click for each increment but I have found that after a few months use the control "jumps" increments but still just gives 1 click so it should go 240, 260, 280, 300 with a click for each but sometimes it will go 240,280,340 with I click each so its essential you can see what it's doing.We pull out the tank slightly and fill it with a jug which is less unwieldy than taking the tank to the sink.Overall this device works ok, its economical on power as it just heats what you need, when making a drink you can just put your cups in place, press go and do something else while it makes your drink.Would I buy one again?, at the time of purchase there wasnt really anything better out there with similar features but design and quality control could be improved so I would look carefully at any competitors machines before deciding now.

Got this yesterday. We have always been one cup house hold for a few years but we always found we was missing enough hitwater to rinse pasta etc...we did rinse through and you could strongly taste plastic so we added some lemon like someone suggested in another review ran that through the machine and then we rinsed the container out added more water than ran through the machine again and today the plastic taste has completely gone.Nice looking machine. Very easy to use and you can do two cups at once. You just adjust how much water you need ie if one cup takes 240 you up it to 480 place cup under each nozzle and it will do both cups at once.

5 stars with a but. We have been using this for 1 month now. I also bought a lot of filters but sent them back when I noticed that they needn't be used. It's mostly used daily for making tea directly into a mug - typically around 10 a day some just boiling 300ml of water. Max 600ml for 2 mugs. My son uses a larger mug so run that separately.Initially there was a taste complaint - metallic. Rather than send it back I used Astonish descaler on it rather thoroughly. 1.75L kept hot for an hour. That fixed the taste aspect but if allowed to cool it still doesn't taste like tap water. Boiled water doesn't. We still think it tastes a touch different to water out of a kettle but that's by no means certain. It's probably down to boiling small quantities of water, some is always left in a kettle.Now comes the but. We made tea by dialing the amount, placing the mugs, adding milk, pressing the button and dropping in a tea bag. Results while it steeps are interesting. The tea layers rather than fully mixing with the milk and water. Not a problem. A few days ago though we started getting weak tea so stopped adding milk before the "boiling" water. The temperature had clearly dropped. Yesterday I descaled it and now things are back to how they were originally. It even produced a decent mug of tea at 95C. I forgot to reset to 100C after descaling it. So for our use it looks like it will need descaling monthly. I live in B'ham and have extremely soft water. I have never ever descaled a kettle. They only ever get a slight trace of scale. I don't think that run through filters that fit the machine would help this aspect much especially in hard water areas.Other aspects. The water tank has the handle on the side rather than on the top as per most kettles - it's not an easy thing to handle when full so we generally only 1/2 or 1/3 fill it to keep the weight down. The hot water drop into a mug is pretty large but that allows other items to be filled - my wife uses it for gravy etc. Personally I think a mug stand wouldn't be a bad idea. The machine defaults to auto fill unless the volume is over 600ml. Personally I think that it should be selectable really so that it can be permanently disabled. The knob used to select the amount of water can be a bit bizarre. It seems to react according to how fast it's turned in an odd fashion so selecting 300ml for instance may skip past 320 to 280 when the turn rate is slowed down. Probably silly over complicated software.We'll stick with it and may add a filter and see if that gets around descaling. As our water is already very soft I don't think it will. Pour through filters can only do so much.Update - Descaling did increase the water temperature but not by as much as I thought. Being retired and not wanting to turn into hot house plants we run the heating on rather low settings during the day. Lowish at night too really. I tried lifting the mug so that it was directly under the spouts by by hand - result hotter water and better tea. All down to how far the thin stream of water falls going into a mug. A bit like cooling hot soup, take a spoon full, lift and run it back in. The alternative is to add milk after the tea has steeped. We use borosilicate glass mugs so heat loss into those is low compared with other types.John-

After having read other reviews which kept mentioning the metallic taste I was hesitant about buying but still decided to go ahead with the purchase as I wanted a hot water dispenser which could do more than heat 1 cup or large mug. Sure enough the taste was initially just as others had stated but nothing daunted I decided to try remedy this. What I did was to follow the descaling instructions WITHOUT using descaling products twice and voilà good tasting tea which actually makes sense if you think about it , as most new electric kitchen appliances have an unpleasant smell or taste until the element has cleaned itself off. I'm really glad I decided to get this as I have been able to retire my old 1 cup heater and the kettle freeing up work surface. It's a really useful appliance and am glad I decided to buy. Even my husband likes using it. If you're into kitchen gadgets then this is a very useful and good looking addition to any home.

When this works it's brilliant, (that said we found the water temp settings to be erratic from time to time and drinks sometimes cooler - you'd get an 85 degree coffee even if set to 95 etc).Bought our first one in 2016, that lasted around 18 months (2017) before we had to call on the extended warranty for a replacement unit (water leaking out), that lasted until Feb 2019 and we bought this one.This has now gone completely nuts, lights flashing, dispense light stays on, heats but won't dispense and evey audible sounds in turn.............Tried to use the extended warranty but Morphy Richards have no record (allegedly) and won't help (presume because we've had a new unit before ?).Our advice ? It's a good looking unit and great in theory but seems to be fitted with a 'self destruct' timer set for around 8 months of family use............unless you can afford £100+ every 12-18 months then avoid, and we're certainly not buying one of this manufacturers units again !!