Zip hydrotap boiling water There are lots of reasons why people invest in an instant boiling and chilled water dispenser such as a Zip HydroTap, and most manufacturers talk a lot about how efficient they are at boiling water, with their timers, light sensors and high grade insulation.

In fact most of the cost justifications we have seen concentrate on the efficiency of the units compared to the traditional kettle, and although we agree that the running costs and efficiencies of the units are excellent, we think that is rather missing the point. The fact is that whilst running costs will almost certainly be cheaper than a kettle, they will never recoup the initial purchase price. That’s why, as we have written before, you will never save money if you are buying a boiling water tap for the home.

However, in a commercial environment, the situation is completely different, because the biggest thing instant boiling and chilled water saves you is time – and in a commercial environment, time is money.  At the risk of boring you, here are a few simple lines of assumption and calculation which demonstrate how the purchase of a Zip Hydrotap will, beyond any reasonable doubt, save your business a considerable amount of money:

Let’s assume an office size of 15 people, and that those 15 people consume 4 cups of tea or coffee per day.

15 people: 4 cups of tea or coffee per day

For a traditional kettle, they will probably be waiting at least 2 minutes each time for the water to boil.

2 minutes waiting each = 120 minutes waiting per day (15 x 4 x 2 = 120)

That’s 120 minutes, or 2 hours, of waiting per day, which we could reasonably price at £20 per hour, i.e. £40 per working day.

£20 x 2 hours per day x 200 days per year = £8000 per year

With over 200 work days per year, that’s £8000 per year, and estimating a useful life of a Zip tap of 5 years, that’s an astonishing £40,000.

£8,000 x 5 year equipment life = £40,000

And that’s a lot of money to fund the purchase and maintenance of your boiling tap.

Adding the Chilled water option to the tap is pretty straightforward as well, because it will avoid the aggravation and costs of buying in water chiller bottles with all the physical, logistic and environmental issues involved.

If these figures don’t work for you, we’d love to know how you would adjust them, and whether that makes the case weaker or stronger – just contact us and let us know.