Tea and instant hot chocolate. Mine doesn't have a funny odor. I love it. In fact, I gave away my very nice temperature-controlled electric kettle to someone who didn't have one. No need to give counter space to a redundant device. He's delighted, we're happy. Win-win.

My mother uses hers for tea. She drinks hot tea multiple times throughout the day and finds it very convenient.

My house came with one. It leaked under the sink and had been disconnected. I put a soap dispenser in the hole. So I found the "hole" useful! 😂

Almost same as Nicole. Bought a house that had one. Used it, it was okay but not more. After a while it started leaking. We replaced it. The new one started to leak after a while. Had it taken out and replaced with a soap dispenser.

Things that hold water (like a kettle) need periodic cleaning. I don't recall with certainty but I'm not sure that gizmo can be cleaned. Anyway the soap dispenser was more useful. I wouldn't have another.

Googling around a bit, I’m not seeing many strong opinions in favor of these. Interesting about the leaking, something to warch for. If they had filtered cold, I’d probably use that a bunch,. (My abandonded unit is not filtered snd doesn’t offer cold.) Thinking about it more, I’d probably use it for sanitizing. I have a bit of an obsessive routine ehen it comes to things that touch raw meats, which could be simplified a bit with near boiling water. But certainly far from a critical need. I’m also a fan of soap dispensers - only if connected to a never mt - but that’s already there.

I have a tap that looks like an insta hot but it is room temp and connected to a kinetico filter system under the sink. That filter also feeds the ice maker. We have treated well water here that I don’t usually consume but I will use that filtered tap for stuff like pasta water.

I use ours daily for tea. Love it!

"have a bit of an obsessive routine ehen it comes to things that touch raw meats"

I wouldn't say I'm obsessive but I am careful. A stream of hot water followed by a squirt of Dawn for a paper towel wipe immediately after use satisfies my need for a first step to try preventing contact. Afterwards, a dishwasher cycle with a normal load or for hand washed items, a second more thorough washing, seem enough.

Actually that is another thing I used my instant hot water tap for. I hand wash all our sharp knives, having been told to never put them in the dishwasher. After soaping them off, I rinse them using the instant hot water tap, being careful not to scald my fingers.

I understand your motivation and hand washing is best.

But what cleans the knives is the dishwashing liquid, the physical wiping and then the hot water rinse to remove the soap and sediment. Hot water from the tap is hot enough for the job.

Think of all the bacteria and yuck on dirty items in the dishwasher. That comes clean with detergent and hot water. No near boiling water is used.

I wouldn't spend a dime for something of such limited use. A M/W heats a cup of water in seconds.

I do love having hot water at every tap in seconds, thanks to a circulating pump on the hot water lines. Whatever the energy cost is probably made up by not wasting water. A tankless water heater might serve the same function, but we'd have to reconfigure the venting in the basement.

Chisue - My only regular experience with circulating hot is at my sister’s house. It took me a while to figure out why some of her closets are so warm, even in the summer with the a/c running. Yes the pipes are insulated, but they still lose a lot of heat. In the winter I suppose it's helping maintain the ambient house temp so less of a waste, but I'd have to think it's costing her a bit in the summer. Everything has its tradeoffs but I agree it's nice not waiting for hot water.

food -- Valid point, but I've never noticed extra heat. That might be because our hot water runs through piping in the basement and up to our one-floor living space. The big waste is probably tank water heating.

One floor - that’d make a difference!

I’d imagine the ”smart” systems they have now limit energy waste and excess wear. A friend has that, not sure sbout my sister. I’ll mention it along with the concerns.

I don’t think ”my” house has recirc. Now I’m glad. Just two instant hots to worry about.

Careful. The so-called Smart or "water-saving pumps" are not such a good idea. How they work is either you can start them remotely ( as with an app) or you turn the hot on at the faucet you want to use for a few seconds.. Then go away for a few minutes. What it does is run and divert water from the hot pipe into the cold pipe until the set temperature is reached. Bingo, hot water at the tap and lousy tasting cold water throughout the home.

First hand experience- staying at a friend's lovely home in the Tahoe area. I noticed on the night of arrival they had immediately hot water. Cool, I thought. Next morning at breakfast, we started with coffee and he said "no matter what coffee we use, what tastes good at home tastes lousy here". I replied I thought snowmelt water should be tasty, he responded No, even the cold had an off-taste.

We offered to clean up dishes and pans from breakfast. I opened the undersink cabinet and saw an odd gizmo attached to the fresh water pipes. I asked what it was and my friend explained. Mystery solved. I suggested using bottled water to drink and for coffee. Next morning, great tasting coffee.

Water heaters and pipes can accumulate more deposits and corrosion than cold pipes, leading to unpleasant taste.

Would have to look into it but as my friend described his, seemingly confirmed with systems I just looked at, it monitors typical usage to anticipate future use. Like if you get up for work and take a shower around 6am every day, hot water will be ready. Sounds like it might be of limited benefit if you don't have patterns. I'll have to ask my friend about his. What you describe does not sound good.

A normally plumbed circular in shape hot water circulation system with a pump with setable usage times (like a setable HVAC thermostat allowing different settings by day and hour) would be completely different. Such approaches as what I presume chisue has (sans time settings) could be useful but difficult for an existing house's remodel. I presume the attraction of what I described is that it's slmost DIY do-able, but for the need of an electicity socket under the sink.

My places don't have instant hot and I put them in the category of built in vacuum systems- just because something can do it doesn't make it necessary or useful.