I've used this pot for some months now on a near daily basis and had absolutely no problems. It is a must for the tea enthusiast. Not only is it more stylish than most dispensing pots, it is in a league of it's own for selecting temperature and sustaining temperature over time. It is quick to boil, and can silently keep your water ready for tea for all-day use.
The cost of this pot is higher than your average boiling pot, but it shows in the extra features and in the build quality. The pump action is a much-loved feature, as is the break-away safety cord (all appliances should have such a cord in my opinion). You can just tell that the people that designed this knew what they were doing and cared.
On the downside, I wish for 3 things: 1) the ability to set the temp to more degrees (such as between 160 and 180 for green tea instead of 140); 2) an on-off switch instead of always just disconnecting the cord; and 3) a slightly deeper indent behind the spout so that more tea pots can easily fit under the spout.
If you are serious about tea, buy this unit.
I like the looks and the feature set -3 temperatures, autolock with "unlock" button -is just right.
Boiling a full fresh 2-L pot takes several minutes. I tend to keep mine topped up whenever it gets down to about half, and that takes much less time to bring up to temperature. It does seem to re-boil the water whenever the top is opened, rather than only bringing it up to the set point. That's probably a very good thing, as far as keeping it from becoming a microbial breeding ground.
I used to unplug it when I left the house because I was worried about fire hazards; I stopped after the first few weeks because the outside barely gets warm to the touch, except at the top near the vent, where it's quite warm. When it's boiling water, it does let off a bit of steam through the top vent. When not running the boil cycle it lets out very little steam I can comfortably cup my hand over the vent for several minutes; the plastic is warmer than the air above the vent so I usually leave it shoved under a cabinet except when I've just added water. The underside of the cabinet is about 4 inches away and I cannot feel any temperature difference between that surface and the other cabinets nearby.
I do wish I'd bought a larger one. When I purchased this, I thought I'd use it for a cup of tea or two a day and 2 liters would be plenty. Now that I have plenty of hot water on demand, and at just the right temperature, I drink a lot more tea and my roommate has joined me. I also use it for all sorts of other hot-water needs (instant soups and cereals, for example) so that it needs refilling daily.
With that note about the heavy use it gets, it functions beautifully with minimal cleaning. Every now and then when it runs empty I wipe out the interior. Beyond that, I've only descaled it once in over 2 years, and that was because the calcium build-up on the heating element was making it take too long to boil my water -there was no clogging or pressure/volume reduction.
I didn't review this when I bought it because as much as I loved it, I expected the calcium in the local water to clog it in a matter of weeks to months. Now I have something more valuable to say: it keeps working, month after month, with minimal attention, for years.
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Edited to add: I've now owned this dispenser for just over 4 years, and I still use it daily and love it every bit as much. It might be time to descale it again (the second time since I bought it), and again that's due more to scale insulating the heating element than to any clogging or loss of dispensed volume. I'm considering buying a second one, not because anything is wrong with my first one, but because it still works _so_ well that I've become thoroughly spoiled to piping hot water on demand and now feel put-upon needing to go all the way downstairs for a cup of bedtime tea or a bowl of instant miso soup in the morning. This dispenser kept on my nightstand, filled with filtered water, plus my Aero Press coffee maker, would be the best coffee-in-bed-first-thing solution ever.
Edited again to add: At almost 5 years, I need another. Not that this one has stopped working admirably -it's never malfunctioned in any way -but I need a larger one. I've been cooking more of late, and the just-below-boiling water is the perfect thing to clean cast iron cookware -splash some hot water into the hot pan, swirl a brush around it, empty it, and put it back on the hot burner/oven rack to dry. No sink, no soap, no drainer, no dishwasher, and the cookware is clean before the food is cool enough to eat. It would be perfect if it didn't mean filling the dispenser twice a day when I cook. This is the last-straw added demand for hot water that renders my poor 2-liter dispenser an annoyance. I'm tired of filling it so often. I'm moving it into the bedroom for morning/bedtime coffee/tea, where I can love it again, and buying a 4-liter one for the kitchen. If I could give this little trooper six stars, or ten, I'd do so gladly; the worst thing I can say about it is that it performed so well it created more demand than it's sized to handle. Wow.
Buy Zojirushi CD-FAC22 Zutto Micom Electric Dispensing Pot Now
I originally purchased this item in July of 2006 and in November of 2011, it's still working well. I've only had to descale it twice, and I leave it plugged in all the time. It's definitely a well engineered product.
My review from 2006: I've been pretty pleased with this little water heater. It lets you select three different temperatures (though I wish that it provided more options than that), has a handy water gauge on the front, a magnetically attached power cable, and a set of two buttons to hit so that you don't accidentally engage the water dispensor. I'm pretty pleased with it.
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Unfortunately the Zutton line of products bombed out in Japan so they sent them over here to try. Zojirushi is normally known for its quality products (and you can't beat the longevity on their "Made in Japan" potto dispensing pots) however, the entire Zutto line was tested by me and found to be less than promising (if you go to Japan and visit a department store, you will see the Zutto line in a quiet corner drawing no attention). The problem is that it tries to present itself as trendy and perhaps even metallic in nature. When you get the actual product you discover that it is in fact plastic and flimsy (just lift the lid on the Zutton Dispensing Water Pot and you can feel the quality or lack thereof). None of the Zutto products have any substance. To make matters worse, they must sell in this country for more than they sold in Japan. This reason is unknown other than the fact that they are trying to promote it as a high-end item when in fact it is plastic. Stick with the high-end rice cookers other than Zutton line (Made in Japan only)... For more information in Japanese see www.zojirushi.co.jp
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Although the initial heat-up period is a bit long (I think about 15 minutes...long enough for me to forget to keep track anyway :-), once the water reaches the proper temperature, this is a wonderfully convenient product--so far we use ours primarily for those evening cups of tea, but occasionally we find it useful for other applications needing a quick dose of hot water. The steel with black exterior fits in perfectly with the other stainless appliances in our new kitchen as well so we don't feel a need to hide it--although there is a decent amount of hot steam released during the boil-mode (I just slide it forward so the steam is not captured under the cabinets), the exterior remains a comfortable temperature to touch. Except that we found it to be a bit high in price, we are very pleased with the function and appearance overall and would eagerly recommend it.
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About 10 months after I bought one of these, it started randomly shutting off during the brew cycle. The plastic rim around the hot plate cracked one day while brewing. Applica (the manufacturer) replaced it for a $7.50 fee under the warranty. Now, less than a month after getting the replacement, this one is doing the same thing, stopping in the middle of a brew cycle, and this morning the rim around the hot plate cracked while brewing a pot. Had a Braun for years before this piece of junk and it never gave me any trouble.
