Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Edit 2019/12/13: I'm keeping my original review of the product intact. It's a five star product. Just consider buying from someone other than Amazon. Amazon fluctuates the price on this product wildly; I bought one as a housewarming gift for my sister one day, and the next day it was nearly $40 cheaper at $145. I contacted Amazon Customer Service to see if they'd adjust the price, since a $40 swing in one day is a pretty tough pill to swallow. The first rep said that they'd refund this as a promo and transferred me to a second rep. The second rep said they wouldn't be giving me any sort of price match at all, giving me some flimsy excuse about supply and demand. I have a hard time believing demand caused a 20% price decrease over the course of a single day, but that's Amazon's official stance on the matter. The customer experience was bad enough where I'm seriously considering cancelling my Prime subscription. Amazon used to match prices in cases like this, and it's disappointing that they can't do anything to preserve a 5 year customer that orders from their site frequently. ********************************************************************** Original review below: I discovered this water boiler through a coworker, who bought one after an extended vacation in Japan. When he upgraded to the 5L version he put his old 4L in the break room. From the first time I used it I knew I wanted one, but like most people I balked at the price. I could get full coffee/espresso machines for less money! I could get an electric kettle for $25. Why pay for this? After waffling over the purchase for months, I finally broke down and bought this water boiler. I should've done it much sooner. Let me tell you why the Zojirushi water boiler is a better purchase than a similarly priced coffee machine: Reason one: more utilitarian. This machine has temperature settings to make all different types of tea. 160, 175, 195, 208 and 212F (reboil) allows for perfect green, black, white, and oolong tea steeping temperatures. On top of this, a $5 pour over or $20 French press is all you need to get high quality coffee out of this machine. With the water available at the touch of a button, the only easier way to make a singleton cup of joe is to use a K-cup, and it's not even that much easier. Add to this the possibility of making ramen, hot chocolate, or any other thing requiring hot water, and this is by far the more utilitarian countertop appliance. Sure, you could just spit hot water out of your Keurig machine, but not with the ease and level of granular control that the Zojirushi water boiler provides. Reason two: convenience. You push the button and the hot water comes out. This beats the pants off of boiling water for tea. No more waiting for the water to boil, then playing the guessing game of how long to let it cool before pouring over (or worse, just scalding your tea.) Want tea now? Good! As long as you're set to the right temperature, just prepare the tea, press the button, let it steep and you're off to the races. Had it set to the wrong temperature? Fear not! If you need to raise the temperature, the quick temp function will get you there in mere minutes. If the temp is too high, just throw a splash of cold water into the top and you'll be good to go. The Zojirushi measures the water temperature real time, so you can easily get it to the proper temperature. Need to refill the tank but you're not near a sink? Fear not, you're covered! This thing has a giant carrying handle and magnetic detachable power cord. You just snap off the plug, remove the lid, carry to the sink and fill'er up! Wanna slow pour over your coffee? Touch the unlock button twice for slow pour functionality! Wanna put this on a central point on your table but worried it'll be difficult for people to reach? The whole thing swivels for easy access! I swear, they've thought of everything. Reason three: extremely durable. I alluded to this before. My coworker's old unit was ten years old and still working. Guess what? The design is still exactly the same. The fact that this unit is made in Japan and has a much simpler mechanism than most K-cup machines means that there's not much to break here. Just give it the occasional acid clean (kits are available) every 6 months or so, and it'll keep going forever. This is part one of where you'll ultimately make back your money. Other, lesser water boilers will die long before the Zojirushi, meaning you'll have to pay for a replacement. The only thing that seems to eventually perish on these is the rubber gasket on the lid, but guess what? This part is easily available and the part number is conveniently cataloged in the manual. This leads us into part four: energy efficiency. This is where the Zojirushi beats down other similar water boilers, because lets face it: there are other cheaper products that seem to have similar functionality to this unit. As far as I know, the Zojirushi is the only unit with a vaccum sealed chamber. This means that to keep the water warm, it takes only 11-25 watts depending on temperature selection and unit size. Less than a light bulb! Given the long lifespan of this machine, that means it'll eventually pay for itself in energy savings. Not to mention that it'll outlast these other units and has more functionality to begin with. In conclusion, buy this boiler if you like tea, coffee, ramen, or just having scalding water on demand. Don't cheap out. Despite its price, I like this boiler enough where I've bought it for other tea drinkers as a gift. It's truly the best boiler on the market. Five stars.