Skuma

iichi

Mine came today and we are impressed with the taste test for straight water and green tea. Coffee is pending.

Downsides;

drip tray missing on mine
no phase 2 delay “six months free infusions” as promised in an update last year. I got one infusion bottle so that cannot be right?

How are people getting on with the temperature? Mine is way off (phase 2 backer), which I thought was resolved before the phase two units went out, and I have emailed Skuma.

dutchy101

Message Alex when your infusion runs out (ir just before) amd he’ll send you out the next one. That’s how it works for the free infusions.

Haven’t tested the hot water on mine yet. Will do in the morning

iichi

Thank you! Makes sense the infusions are sent out fresh.

I really want the hot water to work right - maybe being new it needs break in, but I doubt that.

dutchy101

My wife mentioned the water wasn’t hot enough for her tea this morning. I aw on the Whatsapp group that there’s a winter mode you can activate by holding down the water temperature button for 5 seconds.

iichi

I tried the winter mode (thanks, I entered the whatsapp group yesterday but seems historical chat is not visible to me) and it flashed after 5 seconds so looks like something happened, but sadly still not working. In “max” mode the water stream peaks at 75C and at the end of the pour it is actually 50C. I get 70C overall in a small jug, which is useless for coffee and tea. I use professional thermometers daily so no issue there.

dutchy101

Ok so I’ve spoken to Alex.

You need to go into factory setting mode by holding down the temperature and mineral button together for 5 seconds.
Then you press the ml button which will raise the temperature every time you press it.
To exit factory setting mode, repeat step 1.
I’ve found moving up to the symbol setting above 1000 is on the money for tea when you have the water temp setting up to max

iichi

I tried the 1000 setting as kindly explained above, and got the same low result. The infinity setting however made a difference, and the stream peaked at just over 90C (a lot of steam!), though it is lower before and after. The lack of consistency gives 80C in a preheated container. Using the lowest volume of 250ml is going to be a problem, where using 350ml I expect will maintain the peak temperature for longer.

I expect infinity is the highest setting? It will continue to cycle through the temperature symbols after infinity.

dutchy101

It goes higher than infinity (or perhaps you could say and beyond) the range switches to the other side of the panel at that point. I found I was mainly getting steam on the 2nd setting over infinity (I was working down as opposed to up and settled with infinity. (Perhaps 1 above is the sweet spot)

iichi

Thanks, I tried one above infinity and got pure steam so unusable there. In fact, this plastic casing does not look sealed, and we know there is electronics immediately above the water dispenser, so I can this machine machine developing faults.

Changed to 350ml setting and tried infinity factory setting again and got 92C peak on the stream, but only briefly, and a still significant steam/stutter early on which is an annoyance. Averages to 82C in the container. So far, this thing is NOT a kettle replacement.

cengland117

Some feedback after a few weeks of use:

The hot water function is disappointing. Max temp was miles off out of the box and after going through the settings did manage to get it up but as pointed out by others, it’s inconsistent and hasn’t proven usable for making tea and wouldn’t trust it to make filter.
I feel like I’m forever adding water and removing the waste and I am really not using it much. 3-4 250ml glasses of drinking water and the waste wants to empty. Super annoying when it’s under a cabinet as it does not easily move out.
Great tasting drinking water though with the hydration infusion.
The waste container is a real pain to remove on mine. Walking a tightrope between applying enough force to get it off and not too much to spill water everywhere.
Again on the water container, the sensor seems to be quite sensitive, often had message to empty pulled the machine out only to find it wasn’t full and presumably just wasn’t seated 100% correct
The water tank only being secured at the bottom means the rather tall container flops around at the top which gives a poor finish.
I really wish there was a way to see how much RO water was being stored to avoid trying to pull through X amount only to get interrupted as there wasn’t enough RO available.
The dark grey water container is a weird choice. Trying to see the water line shouldn’t be as tricky as it is. What was wrong with clear plastic? Pretty sure the photos on their website show the tank as being clear.
Alex is great and I hope this turns out well for him!

Most of these things can probably be solved as the product is updated and developed further. I purchased as wanted to move away from using bottled water but not sure this is the solution just yet.

iichi

I might add it needs some bathtub design on the base insert since it easily leaks water without the user knowing as you remove and replace the container. Having a solid wood worktop this thing makes me nervous as I have discovered puddles of water after only one day of use.

MediumRoastSteam

I always had interest in the Skuma, but I always said to myself I would only consider buying one, despite offers and discounts, when a few testing units would be released to members of the public - or when someone not linked to the company could dissect the unit and give usability feedback after a few weeks, with videos, photos, etc. I don’t think this ever happened and I never bought one.

Although not ideal or necessarily positive for the owners, it’s great to hear real world usage feedback, finally. And I also hope that some of the issues can be fixed in due course.

iichi

The volume is messed up using the heat. For example, 500ml setting at 85C actually only produces 310ml. Edit- and 1000ml setting gives 700ml, but a consistent 85C low, which is good, but too much liquid if you want to make one or two coffees of course.

As a straight up water filter, I guess this thing is pretty good. I am lucky I can position this next to my sink and also not under a cupboard, as it would be a hassle otherwise.

cengland117

A question for anyone else with a Skuma or other RO machine, I am getting 0.8L of waste for 1.75L RO water. Is that typical?

Inspector

I have osmio zero and get 1lt waste for 4lt of filtered water. Obviously system dumps the waste in the same container and I don’t know the exact ratio if it had separate tank for waste.

dutchy101

cengland117

I think the level of waste water you get is determined by the quality of your tap water. I’m getting more waste water than I was expecting , but then again I’m putting in London tap water which is typically over 400 TDS

Uncletits

MediumRoastSteam Absolutely agree and it took 1.5 years to become a thing too - I went for the Osmio and it has been brilliant

dutchy101

The only concern I’ve had with the Skuma was the hot water temperature, which I seem to have managed to resolve now after speaking with Alex. Been using it since Friday and very happy with it.

Looking forward to trying out new infusions.

I think @Patrick was lined up to do a review but not sure what happened

MediumRoastSteam

dutchy101 - I have no doubt it’s a great machine. However, if the machine was given to someone for an independent review - it might have, I don’t know, and if it was I wasn’t made aware - some of those issues could’ve been addressed or explained better prior to general release.

dutchy101

Sure I get that. They did send pre production units out to get feedback from users (IIRC one was sent to Lance Hendrick). They took feedback on board and made some changes. My unit was a phase 2 unit - numerous changes had been made to the units from the phase 1 design.

A review from Dave would be great

« Previous Page Next Page »