Franke Mythos Water Hub 6-in-1

The Mythos Water Hub is Franke's most ambitious tap to date, a 6-in-1 system that delivers hot, cold, filtered, chilled, sparkling and boiling water from a single spout, with app control layered on top. At around £2,599 it sits in the same conversation as the Zip HydroTap, and the reason it exists is to compete with Zip on functionality while keeping a more domestic-looking tap above the worktop.

The selling point is breadth. Six water types from one tap is the most you can buy in this category, and the app integration lets you set sparkling intensity, temperature presets, and CO2 monitoring without bending down to the undersink unit. The build quality matches Franke's reputation on its mixer ranges, the boil is a true 100°C (unlike the 98°C Zip settles for), and the 4L tank is large enough to handle bigger pots without an awkward refill wait.

The case against is the warranty and the complexity. The 2-year warranty is short for a £2,599 product, no longer than what much cheaper taps give. And six functions packed into one undersink means six things that can go wrong: the CO2 system, the chiller, the filter, and the boiler all need servicing. Buy it if sparkling water at home is a real requirement; otherwise the spend is hard to justify.