A newly unveiled partnership between OhmIQ and UNIC has the potential to change how water is heated in professional coffee machines.
Host Milano is a time where the global HoReCa sector comes together for a first look at some of the most exciting technological leaps forward in the hospitality space.
This year’s edition of the tradeshow, which took place from 17-21 October, saw OhmIQ, with its ohmic boiler water heating technology and UNIC, through parent company Electrolux Professional, join forces to solve a significant problem in the landscape of coffee and hospitality.
“Our technology is an instant heater that doesn’t scale, solving a problem we think the espresso market has been trying to crack for a decade – or maybe more,” says OhmlQ CEO Frederique Pirenne.
“The biggest game changer is our technology doesn’t produce calcification on the heater. That’s always been a big problem, there are instant heaters [on the market] but they’re not necessarily sustainable because of the calcification. In our case, we have an instant heater which can save a lot of energy, but still not have the problem of calcification.
“It makes sense that if you want to launch that technology you do it at the largest hospitality fair in the world, which is right here at Host Milano.”
OhmIQ’s water heating technology works by placing a positive and negative electrode into the water, and then constantly switching their polarity.
This means the minerals within the water will begin to move between the electrodes. The faster they move, the hotter the water becomes.
The switching of polarity also means limescale does not have time to grasp onto the negatively charged electrode, resulting in a massive reduction – if not complete removal – of calcification.
Although the partnership with UNIC was only revealed at Host Milan, it’s a collaboration that has been going since 2023 according to UNIC General Manager Tommaso Fontana Rava.
He says it’s a partnership born from UNIC’s desire to improve the user experience of their machines.
“With the technology from OhmIQ we can solve a lot of issues – three main issues,” he says. “The first is in the cup quality you get, because the quality of the water that gets inside the coffee is very good, it’s always fresh. You don’t have water that is stagnating inside the traditional boiler for a long time.
“Second, the fact you do not have scale like in a traditional boiler takes out a lot of the issues in machines, for example technicians that need to go and descale the machine, or the users that need to do that.
“Third is energy consumption. The fact you can reduce your energy consumption noticeably and in a very big way is directly in line with our strategy at Electrolux Professional because we want to be carbon neutral by 2030. This is definitely a big piece of the puzzle that is going to allow us to reach that objective.”
UNIC’s desire to be at the forefront of new and exciting innovation in the industry is nothing new.
“At UNIC, we’re always really trying to drive technology, technology is innovation and it’s really part of our DNA,” says Fontana Rava.
“This clicked immediately when we met. We’ve been developing this solution for just under two years, and I’m very happy to the point we have arrived now where the technology is actually working inside our machines. I’m incredibly proud of this step.
“It’s driving a lot of attention from everyone because of the great advantages it’s bringing, and it’s an eyecatcher. People have been stopping at our stand [at Host] asking ‘what’s that?’ It’s a conversation starter and a great place to start.”
Pirenne says tests OhmIQ has run with coffee machines has seen a saving of approximately €980 (US$1140) in electricity costs over the course of a year when compared to machines with traditional boilers.
Fontana Rava cites rising costs in the industry, including that of electricity and coffee, as key drivers as to why technology like OhmIQ’s is worth exploring.
“A coffee machine is something that is on all day, it consumes a lot of electricity but you only actually use it for a few hours within the day … you have peaks and you have time where the machine is on standby for a long time,” says Fontana Rava.
“When you’re not [brewing] a coffee, [the OhmIQ fitted] machine is consuming no electricity. I think there is a lot of attention on this, especially recently, because electricity prices have been soaring and prices of coffee beans has been soaring. This has been cutting into the margins of everyone in the industry.”
While OhmIQ’s technology has now officially been unveiled to the global coffee market, it is not yet publicly available. However, Pirenne says it won’t be long until that changes.
“Our future is now continuing the integration process we’re doing with UNIC and getting the products out the market so the end users can actually use it,” says Pirenne.
“There are still a couple of steps we need to do before we get to that in the next 12 to 18 months, then afterwards we would like this to be a leading technology in the espresso market and in professional kitchens … basically, we want to be one of the leading heating technologies in everything that has to do with liquids.
“I’m really excited to be here and take on the next steps to getting us in cafés or near all the people we meet here. It’s the start of the future.”
For more information, visit ohmiq.com