Milk Frothers

If you've ever had a drink with foamy milk on top, you've probably wondered how it was created. In Starbucks, a large, loud, very expensive machine froths the milk for popular drinks that contain milk froth. But to think that you could potentially have the same froth with a machine that costs less than $5?

Impossible? I think not.

Meet the Ikea Milk Frother. At only $2.49, it is a total steal. However, you may think that its low price signifies that it is cheaply made and won't last long, or that it may not live up to its standards. So, after testing the frother on both regular and soy milk, I took it apart and "mapped" its insides.

As a frother, the product is reliable. It can stand on a flat surface so that the consumer doesn't have to worry about cleaning the surface their drink was placed on. It can froth 2x the original volume of a cup of regular milk in 20 seconds. It is not as effective on soy milk. It froths well, but only when using full batteries; as the batteries lose power, so does the machine. The on/off switch is simple as well, but the directions on which way to place the batteries were unclear; I used AAA batteries at first, only to find that it operated on AA. The froth also disappeared rather quickly, and the machine produced a loud humming sound while on.

The machine is very simply matched. With a spring on the end of a metal shaft that attaches to an engine and an on/off switch, it is basic and what you would expect of a product that costs less that $5; there are no complex machineries that cause it to be more expensive, and it has only one function. When it works, the machine will hum and vibrate in the user's hand.

The second frother I tested was the Bonjour Milk Frother ($9.99). In terms of the outside view, it looks similar to the Ikea Frother. As it was more expensive than the Ikea frother, I expected it to either function better or have more than one function. This frother does not have an on/off switch; it operates only when the user is pushing the button on top, and automatically shuts off once the pressure disappears. However, this device does not stand alone. The Bonjour's rate of frothing is even faster than that of the Ikea frother; the Bonjour can froth 3x the original amount of regular milk in 30 seconds. This frother is also not as useful in soy milk. Like the Ikea frother, the battery instructions were unclear, even more so than the Ikea product; they placed the battery placement instructions on the inside of the battery terminal as a sticker. After mapping out the device, I found that it was crafted almost exactly the same as the Ikea frother, with a spring attached to a shaft which led to a motor and the batteries.

The disassembling of these two products showed me that it is possible to make a product cheaply, and that I should never judge a product by its price. Because the Bonjour frother was four times as expensive as the Ikea frother, I automatically assumed that it would be a better product. However, after testing both and taking them apart, it is easy to see that the Ikea is the more efficient and better-priced of the two. The designs of both products were, in essence, exactly the same, and had identical parts. Because of these observations, I realized that, while the Ikea is made a little more cheaply when looking at material, it is ultimately the better deal of the two.