The Ikea device is meant to froth milk, and it does its job very successfully. It froths milk in 15-25 seconds as advertised and its process is pretty straightforward and user friendly. However, with one specific Ikea device that our group tested, the frother seemed to move out of place and it would vibrate too much in the user’s hand.
Through disassembling this device, it is clear that there are not many parts involved in making it, and it is not complicated in its construction. It was relatively easy to disassemble, and the function of each part was clear.
The high end frother our group received did not work as well as the Ikea one. It was not as powerful and it took longer for the milk to froth. Also, after frothing, the milk returned to its natural state much quicker than the Ikea frother. When disassembling this product, it is clear there are more parts involved and the construction is more complicated. However, despite this more “sophisticated” construction, the results did not meet those of the simpler Ikea frother.
When it came to testing our own milk frother, we found that is was very effective. By just shaking the device two or three times with the milk inside, it was frothed. However, when we tried to pour the milk out of the device and into a cup, the froth stayed inside the device and we could not get it out. So while the device was partially effective, it was ultimately unsuccessful in its task.
On left, high end frother. On right, Ikea frother.