Every so often, a new product hits the market and suddenly everyone wants one. It’s not a new phenomenon, I remember the Beta Max video recorder, the microwave and later the Dyson vacuum cleaner exploding into homes across the UK, and things would never return to the way they were back before their advent.

The reason for the inevitable success of certain products is it starts a chain reaction, usually making life easier for the product owner. To revisit those examples:

• Beta Max
  It may have ultimately fallen to an inferior format, but the top loader beta max video recorder holds a place in the hearts of many 80s tech fans. Even comedian Peter Kay joked about how the house shook when you loaded the tape in, clearly demonstrating what an iconic invention they once were. Today we have Sky+ and HDR boxes to do the job, but without the video tapes of yesteryear, we’d never have come so far and would perhaps be needing to be in front of live TV to catch our favourite programming.
• Microwave
  The horror of some people is quite amusing in hindsight, there were all sorts of people terrified of the health risks of eating food heated in a microwave oven. It’s probably the mention of radiation that did it, with nuclear disasters fresh in the public’s mind. Today though, few homes would function normally without the ability to cook a potato in a few minutes or make a bowl of porridge in seconds.
• Dyson vacuum cleaner
  We used to call our vacuum cleaner a hoover as kids, which no doubt still happens across the country today, much to James Dyson’s irritation. When a superior product arrives, you hear some quite odd terminology – in this case people talking about how they wanted a Dyson Hoover. Bags are gone, suction is better, and homes across the country quite like the cyclone, even though no-one quite seems to know what it is.

While the soup maker doesn’t quite match the above inventions in terms of revolutionising their industry, they do offer some parallels. For example, the time saving is definitely on offer. Comparing the top soup makers you’ll see that while they do take up to half an hour to cook soups, most of that time is antonymous, so you only need to load them up and leave them to do their thing.

According to Soup Maker Zone, their top recommendation (the Tefal Easy Soup) takes just 23 minutes to finish, including chopping and heating. That’s a lot quicker than using a pan on the stove, as any regular home cook will know, waiting for it to thicken up feels like an age.

It’s not just the time saving aspect people like either, it’s the fact that they do the work for you, and you don’t need to know a lot about soup making in order to make a passable meal. In addition, you’ve got a lot less to clean up afterwards too, and many of the best soup makers have cleaning cycles so that they almost clean themselves (you still need to put the water in yourself!).

Electronic soup makers still feel like a relatively new technology, and they’ll inevitable get better and better in future, but if you keep your eyes peeled (much like the ingredients you put in them), you’ll see they’re appearing in many more homes all the time, much like those old beta max videos.