I have one of these, got from a friend as a gift and it works for its intended purpose but you have to change the water every day or the butter goes funky in a short time (2-3 days). Is it worth $20? I dono. I'm on the fence for this as a Cool Tool.

Mine works beautifully and I love it! I think it's well worth the price. But yes, you do have to change the water every couple of days.

A solution for a non-existant problem.
We buy the tubs of whipped butter and have never refrigerated them.
It tastes fine and we've never had any problems with it going rancid.

I dunno... good idea except for the rancid water part. I'll stick to leaving mine in an airtight container.

My lovely wife makes ghee. Tastes fantastic, spreads easily, never goes bad, and is supposedly more healthy.

Interestingly, I don't remember paying nearly as much for mine. I'm guessing I might have found it at a dollar store, because I have trouble believing I thought it would be more than a couple of bucks worth of convenience.

Performance-wise, it works as advertised, though. For a day or two, you can leave the butter sitting without worrying about it. After that, though...the water gets nasty, followed by mold on the butter.

The upshot is that I usually use it during the holidays. Load it up before breakfast, and it gets used throughout the day and hope I remember to change the water enough to finish the stick.

I'm not so fond of whipped butter, by contrast, and it's definitely more expensive, so I don't consider it as good a solution. Likewise, ghee is fine, but...it's not roll-ready to me, and takes quite a bit more work and skill. By contrast, any idiot can smoosh a stick of butter in the cup and add water.

So, I had one of these for a little bit, and the butter actually got moldy. I've never had butter go moldy on me before (and I leave it out on the counter all the time), so I blamed this thing. Probably unjustly, I guess, but that's why we don't use it anymore.

My granmother likes to keep her butter out in a bowl topped with some salty water, she says it keeps it from going bad too quikly. Convenient if u don't oppose the salty taste. I like my butter mostly unsalted.

So your butter is actually touching the water? That sounds kind of gross, actually. We just leave ours in a Tupperware butter dish, put like a third of a pound in there every week or so and it never goes bad before we use it all up. (Of course you have to wash it after it gets empty, but it can even go in the dishwasher.)
(We live in Canada though so it never gets above about 35 degrees where we are.)

Try a "Butter Boat". It is a three piece butter dish. The water does not come in contact with the butter. It works. I bought mine at Target.

Unless you're buying (or churning) butter from raw milk, how long would it take to turn rancid at room temp? The last time that I had butter turn rancid leaving it at room temperature was when I bought raw milk from a farmer and churned the butter myself.

A few notes on using these:
* You need to be using either salted butter, salted water, or both. Molds are less prone to growth. Your butter dish should include instructions on how much salt to use, or you can just dump some into the bottom of the container - even if the water is fully saturated with salt the butter won't absorb it.
* If you're getting these from one of the potters that hand-makes them, expect them to have 1-3 holes in the side of the interior piece. This is so there won't be much air space even after you've scooped out some of the butter. Less air space=better performance.
* It doesn't take much water to fill these, most of the space is taken up by the butter.

If you're using butter on bread, etc. daily, these are quite worthwhile. If you only use it every few days or less often, probably not. Mine is gathering dust since my wife was diagnosed with gluten sensitivity.

What strange lives you all must live to always have butter "at the ready". You mean, when preparing food you can't take the butter out of the refrigerator first thing, so it's ready by the time the toast pops up? What about putting it in the microwave for 4 seconds to soften it? This tool would only be vital were there is no refrigeration.

I was just thinking about two scenarios:
1) Someone invents a "butter bell" which keeps your butter in contact with stale water, keeping it conveniently soft for a few days, after which it will begin to grow rancid and moldy.

2) Someone invents a "refrigerator that keeps butter cold until you're ready to use it. This device would retard mold growth and delay the onset of rancidness, and could be used for almost any other food item. Downside: You'd have to wait a bit for butter to return to an easily spreadable temp.
...
So I'm thinking this isn't really a very cool tool, considering the existing alternatives.

Pretty cool actually - if you live anywhere cold (like the UK), then butter takes forever to soften in the morning. Being able to spread toast first thing, or make sandwiches to take to work, would be a boon, and the butter dish gets a bit gross after a couple of days on the side

If you live somewhere hot, or use whipped butter (shudders) or just have a load of time to mess around in the morning, or you find tipping out a small pot of water and refilling it to be a horrific task every couple of days, this may not be for you.

Butter goes rancid not due to bacterial action but due to oxidation. I don't think dunking it in water is going to help here. I have kept butter at room temp my entire life with no problems and no need for a butter bell. It doesn't keep indefinitely of course but it does last a week or two.

What a crock! :)

Take a few pats of butter and add it to one of those tiny pyrex custard bowls.

Toast your bread.

Place bowl on top of toaster. Remove when soft enough.

I'm with JC and Chuk. Keeping my butter on the counter has never been a problem. I've been curious about butter bells for at least a couple of years, so thanks all for saving me an impulse buy.

Dude, I think this might be the creepiest tool I've ever seen posted here. Makes that Gibson bag look more appealing. Maybe we should bring back that old sci-fi hack?

I can't believe all the negativity here.

As said, this method has been used for centuries. I have a Butter Bell and I love it.

I keep the butter out in a covered dish, lasts a week or so before we use it all, never had it go rancid. I've got a butter bell as well, works well, again, never had it go rancid in the bell.

Bah, a solution waiting for a problem...

Water (and butter) gets moldy.
Butter drops into water if ambient temperature of your home is too warm.
It costs $20!
When was the last time anyone actually had butter go rancid?

This tool is NOT cool.

It keeps the cats from surreptitiously licking the butter when you leave the room for a minute.

What, you say your cats don't do that? That's what YOU think...

Maybe you should try one and see how much less butter you use.

We've had one for years and only change the water when we re-load the butter. No mold, no other problems.

If your butter gets moldy perhaps you have bad water, bad butter, or a filthy house? I've never seen it happen to anyone; many of our friends have these.

I was all curious, as I leave my butter on the counter most of the year. I just leave it in the foil paper it is sold in, in a shallow dish so it doesn't get the counter greasy, and refold the foil after using the butter. I have never had it go rancid and it takes me maybe two or three weeks to go through a pound of butter.

On the other hand, I do find the butter is too soft and oily in the midsummer, when it is over 25 celcius outside, and was hoping this little item actually cooled the butter somewhat, ie through evaporation of the water through the ceramic container or somesuch. If all it does is cover the butter at room temp, and on top of it, the water goes nasty, why $20. Really. The foil paper from the store works fine. Or like my parents used to have, a rectangular flat butterdish, with a rectangular lift off lid, all in transparent glass. No smooshing, no water, no cleaning, and $1 at the dollar store.

Now I am still waiting for the cool tool that will keep my butter neither soft and oily, nor rock hard in the fridge, for on the counter in the summer....

Amazon has a butter bell that looks like the pic above for $8.95 and a more minimalist one for $9.99. Both are eligible for supersaver shipping.

At that price I think it's definitely worth a try. Sure, you can just leave your butter sitting out in a dish, but you have go through it at a good clip. I wouldn't want butter that had been sitting out for a week or more. This buys time, and is attractive, too. And yes, salt water is the solution to any mold issues.

I have one of these, and can't imagine ever not having one. I don't salt the water or anything else - I use regular salted butter and it's fine for a month. Change the water every day? That would be annoying - never had moldy/funky butter.

Whipped butter takes up too much room and you're paying for air - no thanks.

wow! i actually think this is cool tool. and for all those people who are grossed out by the water touching the butter.... oil and water don't mix, so it's not a big deal. It keeps the butter for up to a month. it's an old french way of storing your butter without putting in the fridge. if you're looking for a way to store your butter that way, then i do recommend this product.