Brio 500 Series 4-Stage Bottle-Less POU Tri-Temperature Digital Self Cleaning Water Cooler Dispenser

Brio Self Cleaning Bottleless Water Cooler Dispenser I love this thing! But it took me a few tries, and thanks to Amazon return policy they were very helpful. I'm writing this after a month of daily use. Yeah a bit wordy, but if youre looking to chose, hope this helps. 1. The first Brio cooler I ordered was the cooler heater pump where you put the 5 GAL bottle in the bottom. My sweetheart freaked when she got home. Knowing that I would not go out regularly to refill the big bottles. I didn't even open it and returned it the next day. One down... 2. Next I ordered that "Brio Commercial Grade Bottleless Ultra Safe Reverse Osmosis " machine. This has 4 filters, one is a Reverse Osmosis canister. Did the whole install, ran the tubes, paid an extra $20 for longer 1/4" tubing to get it to the end of the counter. All except for the RO drain tube which is supposed to tap right into the sink drain. I wanted to see how much water came out since someone mentioned it in a review. I ran the drain tube to some large buckets. A LOT comes out. It actually flushes 4 GALLONS water down the drain for each 1 GALLON consumed. So we would pay for 5 Gal to get 1. In drought stricken and expensive CA water country, that is a deal breaker. For a day, It did make nice clean water cool / hot though. Just a waste of water down the drain. It was weird seing how much water flushed after just getting a few cups of water. So, nope. So I buttoned it up, emptied the filters, and returned it. Two down. 3. Now this awesome machine. Fortunately I had all the water tubing lines already tapped to the cold water under the sink from the previous install a few days earlier. I performed the flushing procedure of each filter (10 min each - which fed the garden BTW). NOTE: On the flushing cap, there is a directional arrow, use that. The manual shows backwards. Interns are not known for attention to detail. The installation was super easy to set up. Perhaps 1 1/2 hr if I count the install of the cold water tap, dress the tubing lines, and water flushing the filters (that's 45 min total itself). Flushed he chambers, flipped on the Hot and Cold power switches. Gave it another 45 to hr. Done. TASTE: At first, there was a bit of a tap water after taste. I flushed the chambers out a few times. But after about 2 weeks, that aftertaste went away. It was a bit like tap water after taste, not bad, but I powered through it. Life. Some reviewers complained about that. But it is totally gone now. The taste from any chamber is clean crisp water. It has gone through a few of the UV cleaning cycles too, I presume that is helping. TEMPS: Cold comes out at 43 deg F brrrr... HOT 179 Deg F Room temp.. I don't care... 70 ish... but its next to the cold tank so, its water, I'm not that picky. Regarding the hot, at that 179 deg temp, its hot, but not coffee (190 - 208) or barely tea brewing hot. So I turned it off. I use a separate 1.75 L hot water carafe to heat water to a specific temp for coffee or tea, or boil anyway. In our application, its not boiling, so I see no need to use power for something I would barely use. I still use the hot water chamber to fill my carafe for hot water, even though it is not hot. The reason is to continuously flush the chamber with new water. I alternate between that and the room temp chambers for coffee water. But the cool is amazing. I fill a glass milk bottle carafe and keep at my table for always a cool drink. I use this multiple times a day, especially after garden work. And every morning. Perfect! Great taste! DISPENSER AREA: Two comments, dispenser area size, and area height. The dispenser cavity height size is tall enough to get my milk bottle carafe under it, but not the hot water carafe. Thats still better than the RO machine. So, to fill the hot water carafe, or soup pot, I have to fill my milk bottle which is about 1 L, twice. Where would i be without that old milk bottle i found at some garage sale for a buck? The actual shelf depth is anemic in size also. It's like 3 inches. Cant rest a tumbler securely on it. Perhaps a good thing, else Id forget and leave it there an end up looking all over the house for it. That happens, don't ask. So I hold whatever I'm filling. It would be nice to be lazy though. What if I had only one arm? Some people do. Brio designers need a little more education in consistency and industrial design. The drip tray is ok. There's a thin stainless steel cover over a removable plastic drip tray that you can remove for cleaning. that whole part feels like really cheap manufacturing. So I'm gentle. On the right side of the drip tray there is a round hole with a little red float to indicate if the drip tray has too much water in it, you know because the shelf itself is too small, so they put a float in it instead of making it a bit bigger. Me sarcastic? I filled the drip tray with water to see how it looks, like a little hemorrhoid peaking through the hole. Well ok then. Note taken. It never fills up. The dispenser cavity area bottom height is about 22" off the floor. Ok, but rather a bit low height. Great if youre in a wheel chair. So there is that. However, my family and guests don't deserve to see my plumbers crack trauma every time I go for water. It would have been nice if they offered a matching drawer stand like they do for front loading washers and dryers. One could put replacement filters and the like in it, while raising the whole unit up so the fill area is at counter top level. I'd pay for that and would love the added height. I wanted the dispenser area to be around that of the kitchen counter height. Why not? That would only make sense. The solution, a wire shelf on wheels... I have a few heavy duty chrome wire shelving for kitchens since I have no pantry. They look great (see one in the first pic) and are very functional, east to clean, strong etc. So I looked around the mothership Amazon and found this cheap little "heavy duty" wire rack on wheels for $37. Could life get much better? I had a coupon so got it for like $11. Awesome! Free delivery, 2 days. Yayy! Its in the photos. This raised the dispenser area level up a bit higher than the counter level, so that's perfectly workable. I could have adjusted the height better but, it goes against me doing things over. Plus it has shelves for replacement filters etc. At the time I only have doggie treats in the shelves and as you can see, SOMEONE discovered them! But the wires on this wire shelf were very flimsy, awful cheap construction. The whole dispenser was rocking. I can bend this with my bare hands. So I went to TAP plastics and had a 1/4" poly shelf thing cut to fit the shelf to distribute the weight and placed it under the cooler. See the second pic with the big watery eyes. (Yes he got a treat for the shameless posing). The poly plastic shelf cover made it good and sturdy but cost more than the shelf ($45). Lesson there, cheap is not necessarily less expensive, and "heavy duty" on Amazon is definitelya relative term. But it works and its at the right height, so it stays till I decide on a better idea. So now I'm happily hydrated. Cheers. Drink up! Buy this now.

Had this unit for 2 years,here is my warning ,DONT BUY THIS UNIT,yes this unit works great at first but upon the 1 year mark the unit starts freezing the water tank turning it into a block of ice with in return the cold water stops flowing out because line is frozen,I had it taken it apart to discover this ,I think they give you 1 year warranty on this machine because they know this machine works flawless in that year,honestly this machine has a design flaw inside the tank because of a plastic part that is suppose to block ice from covering the hole that dispenses water and in time of constant freezing and unfreezing the platic parts move up out of alignment which cause the no water coming out so I thawed it out cleaned the tank and put back the plastic part and it worked for a few months again like it did new ,after time it started doing it again which just gets irritating so I did it again at the 2 year 3 month mark but this time it just froze up again overnight and now it sounds as if refrigerated motor does not turn off because every time I would come back to the machine it sounded as it was on with no break constantly on which in the morning no more water came out becausein sure it froze up again,so I think now theres a faulty part somewhere inside that needs replacement which is a bummer for a 2 year old device,if I were you look on Google for family owned water cooler companies that fix and refurbished coolers and buy 1 off them like i did years ago until i went this machine,It probably won't be the prettiest one but I guarantee it should work longer then this one,last one I bought from a company like that lasted 10 years but like any company they will say that parts are not available to fix when it breaks down it so buy another which i should of done but at least it will last longer and keep these newer machines out of landfills because it was made with budget cheap parts,that are not available on a 2 year old machine,thanks for reading

We bought this water cooler for our work. The cooling component went out after about a year, used daily by 7-10 people. Hot water and room temperature water were fine. I would have knocked off a star or two for the issue, but the customer support at Brio was excellent. There is an email address on the back of the water cooler - they responded in two days and sent a brand new replacement cooler no questions asked. Super easy to work with, great service.

I ended up buying the Brio Self-Cleaning Bottleless Water Cooler Dispenser after my friend got one and I thought it was a need for my new home! The installation was super easy, and the water tastes incredibly fresh. The best part is the self-cleaning feature that keeps everything hygienic without any extra effort on my part. It's also a huge bonus not having to deal with refiling water bottles. If you're looking for a reliable and convenient water cooler, this is the one to get! I am so happy to have this in my home and it doesn’t hurt that it looks very nice and modern. Highly recommend this product to people who want a hassle-free water cooler!

Didnt have trouble installing, since we had an RO system previously installed with the tap water line already in place. The installation is simple and the product looks really nice. Couple of drawbacks: - Its short. I think it stand at 4.5-5ft. We have people in our office 6 ft + and they need to bend down. It looks awkward being this short. I recommend getting the stand/riser attachment that raises the height, it makes for a better presentation. However the riser is overpriced, should be shipped disassembled so its cheaper. - I cannot confirm the internals but I believe the hot and cold tank are adjacent or somehow connected. This means the water is sitting in the tank won't be optimally cold or hot, and will probably need to use more energy to keep the temperatures. I can tell that they may be connected from the temp of the hot water, which isn't super/boiling hot like my previous system (enough for tea though). Cold isnt as cold, but definitely satisfactory. Tepid water when the machine is cooling the water is actually quite cold and i believe the machine might be cooling the passage way making it colder than it should be. When not cooling, the tepid water is fine. - the water taste is not quite up to what i expected. We have good water quality so not a big deal, but i still get a bit of a tap water taste. Its better tasting then the tap but I would say a brita filter has a slightly crisper taste profile then this does. We have been using it for 3 weeks, and the taste has been slowly getting better overtime. overall a cheap and stylish cooling system with good documentation and instructions, that would be good for an office environment.

Our business purchased the Brio Self Cleaning Bottleless Water Cooler Dispenser with Filtration with the hot/cold feature for our team breakroom and they have loved it! The filtration works great making our city water tastes clean and fresh. The hot element is amazing, especially for hot cocoa or making oatmeal. After having the unit for two years the water spouts all of a sudden stopped passing water through, therefore we contacted Brio who helped us through some troubleshooting and a system reboot. However, it did not resolve the issue. We have replaced filters on schedule and kept the unit in a protected area. The unit only came with a one year warranty but Brio has stood behind their product and is willing to replace it! This kind of customer service and product support deserves a shout out and recognition that shows they stand behind what they manufacture and sell. Even outside of that, this unit is well worth it's cost!

The BAD Lasted 3 years and stopped dispensing from the cold and hot (in this order). Cost analysis yields a little over $100 per year, plus installation cost/materials, plus the cost of replacement filters, which equates to an absolute horrid ROI. In addition the unit also showed up with multiple dents in various places, which translates to packaging not designed to survive the shipping process. The Good The filters actually work. The overall taste of the water with the 4 stage filtration is better than any water filtration system I have tried (and I have tried several).

Love this thing! Our local water is terrible (pumped right out of the Delaware River, with all the lovely fishy taste you could want), so we've used bottled water for drinking for the past 20 years. After dealing with unreliable delivery from the spring water companies (including bottles left to freeze solid when we'd paused delivery while on vacation) and then weekly lugging bottles of filtered water back from the local Lowe's, we finally decided to try a plumbed-in dispenser. Installation was easy (though be careful not to over-tighten the fittings, or they'll leak mercilessly), flushing the filters was straightforward, and the taste is exactly like the filtered and spring water we'd been buying (though it took a day or so before a very slight aftertaste disappeared - I think I should have flushed the new filters a little longer). While we got it more for convenience than economics, it's actually going to save us a ton of money - the bottled water cost $1.40 a gallon, while the filters, at $130 for a set good for about 1000 gallons, come out to just $0.13 per gallon. One caveat on installation: the filter-flushing cap supplied with our unit was of a newer design than the one shown in the manual, and critically, the infeed and outfeed ports are reversed! There are arrows on the cap showing the correct direction of flow, but if you instead follow the instructions in the manual you'll connect the flushing feed backward and flush the filters in reverse. I was confused enough that I called tech support, and they were very helpful and quickly let me know to follow the arrows on the cap and not the instruction manual (which they're hopefully updating).