My tap water is honestly safe and decent, but it has a taste I don’t like. I’ve been using a basic pitcher (<1 gallon) with a Brita filter for about a year. This makes the water taste much better and I like it.
I’m getting a bit tired though of having to refill the pitcher once or twice every day. Plus once I fill the pitcher I have to put the pitcher in the fridge for at least a few hours before it is the right temperature. It struck me last night - I drink enough water every day to day to justify a new purchase.
Any recommendations? I drink, water-wise, at home only (not counting what I drink at the office) about 2 - 3 L per day. I have a big empty space (not quite a room, but area where I may in the future put a desk and make an ‘open office’) in my condo where a cooler would fit and could be very useful.
I have plenty of empty electrical sockets in this space but no plumbing. New plumbing is not an option that I’d consider.
Any recommendations? I’ve been googling around a bit for either “home water cooler” or “large capacity home water filter” but the sheer number and variety of results are baffling.
Don’t expect it to cool the water enough. When we had one, the lowest the temp could be set for was in the 40 degree range. We prefer our water just this side of solid. We also had a spring water place 5 miles away. THAT was much cheeper, vs. buying the 3 or 5 gallons at the store.
We have a water cooler in our house. One of those that uses the large 5 gallon bottles of water. Our local grocery store sells the Primo brand of water. The 5 gallon bottle costs $7.00, that’s with the discount for returning the previous used bottle. You can get the cooler from your local Lowes or Home Depot store for prices ranging from $100-$150. The cooler only needs an electrical outlet and will chill the water. Ours also has a feature to dispense hot water up to 195 degrees, which is great for tea, etc.
We have a family of 5 and go through a 5 gallon bottle of water in about 5 days.
There should be services in your town, such as Culligan, that can install a whole-house-level filter and provide additional services. They should be willing to sit down with you and design a system for whatever your needs are.
My father-in-law had them install a drinking water spigot on his sink, to the right of the faucet, for “the good stuff”. The whole-house system also means clean ice cubes; if you can’t stand ice, I suppose you can get refrigerated mugs or use reuseable ice cubes or something. Or just fill jugs at the spigot and keep a few in the fridge.
I love our home water cooler. It sits in the corner of my kitchen and we go through five gallons every four or five days. I use that water for my keurig too as it makes the coffee and tea taste better and the hard water would clog up the machine. My daughter’s friend find it a novelty and drink more water than juice when they are over which I like. I keep small plastic cups on top of it to fill up as they wish. I probably spend about 25 or 30 dollars per month which I think is worth it.