Aqua Optima Lumi Chilled Filtered Water Dispenser - Reduces Limescale, Microplastics, Chlorine & Lead with the Evolve+ Water Filter Cartridge - Countertop 8.2L Cooler for Home & Office

I wanted a bench top water dispenser / cooler and after looking at several products, I decided to try this one. Here's some tips which may explain some of the other reviews and help get you going: 1) The instructions say to soak the filter and wash the plastic container first - don't ignore this or you will get a plastic taste. I made this mistake and only washed the top container, not realising the big BOTTOM container comes off too. Wash both considerably under HOT water for a while, then wash again with cold water, dry the outside only of the containers and put back together. 2) If you are still getting a plastic taste, you can put a sterilising tablet (what you use to clean baby bottles, home brew etc) in the bottom tray. Leave for a while then run it through the internal pipes - keep the machine unplugged when you do this. Once done, I'd clean the tray again and run fresh water through the internal pipes about 5 times or so to remove any risidual. 3) The machine will work without power - just press the button, water comes out at ambient temperature. The power is needed to chill the water only. 4) The machine will make a little bit of noise when it is chilling the water - this last about an hour for me. The noise isn't loud at all, no more loud than a normal fridge in the kitchen so doesn't bother me at all. Once the water is cold, the blue light comes on the front and the chiller turns off anyway. 5) It seems to store plenty of water ice cold. I was worried it may only give a glass then the rest of the water would have to be cooled but there seems to be loads. 6) As some other reviewers mention, you have to hold the button in for the water to come out - if you have slower flow of water, you need to fill it up - it's gravity fed so there's no pump (thus working without electric) so if you don't have a lot of water in the upper tank, the flow will be a bit slower but with the tank over half full, the flow is acceptable. 7) The device is not plumbed in at all - you fill the top of the machine using a jug or similar. There is no waste, it has a drip tray. 8) Water capacity is good - can store a lot of water so you won't be refilling all the time. 9) Filter needs changing every month but these seem pretty cheap and it's easy to change them - they fit on the bottom of the top plastic tray. You push it in slightly off the oval alignment then turn clockwise to lock in. To remove, turn anti clockwise and pull down. I hope the above is useful for people - I'm impressed with my machine but takes a bit of setting up with running the water through so be patient. Once it's done though, it's a doddle and filter changing is really easy so don't have to go through the setup again. I had looked at other brands of water filters which are plumbed in such as Virgin Pure but the price of the machine is ridiculous and then it's either £200 a year to replace the filter (2 each year, every 6 months) and UV thing (once a year) or you can sign upto their plan thing which is £13 a month - no thanks! This machine does a similar job for a fraction of the cost. For the manufacturer, things could work on for future models: 1) Option to automatically fill a glass so don't have to keep button held down 2) Higher clearance between output nozzle and drip tray so it fits a larger pint glass under it 3) Option to adjust temperature - it's ice cold but some may want it colder or slightly milder perhaps

I followed the instructions to the letter. Washing out both water tanks with warm soapy water, rinsing and drying. Before adding the filter cartridge I flushed through 2 ltrs cold water (thankfully I have thirsty houseplants so water not wasted). I then put filter in and another ltr water it was three full glasses later that the plastic taste was gone but the water still had a tang so I flushed out the rest of the water out. Now we are getting lovely chilled water with no taste and so its a win. I would recommend this but you really need to be patient and perhaps have a lot of house plants!

Not much to say about this product, does exactly what it's supposed to, with no particular problems. The water flavour was really really weird for me at the beginning, tasting like pool water (vaguely resembling chlorine) but I guess it was either the filter that needed some initial usage or my mouth needed to adjust to the different filter type (I used to use the bottled filter), but after a week or two the water started to feel perfectly normal and I actually enjoy it a lot. The temperature is perfect, very cold but impossible to give headache. Couple of things that I don't like: the lid always gets a lot of condensed water which can easily spill all over the place when you open it, also if you are drinking your standard 1-2 liters of water per day, you'll need to refill it at least once per day. Be careful in the summer, if it's exposed to direct sun light, some parts of it will become warm enough for it to never stop trying to make the water cold (I think some sensor gets a bit crazy). Moving it to a different corner of the kitchen that is always away from sunlight solved the issue. Finally, yes it is quite noisy when it makes the water cold, which happens once per day on average and takes about an hour, but we barely notice as we don't spend much time downstairs in the kitchen anyway.

We only drink bottled water, but we've noticed it's getting harder to get hold of, so we plumped for this... and we are so glad we did! You have to buy filters, but they're cheap, and they're easy to switch out, so there's no bother there. You can either have it plugged into the wall to chill your water (it comes out very cold, but not ice-cold), or unplugged, in which case it will give you filtered water, but not chilled. The water tastes gorgeous - it's fresh, and clean... like the very most wonderful bottled water. And to think it's from the tap! I will say quickly, the inner compartment is beneath the filter so as soon as you take it out of the box, give everything a good clean - the more thorough you are in the beginning, the better - and this will stop your water tasting of plastic. Can't recommend this lovely water filter enough.

Great product, does exactly what it says. Cool water at push of a button. Easy to use. Quite slow filling large glass or bottle.

When I first received the Aqua Optima lumi Chiller, the machine appeared to work well. Having used the water chiller now for 1 month, there are some clear issues - however the largest one is mainly caused by the water filters that are compatible with this machine. The water filter I'm referencing is the water filter that came together with the machine, and it's been an ongoing issue for 1 month now. Cons: - You'll need to manually dissemble the top compartments of the water chiller every 2 days because the filters stop working! After 2 days, the water simply stops filtering and it all remains inside the top compartment, even though the bottom compartment is empty. After dissembling the top compartment, you'll have to remove the water filter and shake it for 30 seconds to make it work again. After that, you'll need to reassemble it back in place. This is a recurring issue that we have to do roughly 3 times per week! - The water flow is very little and slow compared to other water chillers, so it takes much longer to get water out from the container. It also takes a while for the water to get cold. Pros: - Once the water eventually cools down inside the water chiller, the water that comes out does have a nice cold temperature - The Aqua Optima lumi chiller is aesthetically nicer than a lot of other similar machines - It holds a large amount of water content inside it

Really pleased with this. The water comes out nicely chilled and it holds plenty, so I’m not constantly refilling it. There’s no leakage at all. It is a little slow, but that’s not an issue for me as I’m not filling a jug. Very easy to use and simple to refill. Does exactly what I wanted.

I read all the reviews before buying this product and a few customers who bought this did mention about the strange metallic taste but one review said that if you follow the instructions properly then you shouldn't get that taste. So I decided to buy this based on that review. I followed the instructions to the dot. Using this machine I filtered a whole tank of water and dispensed it out. I repeated this about 5 times (took me ages) and unfortunately there was STILL a strange strong metallic taste. I even put filtered water into the top part (which i filtered using my own water filter jug) and that was filtered again by this machine and still the same problem with taste. The taste was so metallic worse than tap water. It seems the taste changes happens somewhere between AFTER the water is filtered by the Aqua Optima filter and the dispenser point. Somewhere inside the machine along there changes the water taste, because if you use the Aqua Optima filter cartridge without the machine (which I also did to test!) the taste was absolutely fine, lovely tasting water so the problem isnt the cartridge. It is a shame, Aqua Optima need to look into this problem and look at the mechanics of the machine as to why this taste is occurring, as the whole point of the product is to have clean better testing water! My water filter jug does better job! I didnt encounter problems with the cooling aspect of machine. Price was reasonable, but since the taste was horrible , I can't use it, defeats whole purpose and so I returned it and I am sticking to filter jug and cartridge now.