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Chatting by the drinking fountain is one of the many little pleasures we have lost in 2020. Although I miss talking about the weather or news with my colleagues, I can reproduce part of the experience with my own drinking fountain at home. For convenience, I often Willing to pay more, so I decided to invest in a water dispenser for my apartment in New York City. Although my apartment has running water, its temperature does not fluctuate much, nor is it much lower than the room temperature. I had to put a ton of ice in my glass and wait a few minutes to let my water cool down to drink.

I have used a jug in the past, but it has a limited capacity, takes up a lot of refrigerator space, and it is troublesome to add water (especially when you have multiple roommates). Once, I was buying and refrigerating plastic water bottles, which was expensive and wasteful of the environment. Now, my roommate and I have placed a drinking fountain in the corner of the living room. We obtain monthly water supply through the water supply company ReadyRefresh, and we recycle approximately four 5-gallon water tanks every month. The monthly delivery fee is about US$30, divided into three ways.

We did not want to spend money on expensive drinking fountains with functions, and chose this one. It is durable, can easily support a 5-gallon kettle, and can dispense ice water and hot water. When filling my glass or water bottle, I just press it back on the lever and the water will flow out immediately. The hot water function also allows you to easily enjoy a cup of tea without boiling water on the stove.

Being able to use tap water throughout the day actually helps me stay hydrated because there are fewer barriers to getting water-I find that I drink more water than ever before. What's more, I definitely save money (because I didn't buy additional water bottles) and be more environmentally friendly. After finishing each kettle, we set it aside, ReadyRefresh collects it and recycles it for future use.

You can find water dispensers with almost any function, from built-in refrigerators to spark water dispensers. Some cooler designs are more stylish-in stainless steel or glass-and may be more suitable for your existing home decor. Remember, the more features or design elements your cooler has, the higher its price may be.

If you miss the soda can in the office like I do, then you will love this stainless steel cooler, which can dispense soda in addition to hot and cold liquids. You can select the degree of carbonation of the water you want through high, medium and low settings. The cooler also has an LED screen to remind you when to clean the filter or replace the carbonation tank that came with the model. It can support 3 gallon and 5 gallon water tanks.

This high-end water dispenser is equipped with an automatic sensor for non-contact drinking, and is equipped with temperature adjustment and a digital LED clock. One of my favorite features of this model is the bottom loading design, so you don’t need to put a 40-pound kettle on top of the cooler. The cooler has a safety function to prevent hot water from flowing out, and a child lock.

If you don't have enough space to place the water dispenser or don't want to splurge on it, I have used and like this Brita water dispenser. This is a simple and more affordable way to obtain cold water, although it requires regular refills and semi-regular cleaning and replacement of filters. This model can hold up to 18 cups and can filter particulates such as chlorine and mercury in tap water. It is also more environmentally friendly than buying a plastic water bottle.

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Hanna Horvath is a personal finance reporter based in New York. She currently writes for Policygenius, and her work has appeared in Business Insider, MSN, Inc magazines, etc. 

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