Aqua Optima AUH012 Countertop Water Filtration System, Hot Water Dispenser, Countertop Water Filter, hot Water Kettle Electric, Water Boiler, 7 Temperatures, Zero Installation, Includes 1 Filter

Decided to retire my 15+ years old traditional Zojirushi water boiler and warmer and try the instant heat water dispenser, thinking it should save electricity and can decide the desired temperature for each use.Pros1. easy to use2. fast to start dispensing, but of course not as fast as any water boiler and warmerCons1. The water tank looks big but it has an opening around 2/3 of height essentially wasting a lot of volume that can be used. Or if that's for accomodating the filter? I always use RO filtered water, so I don't use the filter anyway.2. There is an opening at the center of the water tank lid. It might be used for letting air in when pumping water out? Is it really needed? my coffee maker has similar water tank but doesn't need that opening. To me, the opening is just letting dust in.3. The temperature jumps from 104F to 175F. To us, 104F is not warm enough, 175F is too hot to drink. It could be better having temperature distributed more evenly.4. The machine is much larger than I think it should take5. I understand it requires high power to heat the water quick, nonetheless,1500W can be an issue for some kitchen with limited placement options and electric cirucits. If you use it accidentally with other high power appliance like microwave, toaster oven on the same circuit, it will likely pop the breaker.

I use it every day after purchasing it! Easy to use and you can get the hot water very soon!

I was out of country for more than a month, for the safety concern I unplugged the appliance from power outlet. I also unplugged my coffee maker from the same outlet when left home. After I returned home, I plugged the appliance and coffee machine back to the same power outlet. Both appliances were functioning just fine. I even made couple of hot water from Aqua Optima machine. But after 3 to 4 hours later, I noticed all the light on Aqua Optima machine were turned on then off all in a quick sudden and my coffee maker clock light was off as well. After I reset my power outlet. My Coffee maker light was back on and worked. But whenever I plugged the Aqua Optima back to outlet. The outlet was shut off again.The coffee maker light was off again. I then went to Aqua Optima website to explain my situation, however, Aqua replied me an email to contact the seller ( Amazon) for help. I then chatted with Amazon product support for a couple of times and asked for calling a service. But wherever it reached to the point to ask for my phone number, the chatting window immediately closed. So I don’t know what to do. I only used Aqua Optima hot water dispenser for 1 year and 3 months.

Update 7/29/2023: I purchased this in January, so about 6 months. I am a licensed master electrician. This thing worked well for a long time. Unfortunately, recently it has been popping the AFCI breaker. This is a dedicated countertop circuit with one lone GFCI receptacle. Very basic installation. Ambient heat isn't anything crazy. Panel is in a cool basement. The AFCI blows and sometimes the adjacent AFCI on the same phase (not beside but one breaker over) trips as well. Replaced the GFCI receptacle to the 20 amp style (which should be identical internally) as well as the breaker. Still happening. I think what is going on is that we have multiple coffee maker type gadgets on different dedicated nearby circuits, each modulating its heating in an on/ off pattern, and that somehow these frequencies are bleeding into each other, fooling the one with the largest load to trip. I'll keep digging, but I suspect the applince is the culprit.Original review:I've been using both styles of Nespresso on and off for years. I say "off" because the pods are embarrassingly expensive and don't taste like true espresso. The rest of my family prefers instant with microwaved mugs of water. This creates a line for the microwave when food is cooking. The best coffee we make comes from a drip coffee maker. However, this requires making an entire pot which inevitably must be wasted and the carafe washed just about daily.The Aqua Optima has a hottest setting which dispenses at up to tea kettle temperature (seems just under 212°F). This is perfect for tea or ramen. The 205°F setting is better for hot chocolate. For my purposes, this replaces both pod machines and frees up the microwave.I was wary that this thing might preheat all day, wasting power. However, I have a Sense energy monitor and was able to confirm the heating element only runs while dispensing. The plug pops rather dramatically when first plugging in, making me fear that it was drawing a lot of current, but this seems to be related to a capacitor. It's not actually drawing hardly any power in standby. Speaking of plugs, it does indeed come with a standard 110 volt, 15 amp U.S. plug. It seems to draw roughly 1500 watts when dispensing but, again, almost zero in standby, regardless of on or off.I should also add that the auto-lock function and beeps can be turned off through pressing one button down and the other up (manual gets this part wrong). Lock button is red when turned on, but again, the unit uses "<0.5 watts" of power in standby, so it doesn't really matter if on or off. All that really does it turn off the LEDs which use almost no power. So I just leave it on all the time so it never auto-locks.

Very slow and the electronic are buggy. Made of cheap plastic so the trap is very susceptible to breaking if not careful. Really not worth the price.

Too large for our space but very nice.

The TDS reading for my tap water before and after going through this water filter system was the same. Even when I thought that maybe it was just the evolve filter and needed a replacement after I ran it with a replacement filter again following the standard 2 time 35 ounce clear out it states in the instructions it read the same TDS level both times. It might help with some of the larger particles which is why the pH changed but I would not recommend this product.

Broke after 2-3 months. We bought this product twice and it did not last.