Water Coolers....? Eeek! Help!

[Want Less]

My husband and I are seriously considering buying my mother a water cooler and a couple nice reusable water bottles for Christmas this year because she buys so much bottled water by the case that it nearly makes me sick. (AND I really think she would enjoy it)

Problem is, I dont know where to start. Any of you own one? I'm referring to those upright models where you can keep refilling the big container thing. I'm really hoping I can get her one and include some info on how her tap water may be much better for her than bottled water, and to consider refilling it with tap water.

I see several models available through Target and Walmart and such. Can anyone recommend one?? The cheaper the better without it being a useless mess, of course. Spending $200 will be a stretch but doable if we have no other option.

They have one of those Brita pitchers for the fridge, so no need to buy them one of those.

(I wasnt sure if this should fit in another category... scold me gently if it should... lol)

 

[freemotion]

There are companies that supply offices and such with coolers, water, cups, etc. They would have what you are looking for. They also deliver bottled water to offices. As a massage therapist, I've had the salesmen stop into my office and I did look into it at one time.

I use swing-top beer bottles as my own water bottles now. In the summer I can fill several with water and ice tea and be ready to go for the day. For a nicer gift, you can buy these bottles in a lovely shade of cobalt blue at beer and winemaking supply places. I got one that I love using and it was only $4 at the time. I use this one when driving so I don't get stopped and given a field sobriety test!

 

[big brown horse]

Before I had my own well water, I bought a nice stoneware based water cooler. It kept the water at a decent temp even in TX. Plus I loved the way it looked! I got it at a small town hardware type store for under 40 bucks.

 

[sufficientforme]

My husband wastes (I mean bought) a lot of bottled water until I purchased a Berkey water filter. It's a countertop model that you refill every few days with your tap water. It is awesome! We love the way the water tastes and we just refill our bottles daily.
This is where we bought ours, it was on sale and came with additional items and shipped for free, they are hard to find on sale and this company had them below MSRP.
http://www.jamesfilter.com/berkey.aspx
I did not go with the pre-filled type bottles with stands since they are usually just tap water that is filtered and the hassle of getting the bottles. We have had it since January and I would buy another in a heartbeat, now if I could only get the rest of the family to learn how to use a pitcher and actually fill it when it's empty
They are a little more than the price range you wanted to spend but I figure the crud it is removing from our drinking water was worth it. It fits in with our emergency preparedness kit perfectly.

 

[TanksHill]

I think the first thing is to look at the water source. If your going to be filling from the tap, is there stuff in it you want to filter out?

That might help you determine what type of bottle/filter you will end up buying.

That Berkley looks interesting.

g

 

[sufficientforme]

Our tap water is so nasty smelling/tasting we would not drink it until we purchased the Berkey, I am confident it is filtering out a lot of the nasty stuff that comes through. We have the 3.1 gallon reservoir and fill it every other day for our family of four.