Brio 520 Series Self Cleaning Water Dispenser Bottom Loading Water Cooler

This machine was delivered in 5 days. It was easy to plug it in with no setup. The buttons are convenient and self explanatory. The hot water has a safety switch, which is nice when kids come to visit. The water flows out at a pretty good rate, not very fast, but good to fill a glass or water bottle. The first use we needed to run almost 5 gallons to get the ‘machine’ taste out of it, but it’s great tasting once you do. It is relatively quiet too. Super quiet when we first got it, now at 6 months it sounds a little like something needs to be tightened to stop a minor rattling when refrigeration turns on. The hot is hot enough for tea, the cold is super chill. I am happy with my purchase. From what I can see, these units generally last 2 years with daily use. I’m happy with that timeline for functionality. If & when it dies I’ll buy again. Update: Oct 2024 Still satisfied with the function of this machine. The hot water is great to have ready when needed. The on/off switch on the back is handy to save energy too. I take off one star because it’s noisy. Two months after purchase it makes a loud rattling noise when the refrigeration unit turns on. We might be able to tighten something to fix it. Also , the ‘empty’ blinking light sometimes turns on for no reason. I just open & shut the door and it turns off, no problem. I still have ABSOLUTELY no problem with this machine and am happy with my purchase. I just want others to know what their getting!

I rarely rate items on the day I first use them however I am thrilled with the Brio Self-cleaning Bottom Loading Water Cooler so I had to change things up. My main concern while we waited for it to arrive was that our refillable water bottles/canteens weren’t going to fit under the nozzles. Prior to buying I had read through so many Q&A’s with such vague answers to this question so all I could really do is hope the biggest of our bottles would fit at a slant. WooHoo - no worries!!! As you can see in a couple of my pictures a 32oz Hydro-Flask fits perfectly. The setup was a dream. It was ready to go and dispersing room temperature water within five minutes. We chose to go with the five gallon Primo water bottle sold at Walmart but I can see how easily a three gallon could be used. The cap that fits over the bottle top has tabs that adjust and lift the tube to achieve the correct height for use. It’s a pretty slick idea. I can’t attest to how well it works because we have the five gallon jug but the idea is sound. Room temperature water will be our usual go-to so I love that there is no waiting for resets to happen when changing out bottles. All you have to do is purge the line after you’ve installed a new bottle and you’re ready to go. I’m not sure how often we’ll use the hot water feature but I did check to make sure it worked and was thrilled that HOT water was running through within 15 minutes of turning on the switch. I love the safety switch as we have littles that visit and even though the hot switch will more than likely be left off I’d rather be more safe than sorry. The cold water was at ice water temperature in less than a half hour. This wasn’t a must for our family but it’ll be a nice feature for guests who prefer super cold water. I have no idea how big the holding tank is but I have to believe a person could get several glasses of cold water out of it at one time. As far as the noise.... you can definitely hear it but it is no louder than a fridge. We set ours up in our mud room/laundry room so obviously we won’t be bothered by the slight hum in the common areas. The footprint is small, the bottom load is awesome and the overall features and ease of use make this cooler a no-brainer over most of what is offered right now. I’ll update my review if things go wonky but for now I’m all about the five stars.

Purchased it for newborn Formula (mixing Hot & Cold). Problem: Our Dispenser was contaminating the water Poland Spring 5-gallon water, when it passed through the cooler. Cold Water had a foul after taste that had a chemical taste. When comparing water taste, from the jug to dispenser's cold water, there was an absolute taste difference, and the after taste lingered. The infant cried with what appeared to be stomach pains after drinking the formula made with this Brio unit. My opinion is that the manufacturing process is not properly protecting a clean uncontaminated product. Further reading online reports this is a common complaint with Brio. The water is clearly being contaminated by the system, they did not even care to pick-up so they could verify the chemical taste. I'm am concerned for the health of my granddaughter, as Brio showed zero interest in a refund, zero interest in obtaining the unit for testing why it has a chemical taste. If it is indeed coolant contaminating the water, then the company needs to be held accountable for allowing traces of a chemical injected into water by its dispenser.

Our family of 7 have been using this for the last month or so and it has been working better than expected after reading other reviews. We needed to look for cooler options with hot, room, and cold temperatures and this really worked out. We had a slight hiccup with shipment at first as our order got lost for over a week but Amazon was quick to help with sending a replacement order. Within the month of using it so far here are some pros and cons from what we’ve experienced so far: Pros - no weird or strange taste in the water - noise of water refilling isn’t much of an issue, however, it will rattle if the cord or the water jug is against the back paneling or the sides - hot water and cold water functions works well. Hot water is hot enough to cook instant cup ramen, cold water is as cold if you refrigerate water bottle. Cons: - Self cleaner is a bit loud like others mentioned. I would highly recommend setting cleaning when you are not home or through night. - Metal sheeting on the top portion is extremely thin so warping or dings will happen if you are not careful (from the picture, you can see the plastic/metal structure of the buttons on top)

Initial impressions---- Build quality-- This is a cheap flimsy cooler. The metal covering the top front was dented. Several other users made this same comment. The "metal" is THIN. I didn't want to mess with packaging it up and sending it back only to get another one with the same issue. The water bottle door is super flimsy. Others commented on how there wasn't a recessed area to open the door which made it difficult to open. I would partially agree. There isn't a "finger" indention to make it easy to open the door. It's not that big of an issue to open it though. Noise-- It's not any louder than other coolers I've had. You can hear the cooler running but it's not bad at all. There were several comments about it being loud. Unless they had a faulty unit, It isn't. Water flow rate.-- It's decent. I would have liked it to be at a higher rate but, it's acceptable. Taste-- The water tasted fine. Easy of use-- It's easy to use. Push a button and water comes out. Buttons are easy to push. Others commented out the buttons being hard to push but mine work fine. Water Temp-- I don't use the hot water feature so I can't attest to how it works. The cold water is about what you would expect if you got it from the refrigerator. Longevity-- Only time will tell since I just got it. These coolers tend to last about 3-4 years so I went ahead and got the 4 year warranty. With the warranty, it was about the same price as its closest rival. Height of unit-- It's the normal height of this type of cooler. I'm 6'1" and have to bend over to use it but it's not an issue. Some reviews made issue with its height but It's fine for me. Self-cleaning-- I haven't used this function yet since I just bought it but if it works, I'll be happy. My previous unit automatically cleaned itself without having to activate it manually. It's not a big deal though. Pros- It looks pretty nice. Cools water. Noise level is decent. Price was decent. Self-cleaning. Cons- Cheap materials. Metal was dented when I got it. Water bottle door is flimsy. Conclusion-- For the price, I think it's about the best your going to get. As of right now, I would recommend it. If it breaks, I'll update the review. UPDATE 1-24-23 - Coolers working perfect. I recommend running the self cleaning function when you're not home due to it being loud and lasting about an hour.

Prior to buying this Brio water dispenser we owned a Primo brand dispenser (also purchased from Amazon) we were pretty happy with it, for the most part. Over the past few years the primo has developed a taste I didn't care for, but no one else in the house seemed to notice or care. I tried cleaning it with vinegar and water flushes and dilute bleach and water flushes but the taste remained. I figured it was just the brand of 5 gal bottles we were having delivered so I drank a lot of wasteful single serve plastic bottles to avoid the water from the Primo unit. Finally the cooling part of the Primo broke so I started looking for a replacement. I definitely wanted another bottom fed cooler. Once you get rid of that 5 gallon bottle perched on top of your cooler you'll never want to go back. Just not having to deadlift the 50 lb bottle and flip it over without spilling a bunch of water on the floor is reason enough, right? Then there is the nice clean look of the cooler without the bottle perched on the top. Anyway, the Brio is a bottom fed so it fit the bill there. I also liked the sound of the "self cleaning ozone" feature so I decided to give the Brio a try, and I'm so glad I did. This Brio is such an improvement over the Primo it replaced. Let's start with little things. The Brio pump is quieter. No one in our house cares about this but I've seen people complain about noisy bottom fed coolers and the Brio is pretty quiet. The Primo had a room temp button but the water was the nearly the same temp as the cold. It was a pointless and never used button on the Primo The Brio room temp button is just that, room temp water. I measured each spout and the cold is 43°F, room temp is 71°F, and hot is 178°F. Now you may already know this but 178°F is a great temp for steeping most white and green teas as well as herbal blends. Oolong and black teas want to be a little hotter (up over 200°F) but for a relaxing cup of sleepytime tea this thing s perfect. The Primo only reached 165F°. Point Brio. Also note you can turn off the hot water in the Brio if you don't want to use it and don't want to waste the energy heating water you won't use. This was the same with the Primo. Tall containers fit better in the Brio. The Brio has a full 1 3/4" (4.5cm for you non-Americans) more space under the spout than the Primo did, a full 10 inches from base to spout as well as a slightly wider perch than the Primo. I can fill my baseball stadium "big ole beer" cups, my Bubba Keg, even my wife's tall 64oz Camelback fits under the Brio nozzle no problem. That never worked with the Primo, you were always holding cups at a weird angle with your finger over the edge to feel when the water was close to the top. Point Brio The Brio is attractive, at least in my opinion. Black and stainless fit well in most any decor. The Primo was the same color scheme so a wash there. The taste. The water from the Brio is delicious. I don't know what the deal was with the Primo, maybe it was age or some tubing they used I didn't like but I'm back to drinking water from the dispenser instead of destroying the environment with plastic single serve water bottles. I'm going to make regular use of the "self cleaning ozone" feature in hopes of keeping it that way. I much prefer being an environmentally conscious citizen but I just couldn't drink the water from the Primo, it was gross. So I guess you've figured out by now I really love this Brio water cooler and I highly recommend it. It is on the higher priced side of water dispensers but not by a lot and to me, if the self clean feature works it is 100% worth the extra money to have a cooler I will continue using for many years because the water will actually taste good.

First order came used wet and smelling like mildew. Amazon refunded everything and I ordered a new one. Next one came new never used and even packaged differently. So far we love our brio definitely worth it. Easy to unpack and set up. I'll be back to review after a year or so really hoping it last more than a couple years for the price. I purchased the 4 year warranty just in case. The cold temp is really chilled and the hot really hot. The preteens love the hot setting for oatmeal noodles instant potatoes hot chocolate and tea!

Hello, I love my new Brio water dispenser!!!! It’s easy to use, looks great, water is great ( hot water is very hot be careful ), I love the CHILD SAFETY HOT WATER button. Loading the jug in the bottom is so much easier with my multiple disabilities . Changing the jug takes about 1-2 min ♥️ Love the night light, My handled mug is too tall to fit under the spout ( sitting on drain ) but that’s fine by me. I left the front plastic film on mine just to keep it from being scratched up. I do not like how it says to keep it 8 inches from the wall cuz it sticks out too far for where I need to place it but I’m getting use to it. I bought the FOOD GRADE ACID to clean it but I don’t have to do that until July ( every 3 months ) I hope that goes well too. I also bought the EXTRA insurance on it. I chose the 4 year option. THANK YOU SO MUCH. With my disabilities I was worried about getting my Brio water dispenser in my secured building ( I didn’t want it left outside to be stolen or damaged ) and down 1 flight of stares and to my front door and then into my small apartment. Somehow the delivery driver made entrance into my secured building and was extremely kind and brought it right down stares to my apartment door. I was almost in tears 😭HAPPY TEARS. I was constantly getting delivery updates sent to my email. EASY SET UP! Read the ENTIRE manual BEFORE doing any thing EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! ALL IS SPECTACULAR! Thank you so much ♥️

am very happy with this purchase. The quality is amazing for the price, and the product looks exactly as shown in the photos. I tested it for a few days before writing this review and it works perfectly. Fast shipping, good packaging, and great value. Highly recommend!

Lo compré aun viendo que había comentarios negativos, debido a que tiene self cleaning y en Mexico no tienen por lo general esa función. Al final resultó peor que el dispensador marca whirlpool que pensaba sustituir. Lo desempaque y estaba bien sellado sin daños aparentes, leí las instrucciones, son claras, tiene etiquetas de los pasos muy sencillas, pero al conectar la bomba que debe subir el agua se convierte en una regadera, como pueden ver en el video. Algo debe estar flojo, mi dispensador viejo tiene la misma estructura y no pasa eso.

I had to replace my old water cooler because it quit after 5 solid years of use and no complaints. I could not get the same brand so after reading the reviews on this Brio brand cooler, I decided to pay the high price to get a good quality cooler. I am very unhappy with it. The main feature that I use on my cooler is the hot water on demand. This machine never seems to have hot water when you need it. We have to turn the button on the back off and then on again for the water to heat up and it takes way longer than our old cooler. I am thankful that I have something to compare it to. Our old cooler kept the water very hot and then all you had to do was push a button on top and within 1 minute it would be hot enough for a coffee. This Brio machine takes about 15 minutes to get the water hot enough. This is not acceptable. I can get hot water faster with my kettle. The price of this cooler is way too high for only the cold option to be working. I would not buy this brand if you are wanting hot water on demand.

Pas bruyante, facile d’utilisation pour mon petit fils de 6ans et sans dégâts. Par contre, l’eau n’est pas assez froide. Auto nettoyant ne veut pas dire qu’il ne faut pas le nettoyer. C’est aussi souvent que les autres. J’utilise une pastille pour machine à eau aux 3 mois N’ai jamais réussi à l’enregistrer pour la garantie, le site du fabricant ne reconnaît pas son numéro d’identification et la communication valait pas chère. Donc n’est toujours pas enregistrée

For this price, it could be better. I like design, the level noise is very good. Some parts are made sturdy but some parts are weak , easy to bend (the top metal part). The dripping tray cover feels shaky. I do have one bend on the top metal part. It is not because of a delivery damage or something else but it is a defect that was done during the manufacture. I see it every time and I regret that I didn’t return it. I am not sure whether the high ratings are coming from for this product.