Avalon Bottom Loading Water Cooler

Hot– Heats up quick. From room temperature to scalding in about 10 minutes. A ‘how hot?’ temperature dial would be preferred. [Perhaps for the next-level-up version, rather than this: the basic model?] As default-set, I need to wait 10 minutes for my tea to cool enough to drink. Using a kettle, I do not let it get that hot: do not want to burn my tea-leaves. Cold– Yeah, it is cold. But, I don't like cold water. So I never turn on Cold, unless I am expecting guests who might prefer that. [Which I then shut everything off again when they've gone.] Perhaps it is a bit too cold? Perhaps a ‘how cold?’ dial would be pertinent, for the next-level-up version? Again, I am not expecting perfection/exceptional at the cost of ‘cheapest available.’ Temperature Conflict– All the internal tanks are interconnected within the fountain. [They all drain into Cold: but perhaps that's just the slope of my floor dripping it that direction, when powered off?] So, if Hot is left on long enough (3+ hours), the heat starts seeping over into Cool and Cold. Hot left always-on requires Cold to then be always-on too: lest you want your Cool to be warm, and your Cold to be tepid. [Leave it to engineers to expect end-users to turn (and leave) everything on, as the only way for it to work ‘properly.’] So then I must question whether that means Hot and Cold are constantly fighting over temperature, the battleground being within Cool, wasting how much electricity? Noise– I keep the entire thing Powered Off most of the time, preferring my drinking water at room temperature. I have the fountain wired to a switch, turn it on only when the water is running low, to prevent hearing the pump run every time I get a drink. It is not terribly loud, but unnecessary to hear. As it stands, given the volume of water the internal tanks store, I only need to power on the pump every third day or so for my drinking water. [Takes 90-120 seconds to refill.] If left on, there's always a high-pitched ‘eeeee’ noise. I suspect that would be the pump keeping itself primed. In a busy house or office nobody would hear it, but here alone in the woods, where one can hear everything, the sound grates on the nerves. Potential Problem– This fountain keeps pumping nothing, does not auto-shut-off, when the water-bottle runs out. The longest I left it ‘huffing air’ was 20 minutes, just to see if it would stop, as I didn't want to burn out the motor. So, what happens if you get a drink on the way out the door in the morning and thereby it runs out of water? Will it keep pumping nothing all day? I suspect that would kill it. Overall– Excellent. Looks classy. Works well for what it was designed. Five Stars. Would buy again, recommend to others.