Brio Self Cleaning Water Dispenser

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.