The best water coolers, ranked.
Our independent Top lists by category — scores, verdicts and comparison table.
office water coolers
With six criteria weighted equally, Culligan scores highest for a Belgian office with a water connection nearby, just ahead of the BRITA VIVREAU Top, the best choice for sparkling water. If there is no pipe within easy reach, two kinds of unit remain: a bottled-water cooler with carboys, or the SPA® Fountain with 10-litre SPA Reine packs, which only needs a power socket and rents from €18.50 a month excluding VAT. The SPA® Fountain is the only unit in this list that works without a connection and pours natural mineral water with a fixed composition, but once the packs are counted it is the most expensive option per litre in this comparison.
Top 6mains-fed water coolers
The best mains-fed water cooler for a Belgian office is, in most cases, a Culligan unit: cold, sparkling and hot water from one machine, with installation, maintenance and service in the contract. BRITA VIVREAU and Aqualex follow closely. Is there no water connection within a metre and a half of the spot where the unit has to stand? Then a mains-fed unit is not the cheapest route, and you are better off running the numbers on a unit without a connection: a bottled-water cooler with carboys or a SPA® Fountain with 10-litre packs.
Top 5sparkling water coolers
The best sparkling water cooler for a Belgian office is a BRITA VIVREAU: still, chilled, sparkling and hot water from one mains-fed unit, with its own service team. PHIL comes second, because it is the only supplier that says how many litres of sparkling water a CO2 cartridge produces. Aqualex and Culligan follow. Every unit on this list needs a water connection. Without a pipe, no unit will give you sparkling water, not even the SPA® Fountain, which only pours still SPA Reine.
Top 6mineral waters
The best mineral water for a Belgian office is SPA Reine: very low in minerals (38 mg of dry residue and 3 mg of sodium per litre), from a protected source in the Fens around Spa, and the only water on this list that also comes in 10-litre packs for a dispenser. Chaudfontaine is the second Belgian choice, with more minerals and more sodium. Bru is the sparkling alternative. Evian, Vittel and Contrex come from France and get richer in minerals per litre, up to Contrex with 2,078 mg of dry residue. None of these waters is healthier than another; they differ in composition, taste and price.
Top 6water coolers for small offices
The best water cooler for a small office without a water connection is the SPA® Fountain compact: a countertop unit that only needs a socket, with a published rent of €18.50 a month excluding VAT and three months' notice. It does give the most expensive litre on this list, because the 10-litre SPA Reine packs are bought separately. Culligan comes second with bottle coolers that, according to its rental page, you can stop at any time, but with no price on the site. PHIL gives the cheapest litre for an office with a tap nearby, on a contract of at least five years. For a team of eight, the volume is 126 litres a month: €174 to €194 with packs, €51 to €66 with a mains-fed PHIL unit, under €1.20 of tap water.
Top 6