Viva Self Clean Stainless Steel Water Cooler with Hot & Cold by Viva Appliances

The Viva Self Clean Stainless Steel Water Cooler w/ Hot & Cold has been nothing but a five star product ever since it was delivered.The short story: the cold water is 38 degrees F and the hot water is 178 degrees F. The water tastes great after cleaning the tank via the instructions and running about 5 gallons through it. You can adjust the cold water temperature but I don't think you can do so for the hot.The long story: The instructions were very clear and easy to understand. Setup was a breeze and cleaning the unit was easy. You need to make sure the unit is upright for at least an hour if not longer before use. Full clean took about an hour (mostly due to waiting for the unit to disinfect). The unit has rubber feet that can be turned to level the unit. I attached round felt pads to them to prevent scratches on my hardwoods. It also comes with a strap to attach to the wall to prevent it from tipping over. I use 5 gallon bottles and it accepts both the open capped bottled and the no drip kind (the ones that have the cap that the water cooler pierces when you put the bottle on the cooler).The water had a strong plastic taste at first before I flushed a few gallons through it. Once I did this the plastic taste went down to a minimum but was still noticeable. It took probably another few gallons of use before the plastic taste went away. Granted I was used to the few year old water cooler I was renting before the Viva. I'm sure my old cooler had hundreds of gallons flushed through it.I'm not sure about the self cleaning feature. I assume it works. Every few hours I hear the cooler do something. Now I admit the cooler can be a bit noisy on occasion. When the hot water needs a boost you can hear it turn on and heat it up for a minute or so. It isn't really a big deal to be honest. Now when the refrigeration unit comes on it does make a hum and will do so for 5-10 minutes before becoming dead quiet for quite some time. As I mentioned above, the cold water is 38 degrees F and the hot is 178 degrees F. I assume your temperature may be different for hot. I manually changed the cold myself in all of 10 seconds.As for ease of use, the cooler is fantastic. It has a light near the hot/cold dispensers and the water streams out very fast. The hot water has a child safety feature that isn't extremely complex but it works.The unit is very aesthetically pleasing. It has a lot of stainless steel and looks quite sleek. The buttons for hot and cold are easy to understand and the drip tray is easy to clean.

UPDATE: Had this unit almost a year and a half now. Still works as well as it did the first day.Original Review:Had this unit about a month now.Pros:I use the hot water out of this to brew tea, no additional heating required. It is steaming hotThe cold water is nice and cold. Some water coolers have "cool" water; this water cooler has *cold* water.The self-cleaning feature is nice, less work for me.Unit was well packed for deliveryThe hot water has a 2-step button which reduces the chance of a child burning themselvesCons:ExpensiveIt is a little shorter than other water coolers I've seen (so if you are tall, you will have to bend over quite a bit)It does make more noise than most other water coolers. Not sure if it is the self-cleaning, or because of the extra heating/coolingI think it would tip over without too much effort, so if you have young kids or large dogs, you will want to put it in a corner or attach it to a wall (no attachment hardware is included, fyi). I have a 5 year old and 2 dogs, and in a corner the unit is fine.

Buyer beware. I purchased this less than 6 months ago and the water cooling went out. Also water taste like chemicals. So disappointed

Love this thing! The controls are too high for my one year old to reach which is great because with other coolers he soaks people's floor because he can reach the lever! Really nice looking too !

My previous discpenser lasted 4 years. It was a GE profile and the hot water heater went. I hated cleaning it. The white residue from the water was like sand. This self clean is such a great feature. The noise takes some getting used to. It cycles often and sounds like water is boiling. Love the light in the dispenser area and it is small an sleek compared to other models.

very please with my new water cooler"

The cooler is working well but is pretty noisy. Also, we expected it to be higher. Have to bend to get water.

To start, the installation was easy once we got the bottle receptacle up and out! Did the initial cleaning process of it to ensure the product worked to its full potential and the process isn't difficult. Easy instructions and I like the fact that it comes with a strap to secure it to the wall to prevent any tipping hazard, especially due to the size. I like the stainless steel and the overall design of this cooler, although it is shorter and smaller than my last water cooler! It holds a 5 gallon water container just fine. Tested the cold and hot water, the cold is about 40- 42 degrees F (raytech laser thermometer) and the hot water about 190 degree F or higher (using a meat thermometer). Don't hold me to these temperatures, I just wanted to give a decent temperature reading rather than saying pretty cold and really hot! I like that the buttons are on top, as a practical "child safety" precaution. I haven't noticed any noises with the self-clean setting, but if I do I'll enjoy the reassurance that it's self-cleaning and I don't have to bother with it. I've researched different water coolers for 3 weeks before purchasing this one and I'm happy with my decision.Pros:Self-cleaning is less work and helpful in killing bacteria!Very appealing and a nice looking productFast delivery in two daysHot is hot (burnt my index finger) and the cold water is really coldCons:Shorter water cooler which is more top heavy (obviously the strap screws into the wall to prevent any tipping)

I replaced a 10 years old water dispenser with this unit. The Viva unit is way more noisier than my old unit. I paid only $100 for my old water dispenser so i was expecting a $200 unit to be quieter. I suspect i have received an USED item. The black plastic part was full of scratches and the feet were dirty. Also, there was already water dropplets in the unit's tank when i took it out of the box. This unit is either used or refurbished. I have sent multiple pictures to the seller but i got an answer saying they couldn't see the obvious scratches (wtf?).The unit isn't even self-cleaning as the manual says you have to clean it with javel water once every few months, just like any other water dispenser unit. So what's the point of buying this ? Noisier than older and cheaper units, and looks like a refurbished or used item. Waste of money.Note that i have totally disabled the hot water feature and the unit is still very loud. I thought the other reviewers complaining about the noise was due to the hot water, but it doesn't change anything. The Viva water dispenser is LOUDER THAN MY REFRIGERATOR and i can hear it from the other side of the house.I should have bought another brand. The only good thing about this unit is how it looks. The stainless steel is cool but its only a part of the front side. The rest is plastic with scratches.

We've owned four of these machines (so far) and only paid for one.The first machine we received had a leak. Contacted the warranty and they shipped us a new one, it arrived a week later.The second machine had a broken thermostat that caused the cold water not to dispense because it iced over. Contacted the warranty and they shipped us a new one, it arrived a week later.The third compressor on the third machine sounded like a World War II era bomber, preparing to dive on Berlin. Contacted the warranty number and they shipped us a new one, it arrived a week later.We're currently on machine number four. We've got a collection of broken machines in our lobby area that we need to get rid of. I don't know how long it will last, but the warranty is great - they simply ask for a picture of the cut cord and serial number.

We read lots of reviews, shopped around, compared prices...and this was the winner! And after a month of using it (a lot!!) we know that we made a great decision. Paying a little bit more for the stainless look makes sense to us because it sits quite centrally in our kitchen. Very stable. Hot water heats up quick ( we turn the switch off because we don't use it everyday). Very happy with this purchase. And Amazon is always great with speedy delivery.

Very noisy at times (compressor?), especially when it starts getting low in water, no matter what surface we place it on (yes, it's level). Keeps cold water a great temp (have not used hot) & looks okay, but the noise it makes sporadically is distracting and annoying. NO - I would not purchase this item again, nor would I recommend it to anyone.

Absolutely love this new water cooler. At first it was a bit louder than I expected and then I turned off the hot water and it's so quite we don't even notice it. We have it in the living room and sometimes someone crashes on the couch and they can't hear it through the night. It was easy to "install" lol aka plug in. Great purchase glad we made the switch.