Little Luxury SPI1105 Portable Mini Water Cooler Dispenser and Filter

The cooler came ready to use. We cleaned the water container, inserted the filter and we are good to go. We have been using this cooler for about a month now and it has not given us any issues. There is a small digital display that tells us how cold the water is. On a full fill up it does not take the cooler long to get the water temp down. The water tastes great, no after taste. Our kids enjoy it and drink it with no complaints. There is very little noise coming from the unit (small amount of warm air blows on each side of the cooler). Refilling the water is super easy not like the large ones where you have to be careful not to spill when putting the container on the cooler. The cap keep the water in place and does not come out until its sitting on the cooler.Only con so far is the price, its a bit over the top but makes up for it in function.

NOTE: If situation changes I will update my review with 4-5 stars, but the unfortunate thing is, this mfg may be out of business. If true, it means there are no filters available for this unit. Unfortunately, the unit design is dependent on the filter for proper operation. I have tried to reach the mfg, there is no answer at company. Their website exists but does not appear to be functional, and although their Facebook page is still there, and had a post as recently as August 5, but there are no responses to requests/comments regarding their status or how to obtain filters. I also contacted their distributor (Affordable Products, LLC) but they were of no help when asked about the manufacturer's status, other then to say they no longer carried their products. Former sellers such as Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond are out of stock. Amazon has one listing (selling above retail) but says "ships in 1 to 2 months" so I'm waiting but not hopeful.The Cooler: This was a nice little unit, worked great. Had been looking for a "cold water only" cooler for my elder dad, and these are hard to find these days. Was also pleased by the size as this meant he didn't always have to be dependent on having someone to come over to refill his bottle. For us, the only downside actually was that we didn't know of the the design of dependency on the filter until after we had it. Unlike many users who purchased the unit specifically because it filters, we live in an area that has excellent tasting drinking water. The company recommended changing the filter every 2-3 months, which at $16 a pop (if you could get them) was pretty expensive ($60-100/yr). We will eventually attempt to remove the carbon filter from the filter casing if the company doesn't resurrect, but I feel for other owners who bought the unit for its filtering properties. Little Luxury seemed to be a very promising little company, don't understand what happened. Disappointed that they don't put out a statement on their site or social media page.

Update: 5/4/2015The replacement water cooler has been working just fine for over 3 weeks now. I am increasing the rating back to 4 stars. They still need to redesign the water jug cap to be easier to screw on and the tension spring on the outlet is too easily dislodged. Otherwise, a nice product to have convenient cold water available.Update: 3/24/2015Lowered rating from original 4 stars to 2 stars. It worked for a little over a week providing cold water, but then the water cooler stopped cooling. The fan turns on and the led readout is on, but it shows the ambient air temperature rather than the cool 42 deg it got down to before. I have tried draining it and letting it sit overnight to no avail. It only uses 6 watts when the fan is on, so I am guessing the thermoelectric cooler is not functioning given the much lower watt usage. I am returning the cooler to amazon. Once my refund has cleared, I will order another and give it another go. For now I am not pleased that it stopped working so soon.Original Review:My office has been having some water quality issues lately, so I purchased this for the office and have been using it for about a week.It is quite convenient to have nice cold water available in my office, and so far the product has met my expectations before ordering. There are a couple minor annoyances that keep it from being perfect. As another reviewer has complained about the lid needs a bit of redesigning. It may have to do with the type of plastics, but the lid is challenging to seat evenly and get the threads to align. I am getting more used to it, but it typically takes a couple of tries to screw the lid on properly. Since there are concerns with the water quality at work (even after a charcoal based filter system such as this one uses), I fill up the tank at home, thus I wish the tank had a built in handle for carrying. I happened to have a smaller tote bag that fits the tank snuggly, so I recommend finding one to help carry it around if you need to transport it beyond the office. Even with the lid properly secured, you must keep the tank upright as it will leak if it falls on its side. From drinking and making coffee or tea I find I will need to refill the tank after a 5 day work week. It would be nice to have a larger tank to get two weeks out of it, but there are trade offs in portability of a full tank. Probably could add another gallon at max to keep it portable. For power usage when the fan is on and it is cooling it pulls 70 watts as specified on the back of the machine. It also has an idle mode where it pulls 8.6-8.9 watts. Thus, the power usage is acceptable as I find the fan is on and active for probably 20-60 minutes depending on the amount of water dispensed at a time. When the fan is on it will make noise equivalent to what would be considered a fairly loud computer. There is no compressor noise, the noise is smooth fan noise. The temperature readout is fairly accurate and has a minimum of 40 F. If I dispense an entire glass I find the temperature is 2-3 degrees warmer than what is shown on the led readout. I am happy with the purchase could be happier, but it works well. For what it costs I would hope to get some years out of it. Only time will tell.