Brita 35530 Ultramax Dispenser
by Brita
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Our Price: $39.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $35.99 (click here) Category: Home See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Brita 35530 Ultramax Dispenser
Customer Review: Great tasting water, easy to clean, long-term use
Summary: 5 Stars
We have been using the Brita 35530 Ultramax Dispenser for almost two years now, and we love it! We drink a normal amount of water, but we also prefer to use filtered water for making tea, cooking rice and other foods that absorb much of the cooking water. Our pitcher sits on the counter next to our fridge. My wife prefers room-temperature water, and I regularly fill up large glass bottles to refrigerate water for myself.
The good:
* Large size, holds a lot of water compared to pitchers
* Spout is easy to use, compared to lifting a heavy pitcher
* Easy to clean, no mildew or mold problems after nearly 12 months
* Water tastes great! We like it better than most bottled water.
* Brita filters are reasonably priced (we buy 3 at a time)
The not-so-good:
* Filter can be slow at times, you'll want to keep it full as much as possible
* Inner plastic part that separates the filtered and unfiltered water can be hard to remove from the main unit when it is time to clean. Patience is necessary.
That's it, I can't think of any other downside to this water dispenser. The filters are rated for 2 months of average use, and the electronic timer on the top shows one notch for every 2 weeks, so you can tell how much time your filter has remaining. But, even with our large water use, we often leave the filter in beyond the 2-month period. The water in our area is bad enough that we can taste the difference as soon as the filter is no longer working, plus we're just lazy sometimes, and I like to get the most use per filter as possible.
When it is time to replace the filter, I follow this process:
1. Put new filter in a glass with water to soak for 10-15 minutes
2. Empty dispenser, take it apart and wash everything (inside and out) with hot water and soap
3. Dry the dispenser with a clean towel and reassemble.
4. By this time, the 10 minutes are up and I can insert the new filter
5. Fill the dispenser completely with water (waiting for it to filter so that both the main compartment and the unfiltered compartment are full)
6. Drain the first batch of filtered water (we often keep it in plastic jugs for watering plants)
7. Fill the dispenser and place in desired location
This process can take up to 30 minutes depending on how quickly the filter works, so I usually do other household chores at the same time. If you try to replace the filter while doing nothing else, you may become impatient and frustrated, as a watched filter always works slower.
Bottom line: We love this dispenser and hope to enjoy many more years of use. Our average filter use is 2.5 months, and the dispenser is cleaned thoroughly each time, so we have had no mold or mildew problems.
I would recommend this to anyone who wants to save money on bottled water and/or avoid using plastic bottles.
Customer Review: This has been working superbly for me over the past 4 months.
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been happily using this produt for the past 4+ months. It is fantastic! This is the most hydrated I have ever been. Seriously.
Came to this page today to see what the capacity was and skimmed the other reviews for the first time! I hadn't even thought of the mold concern and that makes sense.
I selected this one because I got tired of refilling the smaller pitchers all the time and wanted something that would provide a lot of water.
My current water goal is to drink a quart for every 50lbs rounding up. I'm 165 lbs so am trying to drink a gallon a day! Needless to say, I am not at this level BUT I'm still drinking enough water that I'm refilling this 1-2 times a week. Perhaps having all this through-flow of water is keeping my mold situation down?
Running water vs. stagnant water (same idea for the body! keep that water flowing!)
I don't keep this in the refrigerator!!! You would think that the warm temperature of my bedroom would increase the appearance of mold but nope, no problem (conversely, perhaps mold already in others' refrigerators is getting into their Britas!)
Anyway, this Brita has changed my life... the water tastes great -- this Chicago suburban tap water was O.K. but in tea/coffee there was a funky taste now eliminated by the Brita. You can fill up the main reservoir and then fill the top portion too so that water will drip down into the main unit as you draw from it and make room.
This unit isn't the digital readout kind, not that that's important to me. I am the only one in my family who uses this so I figure one filter will go a lot longer. Anyway, the last digital readout thing I had was just a 2 month timer, not a fancy measurer of filter quality. So this 2 month sticker is just fine.
When you get down to the last dregs of water, you do have to tip the Brita to get it out. But that's only if I'm feeling too lazy to get up and refill the thing. It's not a big deal for me since it's not stuck in a fridge (although that worked perfectly when I originally had it in the fridge).
But although I haven't had a visible problem with mold, I will be sure to clean this unit periodically as that is sound/sage advice. Probably for the pitchers as well!
But you would think that of anything sitting around for days or weeks (or months?), water is probably going to take on the least garbage. No, this may not be as airtight as other containers (I'm assuming) and, like I said, perhaps I am drinking it quickly enough that the water does not stagnate. I really have no idea how long water is supposed to last in such a scenario...and our starting-waters probably differ significantly.
Nevertheless, I feel ever-grateful to this unit and will continue to use it until it is no more or until I can buy a fancier one.
;)
thanks!
Customer Review: More handy than you might think
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this with the intention of getting me to drink more water instead of soft drinks, etc, and it's been very good for that--it's now just as easy for me to pour a mug of chilled water right from the refrigerator (I often then add some sugar-free flavored powder like peach tea, etc) as it is to drink canned sodas, without having to pay for and then lug those cans home from the supermarket. And this is way cheaper than paying a lot extra for a refrigerator with a chilled-water dispenser on the door.
But it also comes in handy as a drink dispenser on the picnic table in the back yard; I've also used it for boxed wine for a cookout and once for a covered punchbowl at a casual backyard party. It's large enough for this kind of use and I like having multi-purpose things instead of storing a lot of stuff I rarely use.
Yeah, it also works as a water filter :-) though I'm just taking that on faith as the Northern California water seems fine to me both before and after Brita filtering. But I like to play it safe...
To the other reviewers who mention mold, all I can say is that I don't think the mold is coming from the water dispenser...I suggest putting an open box of baking soda in the back of the fridge.
It does take a lot of space in the refrigerator, so you have to plan for it: the upper shelf is better because you don't have to stoop over to pour from it and there's usually enough space on top of it to store square stuff like tofu boxes and sliced cheese.
I've run it through the dishwasher plenty of times; this works for me since I never use the heat-dry function, which might warp the plastic; I use cool dry overnight for all my dishes.
There's definitely something to the suggestion from another reviewer to always keep the filter wet (i.e. keep the tank filled instead of half-full); If the filter dries out it takes twice as long to fill the tank and may not work as well.
I buy my filters in 3-packs from Amazon at a discount which I combine with other orders to avoid shipping costs, so the maintenance cost is pretty minimal.
Overall it's been a good product for me; I drink much less bad stuff, particularly in the summer. I'll give the fifth star when Brita figures out how to make the spout easier to remove for cleaning.
Customer Review: Useful product with poor design
Summary: 3 Stars
I have had a Brita Ultramax for almost 3 years. It served me well until it started leaking several weeks ago. It appears that the O ring that seals the spigot to the tank deteriorates over time and cannot be replaced easily.
While the system delivered great tasting water and filtered out minerals and chlorine, it was a pain to fill at times and had other problems.
I found that algae grew easily in the tank if it was left out on the counter in sunlight. I assumed that the filter removed the algae killing chlorine, so I drained the tank, removed the filter, swished a small amount of bleach around the bottom tank and rinsed it horoughly. That eliminated the algae.
As a last resort, I covered the side that was most exposed to light with aluminum foil as a test. No more algae. Another solution would be to paint the outside of the tank with a dark paint, leaving a small area of clear plastic so you can see the fill level in the tank.
The spigot was mounted too high to allow all of the filtered water to be used without tilting the tank. I countered that by refilling the intake tank with 2-3 liters of water when it was low. I drained off the remainder when I replaced the filter and use it to water plants.
I never kept the unit in the fridge, choosing to have my filtered water at room temperature instead. That also made it better for drawing off water for making coffee.
Even though I refilled the upper tank with a pitcher, refilling it could be a pain due to the poor design of the intake panel cap. I would have preferred a hinged cap instead.
It's a shame that I have to spend another $30 to replace the entire system when a few cents' worth of O rings and a few minutes would fix the problem. It kind of offsets the benefits to the environment if I have to toss this filter system and replace it.
If I find the right size O rings and can replace the bad ones easily, I will paint the outside while it's torn apart.
Yes, this filter system saved me a lot of money over bottled water, but it also had its quirks. Despte its shorcomings, I would buy another. The filters are available almost anywhere and are easy to replace.
Customer Review: Don't drink the kool-aid.
Summary: 5 Stars
No, the title of this review isn't warning you about making kool-aid in a water purifier. Rather to tell the truth about carbon/charcoal filters. They don't go bad. I've been using this filter for 9 months now filling it up three times a day, but more to the point, I used to work with a large water filtration team in charge of cleaning up an EPA superfund site. They had great big tanks full of sand and carbon to filter out a bunch of little nasties that you and your tap water can't even imagine. When the flow was restricted they'd just shoot the water back the other way for a bit and then return to normal operation. The carbon (little black sand) in your filter does not go bad, no matter what the manufacturers tell you. That's how they make their money, by selling you a plastic cup filled with black sand every couple of months. The filter, over a very long period of time, may become clogged. If that happens, take it out, run water over it, turn it upside down, bang it on the counter, I don't care. Whatever you do, buy another filter only as a last resort.
Let me repeat this. These filtration people are selling you a cheap plastic tub with sand in the top and a nozzle on the bottom. The only high tech thing about this is the electronic filter-alarm doohickey that I've never even turned on. Use it until the water just won't go through it any longer. By that time you'll probably just want to buy a brand new one.
Edit: I was trying to make as simple a statement as possible about how infrequently you REALLY need to change your filter. The activated charcoal inside the filter can absorb so much more than the company would have you believe. If you use this for a city water source, the only thing you'll really need it to filter is chlorine. If you begin to taste chlorine in your filtered water, change your filter. I use mine for well water, so all I need is to filter any detritus that may come up from the ground. Therefore, as long as the water flows, I won't need to change my filter.
I hope this will satisfy the further questions.