Waterdrop A2 Countertop RO Water Dispenser Review - Instant Hot, Cold, and Clean Water

I’ve been using the Waterdrop A2 RO Hot Cold Water Dispenser for a month now. The product seems too good to be true as it serves all of my needs for water. It provides pure water, hot or cold on demand, and no installation hassles.

Disclosure: We received the dispenser as a courtesy for review purposes. However, the review is intended to provide honest, unbiased insights about the product, based on personal experiences and observations.

Installation

This is the 2nd Waterdrop product I’ve ever used. The Waterdrop CoreRO that I tested last year is just a water purifier while the A2 adds the hot and cold water functionalities. The A2 is also a countertop dispenser, so I loved how easy it is to set up the product. No plumber, no drilling – you will just need to place it on your kitchen counter, insert the filter, fill the feed tank, and it is ready to use. Once everything is ready, you can turn on the machine and the first thing you need to do is flushing the dispenser. The process took longer than I expected, as we need to run a few cycles of water through it (about 2 full tanks). This is very important as it clears out any manufacturing residues or loose carbon particles from the new filter. After about 1 hour of flushing, the dispenser is ready to use and you can have your first sip now.

You can get clean and fresh water by pressing the water dispensing button on the screen, or you can just remove the pitcher on the front and pour water to your cup. I really love the pitcher as it is much more convenient and easy to take it out of the machine. I no longer have to remove the top plate before getting access to the pitcher. I often use purified water for cooking or refilling the water tank of my espresso machine, so the quick access to the pitcher is super useful. Just lift it up and start pouring the water. Its capacity is also quite decent at 40oz.

As compared to my previous Waterdrop purifier, the A2 is significantly bigger and heavier. One reason is the big 159oz feed water tank. For my family of 4, I just need to refill the tank twice per day. Since the dispenser is quite big, you will need to find a good placement for it on your countertop. If you place it under a wall cabinet, you might find it difficult to refill the water tank on the back.

Water Quality & Taste

As I’ve used Waterdrop water purifier for a year, I am quite satisfied with the water quality. The A2’s 5-stage filtration includes a 0.0001μm RO membrane and UV sterilization, it strips out everything like TDS, PFOA, PFOS, chlorine, fluoride, arsenic, lead, etc. I can taste the huge difference between the tap and purified water. In general, it’s crisp and clean, almost like water bottle. It’s got some certification for lead-free materials, which makes me feel good about sipping from it every day.

A nice feature of the machine is the hot and cold feature. There’s a child lock when dispensing hot water and there’s a red light to give you a warning; this is a nice feature, especially when you have kids. I use a water kettle a few times per day to boil water, either to brew tea or to cook instant noodle. The machine is said to be able to heat up to 203°F in seconds and it was a dream for me. I expected I could finally get rid of that annoying kettle. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.

There are 6 temperature options and 5 volume settings, and I can tweak them on the touch screen. I tried to dispense 203°F water and used a thermometer to check its temperature; The highest temperature I could get is just above 165°F, which is not hot enough for tea or noodle. This is not quite the scalding hot I’d hoped for. One possible reason is probably because my tap water is freezing in the winter (at around 47°F); so the machine might have had a hard time heating up that water.

In terms of efficiency, the 3:1 pure-to-drain ratio means I’m not pouring water down the drain like with older RO systems. For every 3 parts of clean water, only 1 gets wasted. It feels good knowing I’m cutting out thousands of plastic bottles a year. The A2RF filter lasts 12 months or 1,100 gallons, and at $69.99 to replace, it’s about 20 cents a day.

Conclusion

Pros

Advanced 5-stage filtration with RO membrane and UV sterilization.
Instant hot and cold water with a wide temperature range.
Beautiful & user-friendly smart touch screen.
Portable design with a 40oz pitcher.
High water efficiency with a 3:1 pure to drain ratio.

Cons

Hot water can’t reach 203°F
High cost

The Waterdrop A2 is not all perfect. I love the clean taste, the instant temperature control, and how it doesn’t tie me down to one spot. The only limitation is that it doesn’t provide scalding hot water, so I can’t get rid of my water kettle anytime soon.