Staying Hydrated with Primo Water Dispensers and Easy Refills!

Looking to increase your water intake AND stay earth friendly at the same time? Try a Primo® in-home water dispenser! We easily refill our empty bottles at our local grocery store. Can’t beat that! This post has been sponsored by Primo water.

Our home is always what I refer to as “kinda crunchy”. I do everything in my power to live a green life, especially when it comes to cooking and in the kitchen. Everyone in the house has a reusable water bottle for daily water consumption. I like for the girls to have at least 8 ounces of water before they eat anything. It’s a great way to jumpstart their metabolism and their brains in the morning!

Before breakfast, everyone fills up his or her cup to start the day. My kids always laugh when we leave the house because I always carry at least 3 drinks with me: a car water, a purse water and coffee. Gotta stay hydrated!

When it comes to drinking water, we’re always seeking convenience and the best tasting water. Our fridge has a water dispenser, but I found it had a funky taste. Now that we have a Primo water dispenser, great water couldn’t be easier. I chose the Smart Touch Deluxe Bottom Loading Dispenser because I liked that it has the option to lock the buttons (hello, 2 year old at home!) and it looks sleek in our dining area.

Check out the Primo website to see which dispenser would be best for your family. There is also a coupon to save even more! I was really interested in the ones that offer coffee options!

Primo uses a special purification process that removes or greatly reduces the presence of chlorine, bacteria, parasites, heavy metals and other trace contaminants. I obviously want the best water possible for my kiddos!

Whenever I make a trip to the grocery store, I always bring my 2-3 water bottles to refill at the simple station. Just a heads up: the bottles can be a bit heavy! I’m toning my upper body AND getting hydrated at the same time. Primo water is commonly found in big box retailers, such as Meijer, Walmart, Home Depot or Lowes. You can even pick up a dispenser at most stores!

The refill station is right at the entrance area of my local grocery store. I cannot believe how much cheaper it is to refill my own water bottles versus BUYING plastic water bottles. Our Primo refill station is $0.39/gallon…so less than $2 to fill up our 5 gallon bottles. Be sure to save the white plastic lid on your bottle after you load it into your dispenser! You can also easily buy non-spill caps…because you never know! They make transporting so much easier too.

Don’t worry if the machine looks intimidating at first, because there are easy 1-2-3 step switches right on the machine. You can raise the waterspout to fit your bottle, so it can be for 1, 3 or 5 gallon bottles. If we are heading on a road trip, I like to take 1 gallon bottles of water with us on vacation to refill our cups during the trip.

All in all, it takes less than 2 minutes to fill up your bottle with water. I like to fill them up after I load up my car with groceries. Sometimes if it’s a big shopping trip, it’s hard to fit the bottles into the cart. If you need extra bottles, there’s the option to buy more right by the machine. Since we’re a family of 6, I like to have 2-3 full bottles at a time. You can easily purchase more empty 3 or 5 bottles here.

Since we’ve had our Primo water dispenser, I have found we’re staying much more hydrated. On most weekend days when we have sports and are more active, we fly through the 5 gallon bottle. Aside from ice cold water, the dispenser also offers cool and hot options. The girls like to use the hot water for their morning oatmeal.

How easy is it to load the Primo water dispenser?

The bottom loader makes it super simple to put the water bottle into the dispenser. There is a slight ramp to slide the bottle into the space but be sure to add the straw lid first!

NOTE: if your water bottle is super full, you might spill a little water as you enter the straw. I like to refill mine just to the bottom of the mouth of the bottle, to ensure this doesn’t happen.

How long does it take to chill or heat the water?

I’m always shocked at how quickly it loads and chills the water. For ours, the indicator lights will let us know when the water is ready, usually about 45 minutes to an hour. Cool water is always available! To dispense hot water, I hold the hot water button, plus the dispenser water drop button. This is great since we have a little guy who likes to push buttons–it is impossible for him to get the hot water out. If you don’t want the hot water option, you can easily turn off the hot switch on the back.

The hot water is warm enough for tea, oatmeal….or even a Hot Toddy. With all of the flu bugs going around lately, I’ve been enjoying those more as a night cap.