11 Best Water Dispensers in Singapore

Confession: I am a new mother. And now that I have a baby and he recently started drinking water. So, water purity and cleanliness — things that I never really paid attention to before — have suddenly taken on a new importance for me. I started noticing the taste of different water sources, seeing the various water dispensers in other people’s homes (that I’d previously been blind to), and began contemplating installing one in ours.

That’s when I realised that tankless water dispensers in Singapore can be so pricey — not just their initial outlay but the additional ongoing costs of expensive filter replacements and such. And there are so many water dispenser types to choose from! From tankless water dispensers to water dispensers with tanks, hot and cold water dispensers to just ambient ones, countertop to freestanding water dispensers, water dispensers with ice makers to water dispensers with UV sterilisation — what features do we actually need?

I decided that a hot and cold water dispenser was the way to go, since cold water is an absolute necessity in our hot Singapore weather, and let’s face it — why wouldn’t you get one that dispenses both hot and cold water if you could? Imagine formula milk or hot Milo, instant coffee, chilled water or iced tea all available to you at the mere tap of a button.

If you’re on the market for one, this article will help you narrow your choices down, with a quick guide on what to consider when making the best hot and cold water dispenser choice for your family’s needs.

Best budget water dispenser: HODEKT Instant Water Dispenser, $68

• Type: Countertop hot water dispenser
• Tank: 3L capacity
• Filter change frequency: Every 4-6 months (depending on usage) or after 1,800L
• Favourite features: Smart LCD screen, 4-stage water filtration, 6 temperature options

This entry-level instant thermo pot actually offers tremendous value at an incredibly low price. Using a rare earth thick film heating system, the HODEKT takes 3 seconds to heat and offers 6 adjustable temperature levels for your desired consumption. Unfortunately these temperatures range from 25°C to 100°C, so you can’t get cold water here. Its 3L tank should meet the daily needs of a small household, but refilling the tank seems easy enough because you can carry it to the sink by its ergonomic handles. It also has a large LCD smart display screen with easy touch controls that lights up during the night—which makes it modern user-friendly.

On top of all this, it offers a premium 4-stage water filtration system that cleanses your water of particulate matter impurities, scale, residual chlorine, lead, copper and other heavy metals. The water tank is also 99% antibacterial which assures that your drinking water will be fresh and clean. Sounds too good to be true? The mostly positive user reviews speak for it, but guess you’ve got to buy and try to believe!

The HODEKT 3L Instant Water Dispenser is available at $68 on Lazada.

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Best value hot and cold water dispenser: Xiaomi Mijia Water Dispenser, $156

• Type: Countertop hot & cold water dispenser
• Tank: 3L capacity
• Filter change frequency: -
• Favourite features: Sleek minimalist design, smart app control, water volume line, 6 temperature options

Fans of Xiaomi would be happy to know there’s yet another home appliance they can control on their Xiaomi MiJia app—yes, you can customise functions such as water temperature using your smartphone. In keeping with Xiaomi’s classic clean white stylings, this minimalist slim silhouette with its classy smart digital display should fit right in with any kitchen.

It offers 6 temperature options like the Hodekt, except this one will quietly dispense cool 7°C water to quell the heat—I think that’s cold enough. The other preset temperatures are 45°C (for milk froth) , 55°C (for honey water), 60°C (for flower tea), 85°C (for coffee) and 90°C (for tea) so this isn’t the unit for you if you need boiling 100°C water. Otherwise this speedily heats your water up in 3 seconds and offers full waterway sterilisation to prevent bacteria growth on its food-safe contact material. Downside: no water filtration system.

The Xiaomi 3L 3S Hot and Cold Water Dispenser is available at $156 on Shopee.

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Best Singapore brand water dispenser: Toyomi Water Dispenser, $189

• Type: Countertop hot water filter and dispenser
• Tank: 4.3L capacity
• Filter change frequency: Every 6 months
• Favourite features: Support local, 316 medical grade stainless steel heating element, descaling function, premium water filter

Trusted homegrown Singapore brand Toyomi is somewhat of a household name in these parts. Founded in 1967, Toyomi offers very decent quality products at affordable prices, which makes the Toyomi Instant Boil Filtered Water Dispenser a strong contender in this list.

At this attractive price point, it packs in a fair bit of what you’d expect to see in a good water dispenser—4-stage water filtration that promises to remove microplastics, PFOA, limescale, chlorine, lead, pesticides and minerals; 14 preset temperatures ranging from room temperature to 100°C; multiple customised dispensing amounts to suit your container size; premium thick 316 medical grade stainless steel heating element that claims to save 60% electricity; removable water tray and large removable 4.3L water tank; large digital screen displaying both temperature and capacity; and my favourite—a built-in descaling function for easy/lazy maintenance.

If cold water is not a must for you, the InstantBoil is a good buy that delivers “boiled and filtered in just 5 seconds”.

The Toyomi 4.3L InstantBoil Filtered Water Dispenser is available at $189 at Lazada.

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Best entry-level tankless water dispenser: Kestella Hot and Cold Water Dispenser W3, $284

• Type: Countertop hot and cold water dispenser
• Tank: Tankless
• Filter change frequency: 8-12 months
• Favourite features: Support local, Korean nanofiltration, low price point

If, like me, you’re thinking that it’s not going to be fun fetching a couple of litres of water at least once a day for your dispenser, you’ll be happy to learn that a tankless dispenser does not necessarily cost an arm and a leg. Local water purifier outfit Kestella offers this very affordable entry-level tankless dispenser at an outstanding price point.

While it’s not going to win any beauty pageants, the Kestella Hot and Cold Water Dispenser W3 hits all the right marks—dispensing filtered ambient, hot (85-95℃) and cold (5 – 10℃) water in seconds.

It uses a Korean-made 4-stage water filter to remove sediments, odour, chemicals and bacteria, and Kestella offers two kinds of filters when you replace your first free one—’nano pure’ or ‘nano alkaline’ if you should like to increase your water pH level. Both delivery and installation are included in this pretty compelling price, and you can choose to install your new dispenser up to 5 metres away from any water source—with countertop drilling thrown in.

The Kestella Hot and Cold Water Dispenser W3 is available at $284 at Lazada and $298 on Shopee.

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Best self-cleaning water dispenser: Brio 500 Series Countertop Bottleless Water Cooler, $682.27

• Type: Countertop hot and cold water dispenser
• Tank: Tankless
• Filter change frequency: 3-6 months
• Favourite features: Self-cleaning, advanced filtration

Southern Californian brand Brio is well-known for its water solutions, so look no further if you prefer some good ol’ American reliability. The thing about this one, however, is the fact that you will need to install it yourself. The user-friendly installation kit comes with everything you need though, as well as detailed illustrated instructions—phew. If that doesn’t faze you (or your hubby), read on. Otherwise please feel free to get an installation quote from your handyman or skip right ahead.

Brio’s 2-stage advanced water filter removes dust, particles and rust, chlorine, tastes, odours, cloudiness, colours, VOCs and other chemicals! Even though it’s called a “water cooler”, this one dispenses hot, cold and ambient water on demand. And the best part? It has a Self-Cleaning Ozone function that UV sterilises your dispenser’s water tank and lines so everything stays pristine clean.

The Brio 500 Series Countertop Bottleless Water Cooler is available at $682.27 on Amazon.

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Best Korean tankless hot and cold water dispenser: Europace Water Dispenser, $846

• Type: Countertop hot and cold water dispenser
• Tank: Tankless
• Filter change frequency: Unstated
• Favourite features: Built-in Korean 4-stage filtration, instant hot and cold water

Made in Korea, this Europace hot and cold water dispenser is also dubbed SooFresh (Korean: 수프레쉬), so you can be sure your water will be soo fresh. While it doesn’t boast any funky features, this compact piece will do the daily job of serving you up filtered hot (90℃) and cold (4℃) water instantly. It is slim and easy to operate, has a surgical rust-proof stainless steel water reservoir, as well as built-in Korean filters with a 4-stage filtration process to remove particles, sediments and rust, chlorine, VOCs and other impurities, colloidal materials, bacteria and other molecular-weight substances by up to 99.9%. If noir is more your cup of tea, there’s also a black version available here.

The Europace EWP6381B Water Dispenser is available at $846 at Harvey Norman and $889 at Shopee.

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Best space-saving water dispenser: Ruhens Twain, $1,299

• Type: Standing hot and cold water dispenser
• Tank: Tankless
• Filter change frequency: 12-18 months
• Favourite features: Long filter replacement, good filtration, removable hygiene guard

If you have absolutely zero countertop space to spare, and still want a hot and cold water dispenser instead of a built in water purifier at your sink, consider a simple no-frills standing one like this. The Ruhens Twain is sleek and modern-looking, and could add a clean touch of sophistication to your kitchen or home.

It instantly delivers filtered ice cold (4℃) and hot water (at 95℃ – the best cup noodle-making temperature), and offers high filtration capability, removing debris, rust, chlorine, bad taste and odours, as well as water contaminants such as water borne micro-organisms, bacteria and norovirus. It also has a removable hygiene guard at the nozzle for easy cleaning and claims to reduce power consumption by 30% to conserve energy in Eco mode. Its best feature in my opinion is the 12-18 month filter replacement time though!

The Ruhens Twain is available at $1,299 at Ruhens.

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Best ultra-slim water dispenser for small kitchens: Hydroflux HANA Water Purifier, $1,785

• Type: Countertop hot and cold water dispenser
• Tank: Tankless
• Filter change frequency: 6 months
• Favourite features: Support local, 180º rotating faucet, auto-sterilisation, heavy metal filtration, easy filter replacement

This super svelte and versatile hot and cold water dispenser sits in the middle of the high-priced Hydroflux range. We like it because of its unique and diminutive design, which makes it a fantastic option if you have scarce countertop real estate. Its thoughtful 180º rotating faucet design allows you to adjust the water outlet freely for convenient access. This one dispenses 3 instant temperatures: cold (6℃), room (27℃) and hot (85℃), and allows you to toggle between 200ml and 400ml pours. There’s also a self-sterilisation function which uses heat pasteurisation to eliminate bacteria.

My favourite part about the HANA is really the fact that it eliminates piping rust and heavy metals (including mercury, iron, lead, aluminium, copper, arsenic, cadmium, zinc, manganese, etc.) as well as E.coli above standard levels — something none of the water dispensers that we’ve looked at up until now have claimed to do. The 3-in-1 filter is also a breeze to change yourself under the easy-access cover. Good news: the HANA already comes with 4 years’ worth of filters so you don’t have to purchase anything more for the next 4 years.

The Hydroflux HANA Water Purifier is available at $1,785 at Hydroflux and Lazada.

Best premium water dispenser: Sterra 7 Tankless Water Purifier, $1,499

• Type: Countertop hot and cold water dispenser with filter
• Tank: Tankless
• Filter change frequency: 6 months
• Favourite features: Support local, leak-proof guarantee, electrolytic water sterilisation, advanced water filtration

Sterra’s latest premium tankless water purifier offers a sleek pleasant design for your countertop. Intuitive panel controls let you access 6 temperatures with just a few taps of your fingers — cold (4℃ and 15℃), room (25℃), warm (50℃ for formula milk) and hot (70℃ and 87℃) — and an advanced water filtration system with 3 separate filters (multi-carbon, KX nano-fact and post silver carbon) ensures that your drinking water is free of dirt, rust, and sand, heavy metals (including copper, lead, and cadmium), organic chemicals and compounds like chlorine, benzene, and disinfectant, any bacteria and harmful microorganisms of up to 0.001-μm in size, possible norovirus present in water, as well as pollutants up to 1-μm in size, any unpleasant tastes and odours. Essentially, it’s really good at its job.

The Sterra 7 also pumps out any unused stagnant purified water every 72 hours to ensure it only dispenses fresh and purified water, cleans up mineral deposit build-up inside its tubing and automatically UV sterilises its nozzle while water is being dispensed to further clean and sterilise your water stream. Voila, amazingly clean-tasting water.

The Sterra 7 Tankless Water Purifier is available at $1,499 at Sterra, $1,699 at Lazada and Shopee.

Most reviewed water dispenser: Happie Joy Water Purifier, $2,088

• Type: Countertop hot and cold water dispenser
• Tank: Tankless
• Filter change frequency: 12 months
• Favourite features: STEALTH sterilisation, $1 monthly electricity, adjustable faucet

Take a quick look at Happie’s Google rating and you’ll see what I mean about them being “best reviewed”. The Joy is also their most popular model, with its STEALTH technology that promises advanced sterilisation capabilities — every seven days, it automatically washes and sterilises all water channels and filters to eliminate bacteria, chlorine, rust, metals, microorganisms, viruses, smells and more, ensuring the utmost purity of your drinking water. The Joy delivers 6 water temperatures making sure your cold water is ice cold (up to 4℃) and your hot water is pretty hot (45-85℃) but this is not the one for you if you need boiling water on tap.

Special features include a user-friendly voice guide (if you enjoy that sort of thing), energy efficiency claiming to add less than $1 to your monthly electrical bill (everyone enjoys this), and an adjustable height faucet that lets you cater to any cup size without splashing. Happie also provides complimentary yearly maintenance services and will change your filter while checking up on your machine for free (*replacement filter is not free)! I’d say that’s a pretty good freebie, since you won’t have to worry about maintaining the dispenser yourself.

The Happie Joy Water Purifier is available at $2,488 at Happie, $2,088 at Lazada and Shopee.

Best water dispenser with ice-maker: Novita Glacier W55 Hot Cold Water Dispenser + Ice Maker, $2,889

• Type: Countertop hot and cold water dispenser
• Tank: Tankless
• Filter change frequency: 12 months
• Favourite features: Support local, Freezing Point Depression, powerful sterilisation

Known for its air purifiers, humidifiers and dehumidifiers, local brand Novita presents this ice-making hot and cold water dispenser at the top (price point) of our list. Yes, if you need instant ice, this is the kind of price you’d expect to pay for it — at least.

At this price, you will find everything you’d expect from a top-notch hot and cold water dispenser — hot (80℃, 85℃, 90℃), ambient and near-freezing cold (2℃) water, competent filtration capabilities (removing particulate contaminants, chlorine, VOCs, trihalomethane and organic chemicals, gases and odours and heavy metals), smart auto maintenance functions including water tank and water path sterilisation, but most importantly of all, the on-demand ice-making function.

Using something magical called “Freezing Point Depression”, the Glacier W55 lowers water freezing point for faster ice formation to deliver crystal-clear high-quality purified ice at the touch of a button, and — did I mention the ice is tulip-shaped? Call me shallow, but that makes it a clear must-buy in my case.

The Novita Glacier W55 Hot/Cold Water Dispenser + Ice Maker is available at $2,889 at Novita, Lazada and Shopee.

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How to choose a water dispenser?

Kitchen size and layout

Whether countertop or freestanding, built-in or tank, choosing your water dispenser type will depend on the size of your space and layout. Does your kitchen size allow for a large freestanding dispenser — these are often more powerful with higher capabilities and perfect for larger families who require more water each day. Does your countertop have space for a countertop dispenser? If you don’t want the hassle of refilling a tank, consider where will you install a tankless one—since it usually needs to be near your water source.

Tank or tankless

Depending on the size of your household, this might be a big issue or no issue. If it’s just for one or two of you, perhaps refilling the water tank might be a daily or alternate-day affair. For large households, refilling a water tank several times a day might prove too inefficient and exhausting, but perhaps that’s a task for your husband or helper.

Water filtration capabilities

Decide how much filtration you want and are willing to pay for. The basic models might offer adequate filtration of large contaminants, which is really quite fine in a country like Singapore where we get potable tap water that is already generally safe to drink. If you’re more concerned like I am about heavy metals in the water, then you might be on the lookout for a more sophisticated multi-stage filtration system. Some dispensers even have UV sterilisation that further kills bacteria and pathogens after all the filtering.

Temperature options

This is an important consideration, so perhaps you can start here. What kind of water do you really need—if hot, how hot? And if cold, how cold? This should guide your search quite strictly since the hot and cold water dispensers seem to offer varying water temperatures.

Energy efficiency

Since we don’t want a rude shock at the end of our electricity billing cycle, look out for energy-saving models that automatically sleep when not in use, as this can reduce power consumption significantly. Some dispensers also employ instant heating technology meaning that it will heat only the required amount of water instantly, which is more energy-efficient than continuously heating a tank of water.

Safety features

Particularly important for families with young children, child-lock would be something you’d look for, which is quite common in most models fortunately. Sleep mode also helps prevent overheating in general, and higher-end dispensers these days pack in sterilisation features that involve using anti-bacterial materials or filters, UV sterilisation or auto-maintenance to prevent bacteria growth and contamination.

Filter replacement and ease of maintenance

Since this is an ongoing concern, check if the filters are easy to replace and if replacement filters are readily available. Also, consider how easy the dispenser will be to clean, especially for models with tanks. Although Singapore’s water isn’t very hard, certain dispensers may require periodic descaling to maintain efficiency, especially for hot water functions.

Aesthetics and design

There’s no shame in being houseproud, and since a hot and cold water dispenser can constitute quite an investment, you really don’t want to buy something that will be an eyesore to you in the coming days. Choose a design that you like, one that will blend in well with your current home and kitchen aesthetics, and also a design that you find intuitive and easy to operate.

Budget and ongoing costs

Dispensers vary widely in price, from affordable countertop models to high-end dispensers with tonnes of features. Consider also future ongoing costs so you can balance the upfront cost with long-term maintenance and energy costs.

Brand reputation, warranty and customer service

Popular brands are well-liked for good reason, but their products may come with hefty price tags. In any case, ensure your hot and cold water dispenser has a sufficient warranty period—some brands charge a bit more at the point of purchase for extended warranty, so you might want to consider that. With local water purification companies, you may also feel more assured that their office is just a phone call or drive away, in case you need assistance later on.

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