Customer Reviews

Cuisinart WCH-950 CleanWater 2-Gallon Countertop Water-Filtration System

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

I purchased one of these last week at Bed Bath and Beyond. I didn't even know I needed one until I saw it. As with most Cuisinart products, the design of the unit is quite nice. But aesthetics aren't everything.

To begin with, the directions aren't very clear. I attempted to pre-soak the filter as directed, but it didn't seem to do anything. Also, the initial filtering of the water took a lot longer than the instructions stated. I believe they said it would take about 15 minutes for the water to filter through into the dispenser. Mine took almost an hour. Who knows, maybe I didn't soak the filter properly. But that was just the beginning of my problems.

Once the water was filtered, I switched the device on. It was a lot louder than I thought it would be. Actually, I wasn't expecting much noise at all. The device does quiet down a bit, after it has reached its target temperatures for the hot and cold. But after you dispense some water, it kicks back in again. If you have a large kitchen, the sound of the device might not be a problem for you. After all, it's a small price to pay for instantly available hot and cold filtered water. OK, "instantly" might not be the best choice of words.

To dispense water from either side, you have to press in and hold the appropriate button. The water comes out in a steady stream, but a very thin stream. Which means, it takes a long time just to fill up one cup. Even as a single man, this kind of wait was unbearable. I can't imagine someone with a family using this device. In any case, if you do end up purchasing this device, I wish you luck. I ended up returning mine just a few days after I purchased it.

After reading the reviews I found on here, I seriously debated on whether to get this item or not.

I finally decided I would get it and try it out; and I must say I'm pretty happy with it. In a previous review, the user complained about it being too slow. It is a little slow, but it is definitely manageable. I do wish it could be faster, but it takes maybe 20 secs. to fill a large glass; a small price to pay for filtered water, that is taking up counter-space, as opposed to fridge space.

I'm very happy with it, and I cycle through enough water, it doesn't get stagnant, so that isn't really a huge concern of mine.

UPDATE: Well, on a sad note, after about a week of use, the cold water spout stopped working. We are going to send it back to the place of purchase, and get a new one. I'm a little worried about the durability of this product; and I'm hoping the new one will work flawlessly. If this next one craps out on me, I will exchange it for the Cuisinart griddle or something else.

Like the other review I bought this at Bed, Bath & Beyond. I thought it was a nice looking counter top appliance and I drink a lot of water. I also liked the feature of having hot water readily available for tea or hot chocolate. It does dispense slowly but it is just for me so that isn't that big a deal. What is a problem is that after a few days of running the product the water in the top resevoir was heating up. The appliance is supposed to have a hot and cold water tank to heat or chill the tap water, but all the water in the top resevoir was heating up to sauna level temperatures. Now when I push the tap water button I don't get room temperature water -- I get very very warm water. I don't feel it can be very healthy to have warm (but not hot) water sitting around on a counter top. Seems like the perfect place for bacteria and things to grow. I'm extremely disappointed, because up until today i was very happy with this product. Now I'm going to need to take it apart, dry it off and return it to the store. Cuisinart should be ashamed for putting such a crappy product on the market.

In my opinion, this is an absolutely terrible product, and I've gone through TWO. The first was immediately returned due to a defective plug on the bottom that resulted in 2 gallons of water leaking onto counters & floor. The second seemed to work somewhat well for 2 months - I tolerated the motor being loud, "cold" water turning warm, "room temp" water being borderline hot - until I realized an inner coil had rusted and left a layer of rust particules in the FILTERED water tank, a quantity of which I'm sure I consumed before I noticed the problem. I STRONGLY suggest that you do not purchase this product, and think Cuisinart should pull it from sale.

Saw this item in Bed, Bath and Beyond, and fell for it. I usually am more careful and read the reviews first, but this sounded like the perfect item for water drinkers and hot tea drinkers. Didn't hold much water and was slow to set up and fiddle with, but thought it would be worth it in the end. Water flow is so slow that it's just not acceptable for starters. The hot water never got hot enough to make a cup of tea. The room temp. water was too warm, and the cold water only worked for a day. Packing it up for return. Very disappointing. What is wrong with Cuisinart these days??? Just bought one of their new one cup coffee pots, and it was defective also and got returned.

I used the Cusinart Countertop Water-Filtration System for two weeks. It now sounds like it is "grinding" and actually makes a very loud noise that never shuts off. In addition, it would only dispense approximately 1-8 oz. glass of cold water at a time--then have to "run" for 30 minutes before you can get another glassful. I have unplugged it, drained it, and am contemplating what to do with it--I no longer have the box it shipped in--never again!! I just threw away more $ than I could afford in the first place. Lousy, lousy, lousy!!!

I thought it was a nice looking counter top appliance and I drink a lot of water. I also liked the feature of having hot water readily available for tea or hot chocolate. It does dispense slowly but it is just for me so that isn't that big a deal. What is a problem is that after a few days of running the product the water in the top resevoir was heating up. The appliance is supposed to have a hot and cold water tank to heat or chill the tap water, but all the water in the top resevoir was heating up to sauna level temperatures. Now when I push the tap water button I don't get room temperature water -- I get very very warm water. I don't feel it can be very healthy to have warm (but not hot) water sitting around on a counter top. Seems like the perfect place for bacteria and things to grow. I'm extremely disappointed, because up until today i was very happy with this product. Now I'm going to need to take it apart, dry it off and return it to the store. Cuisinart should be ashamed for putting such a crappy product on the market.

Aside from the great outer stainless steel design and unique functions, this Cuisinart product was a flop. As a previous owner of their food processors and cookware, it was a brand that I trusted. After owning this for a day, I had found that the cold water dispensing function failed to properly dispense. The water flow from the spigot is relative slow and the water that came out of this filter had a very strong aftertaste. When I first saw this product on display, I was excited about this new product that can combine hot , cold and room temperatures all in one with the added feature of filtering water.

After a day of usage, I also found warm condensation build up on the upper portion of the water tank, (a clear indication of a poor design that invites fungi and bacteria). Energy wise, it uses 380 watts, almost as much as my large flatscreen tv! A real dissappointment here! This item is going back to the store.

So I purchased this unit from Amazon despite the poor reviews. We are newlyweds, and we've been using the 2.5 gallon bottles from the market, but we hate lugging those up to our unit. We didn't need water delivered, so this was the best middle-ground for the two of us.

The box arrived yesterday and we finally got it all setup and running. Mind you this is just reviewing the setup and first use. I'll update later with more details after further use:

1) Setup: Wow - so many specific steps. All in all, setting up the unit out of the box will take an hour. This doesn't mean sticking around the unit for an hour (plus another hour for cold water), because 30-40 minutes of it is just waiting for the water to filter from the top tank into the lower tanks. But yea, setup has a lot of little steps you have to follow to get the unit working properly. I'm not looking forward to setting up the filter again when we replace it in the future. The instruction manual uses a lot of capital letters and emphasis during parts of the setup - I guess you have to follow everything to a T to make sure it is setup correctly.

2) Noise: We let the machine run overnight after getting it set up prior to pouring our first cup of cold water. The unit cools water thermoelectrically, meaning it draws heat away from the water tank to cool the water. That means a fan will run to get this done at set intervals or when the cold water gets too hot. The fan is a little louder than I would like, but it's definitely not a dealbreaker.

3) Water flow: As others have noted, the water flow is completely dependent on how full the upper tanks are (its a gravity feed system). Even when all tanks are full, the water flow is slower than I would like, but again, we could live with it. I'll put it to you this way - if you've ever used one of those 2.5 gallon water bottles that you put in your fridge with the pull-type spigot in the front, the rate of water flow is about 1/3 of that when the 2.5 gallon bottle is full.

4) Cold water: Yes it's cold. Actually, surprisingly cold. Since we haven't used it extensively, not sure about getting cold water consistently for more than 2 cups. I think we'll keep a large pitcher of the filtered water in the fridge, in case we have guests and need a large amount of cold water quickly. Even after our brief use, we've realized that this unit wasn't designed to keep a family of 4+ satisfied or for pouring consistently cold cups of water.

I'll update this later with more impressions after longer use. But it looks okay for now. Mind you, its the only unit in this price range that cools/heats and filters water. If you follow all the instructions in the manual, everything will be fine and the unit will work as designed.

I purchased this product and was a little worried at first. The water had a plastic taste to it, that did dissappear after i drained the water from the tank and refilled it. I can only guess that I didn't soak the filter long enough althoug I did soak it for 20 min.

After about a month the cold water stopped working for a day. It is a bit noisy, and it takes a wile to get to operating temp from being off for both the cold and hot. once at temp it's great. This machine was obviously not designed to fill the water glasses for a family of 4 for dinner. The water stream is a little slow, and if your chugging water your first 16 oz will be cold, and it will take a few min to get back to being cold. Having said this, my wife can not be with out this device. We have a 5 month old and she uses it to mix water to the perfect temp before adding formula. She can do this in the bottle with one hand. She absolutly loves this machine as she is often only with one hand to get water.
We recently had a problem with the GFI circuit in the house tripping, and I traced it down to the WCH-950 clean water machine. I will be bringing it back to place of purchase and exchanging it. I will keep exchanging it because we love it so much if it is a chronic problem. It makes perfect temp hot chocolate and tea in seconds, cold water and the mixing for formula make it a must have for our family.

I wish I could rate it 5 stars, it is a great size, great concept, and very nice styling. It was a last minute gift Idea for X-mas and we wern't sure we needed it untill it had been in the home for a couple weeks. I sincerly hope the new one will last.