A bottled water cooler is an independent device that can be used to dispense water from removable 4- to 5-gallon plastic bottles usually positioned on top of the unit. Bottle coolers can be cold units that can dispense only cold water, hot and cold units that can dispense both hot and cold water, and a latest variety of units that can dispense hot and cold water as well as water at room temperature.

Studies indicate that water coolers consume about 4 billion kWh/year and produce an annual pollution roughly equivalent to the emissions of over 700,000 cars. However, energy savings of roughly 60–70 percent can be gained by fitting units with insulations or a timer. This will ensure that the power is cut off for the cooling and heating units during periods of low demand. This provides a lot of benefit to the homeowners, bottled water vendors, and building owners.

Water cooler manufacturers have to determine the performance of their own products. Bottled water coolers are replacing the regular bottles mostly for safety reasons. The other reasons are that this improves the quality of the drinking water as well as frees up needed storage space. Also, these new water coolers are practically maintenance-free.

Water coolers are usually available in three kinds, the bottle type water coolers, fountain type water coolers, and the bottle less water coolers. The company will install the water coolers in about 15 to 45 minutes. The filters need to be serviced once in six months.

Many customers prefer the filtered coolers to the bottled coolers. This could be because of cost saving, as the cost of having the bottles delivered to the customer is cut down. Also the storage space would be freed and the additional cost of the stock, delivery and changing of these bottles would not be a problem anymore. The other reasons are the convenience and improved water quality since the filtered coolers are of a sealed system, which slows the growth of the microorganisms.