Just Water - Bottled Water Delivery product reviews

Ever since I was 8 years old, and first encountered the black liquid gold that can be found in a red-labelled bottle with a two-part alliterative name, drinking water hasn't been high on my priority list. Compounded by the fact that many places I have lived in have had some of the worst-tasting water - thanks to low-grade water treatment, badly-maintained pipes, rusty tap fittings, etc... well, it's just easier and cheaper to grab a bottle of fizzy.

However, when given the opportunity to have one of these in the house for a month, it was worth putting aside my bad habits and trying "That W stuff" again. In this instance, we were given a 12 litre bottle of the "VitaBlast" Vitamin-C enhanced water. With a taste like lemon/lime it was certainly an intriguing experiment, I must say. I even ran a litre of this through our SodaStream machine to see how well it would act as a healthy fizzy-replacement. Ummm... not so good. For some reason, it just wouldn't hold the fizz, and went 'flat' very quickly... but now it had a slight chalky flavour. This was probably caused by a reaction between the pressurised carbon dioxide and something already in the water. Never mind, who needs the fizz anyway...

Comparing this to store-bought bottled water, the $1.20 per litre for the VitaBlast or MineralX waters, or the $1.00 per litre for the AquaFresh unflavoured water, is very good value for money. Comparable examples from the supermarkets average around $1.93 per litre* for just the plain unflavoured water, so even if you are buying in the bulk 10L containers, this is still better value. And you don't get the flavour or convenience this option provides.

My kids love drinking water, so we keep a number of chilled bottles in the fridge, but the only place with enough room is the top shelf, which is a little out of reach of our youngest. This machine, when seated on the floor, has both taps placed at a level perfect for even the youngest drinker. This makes it a brilliant accessory to any household where there are young kids who need ready access to water. This is especially important if you want water that doesn't have all the chemicals added by regional treatment plants. You may want to make the kids aware though, the blue tap dispenses water a lot colder than the white tap... as my 5yr old discovered, drinking a full cup from the blue tap too quickly leads to brain-freeze... aka ice-cream headaches.

Overall, this is great, and I wish I had thought to look into the facts and figures of machines like this a lot earlier. The one-off installation fee covers delivery of the unit, a quick run-down on how to keep it clean and functional, how to change bottles safely, and recovery of the unit at the end of your contract... if you ever decide to send it back, that is! You don't pay rental on the unit, just the cost of bottle refills, so it remains as affordable as you want it to be. Drink lots of water, pay for lots of water... drink sparingly, you could be looking at as little as a bottle a month. User-pays at it's finest!

If you decide to go ahead and get one of these, it's worth ringing through on their toll-free number : 0800 801 802... and feel free to tell them where you saw them.

* A random selection of 12 brands across 3 supermarkets.