On this page, you will find out how many watts a water cooler draws.
The water cooler is such a simple device but it has become a staple of the working environment. It delivers a number of benefits including hydration, morale boosts, and productivity. Having cold water on tap gives you the chance to take a refreshing break whenever you need it. They’re such effective and simple machines, all you need for installation is an AC electricity source. But how much power does it consume?
Below we will discuss and test water cooler wattage, explain how to work it out for yourself, and calculate the total electricity required.
How Many Watts is a Water Cooler?
A water cooler runs at an average of 30 and 80 watts.
The exact number depends on the size, model, and use of your water cooler. For example, a low capacity conditioned cooler will use 50W or less, while high capacity machines exceed 70W.
When looking at water cooler power consumption you’ll see the ‘rated power’. This is the maximum wattage the cooler can reach when working hard to cool water.
Just like a refrigerator, a water cooler rarely runs at the top power rating. The majority of the time it is in a more idle state until it needs to replenish cold water. The average running watts is about a quarter of the power rating.
The way you use your water cooler also affects the average running watts. The more cups you drink the harder the appliance must work to replace cold water.
How to Find Out Your Water Cooler Wattage
There are 3 ways you can work out the wattage of a water cooler.
- Check Product Specification
The quickest way is to look at the water cooler’s specification. The power rating is usually written on a sticker on the base of the appliance. If not, you can check the user manual or the manufacturer’s website for technical details.
- Use a Wattmeter
A wattmeter is brilliant for getting a live wattage reading and tracking total energy usage of any appliance. You can plug it into your water cooler to get instant information.
I used one to test a water cooler which gave an average running power of 38.5W.
- Wattage Formula or Calculator
If you know the amperage and voltage of your water cooler you can use this to find the maximum watt rating. Simply use the formula Amps x Volts = Watts. Or you can head over to the ‘Watt Calculator’ to work this out.
Water Cooler Wattage Examples
Let’s take a look at specific examples of how many watts a water cooler draws. Below is a collection of modern water coolers with their listed power ratings.
| Water Cooler Model | Max Power Rating (Watts) |
| Winix 7C Silver Bottle Water Cooler | 100 |
| Winix 7D Silver Bottle Free Standing Hot and Cold Water Cooler | 550 |
| Winix 710D Bottled Water Cooler | 85 |
| AQ Max Bottle Fed Water Dispenser | 100 |
| AquAid 400 x Free Standing Bottle Fed Water Dispenser | 430 |
| AquAid AQ Max Desktop Water Cooler | 100 |
| AquAid AQ Max Bottle Fed Non Touch | 100 |
| Arctic Star 55 Floor Standing Bottled Water Cooler | 81 |
| Avalanche Counter Top Bottled Water Cooler | 100 |
As you can see, the power ratings vary between different water coolers. So you should take the time to check your own appliance.
How Much Electricity Does a Water Cooler Use?
You can use water cooler wattage to work out how much electricity it uses. Plus this can be useful in understanding how much it costs to run your cooler.
A watt (W) is a measurement of power at a single point in time. A watt-hour (Wh) is the total amount of electricity used in an hour. For example, a water cooler running at an average of 40W would use 400Wh when running for an hour.
Happily, electricity bills are recorded in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A kilowatt is simply 1000 watts. So a 40W water cooler running for 1 hour uses 0.04kWh.
A water cooler is left running for 24 hours a day to keep a stable temperature. This means a water cooler uses about 960Wh or 0.96kWh electricity a day. That’s 28.8kWh a month and 350kWh a year.
That’s a rough electricity cost of $0.14 a day or $52.50 a year to run and enjoy your water cooler every day.
Using a Water Cooler Off-Grid
If you’re planning to use your water cooler in an off-grid situation like a power outage, RV, boat, or similar, the information above is important. You can install the correct electrical equipment and know how long you can run.
You can either use a power inverter, portable power station, or generator to generate AC electricity.
To make sure everything runs smoothly you should check two things on this equipment – wattage capacity and total energy capacity.
Your power source, like an inverter, should have a wattage capacity of at least 20% more than your water cooler. This ensures it will be able to deliver enough power as they are never 100% efficient.
Secondly, you need to ensure your energy source, like a battery, has enough energy to run the water cooler for the required amount of time. As we already know, it will use about 960Wh of electricity each day. This is the equivalent to 80Ah on a 12V battery.
How Many Watts Does a Water Cooler Use Summary
I hope you now have a clear understanding of how many watts a water cooler uses.
Water coolers are relatively low powered appliances that rarely exceed 100W. In my experience, they draw a running power of about 25% of the maximum rating. Despite this, you will still see a noticeable increase in your electricity usage. This is because you’ll need to keep the cooler running all the time to maintain a constant cold temperature. In addition, the more cups you drink for the machine the higher the total energy consumption as it works harder to replenish cool water.
