Among other things, a chiller for chilling water to be dispensed as part of beverages includes a tank configured to contain a cooling mass for chilling the water. A first tube in the tank is configured to be immersed in the cooling mass and to carry the water along a path from a source towards a location where the chilled water is to be dispensed as part of the beverages. A second tube is configured to be immersed in the cooling mass and to carry a coolant along a recirculation path from a coolant source and back to the coolant source. The coolant has a sufficiently low temperature to cause a frozen mass to be formed as part of the cooling mass within the tank and in the vicinity of the second tube. The first tube and the second tube are configured and positioned relative to one another within the tank so that the frozen mass occupies at least 30 percent of the volume of the cooling mass in the tank but does not touch the first tube.

A water cooling apparatus and a water purifier having a water cooling apparatus is provided. The water cooling apparatus may include a case, a water tank provided within the case, a cooling block provided to be in contact with the water tank and to cool the water tank through heat exchange, a thermoelectric element having one side in contact with the cooling block and provided so as to transfer heat from the one side to another side of the thermoelectric element when power is applied thereto, an insulator provided within the case and that covers the water tank and the cooling block, and a heat dissipation block provided outside of the case and provided to be in contact with the other side of the thermoelectric element to dissipate heat from the other side of the thermoelectric element.

A liquid dispensing system for dispensing a liquid comprises an insulated housing comprising a top wall and a side wall mounted to the top wall, the side wall extending downwardly from the top wall to define an interior configured to receive a refill container comprising a liquid; a bottom surface mounted to the housing at a mounting interface and configured to enclose the interior of the housing; a sloped surface mounted within the interior of the housing and configured to induce the liquid within the refill container to flow toward a dispensing aperture through which the liquid is dispensed from the system; and a pump assembly in fluid communication with the interior of the housing, the pump assembly comprising a gas source and configured to deliver a gas from the gas source to the interior of the housing to apply pressure to the refill container.

The invention relates to a modular dispensing container for oil, consisting of a container designed to be installed as an independent module or as a group of several modules or different divisions or compartments, with internal layers of insulating material, and thermal glass with UV protection for the front face, and a lid located on the upper face, with a leak-tight seal, the oil or liquid being served via a dispensing tap located on the lower front part.

A filtration cooler system includes a cooler reservoir having a reservoir receiving portion, a lid coupled with the cooler reservoir, a drip tray, a filter bucket, and a filter. The drip tray is received by the cooler reservoir such that the drip tray is disposed over the reservoir receiving portion. The filter bucket has a filter receiving portion operable to receive water. The filter bucket is received by the drip tray when the drip tray is disposed over the reservoir receiving portion. The filter is received in the filter bucket. The filter filters the water in the filter bucket such that the water passes from the filter bucket into the reservoir receiving portion. The drip tray and the filter bucket can be nested such that the drip tray and the filter bucket fit within the reservoir receiving portion when the lid is closed over the cooler reservoir.

A refrigerator utilizes a quick fill dispenser that incorporates a fluid storage receptacle that is easily removable for cleaning and/or dispensing independently of the refrigerator.

A networked system for providing and maintaining a set of liquid dispenser stations is described. The fluid dispensers communicate with a managing/supervisory cloud server via an interposed base station. The fluid dispensers communicate locally with the base station via wireless communication network links. The base station operates as an accumulator of status/usage information provided by the dispenser stations and bridge for passing information and control commands between the cloud server and the individual dispenser stations. The dispenser stations are configured with control processors (controllers) to facilitate performing a variety of local control operations associated with dispensing liquids that have been cooled (or heated) prior to dispensing by the dispenser stations. Additionally, the dispenser stations cooperatively operate with the cloud server (via the base station) to support a variety of real time control and maintenance operations relating to the dispenser stations operating at potentially thousands of distinct geographic locations.

A monitoring and reminding system for water dispenser devices is provided, in that sensors are provided to detect the volume of the water buckets installed in the water dispenser device and the detecting results are transferred to a processing unit. Based on volume of water in the water bucket and update condition of the water bucket in the water dispenser device, volume of water consumed by a customer can be derived. Then relative reminding sentences are determine and provided to users. Therefore, supplement of water can be performed in advance and customers and managers can understand the whole operations of the system based on the data in the customer database and the operation results from the statistical unit. Furthermore such operation can be performed automatically so as to greatly promote convenience and efficiency of water supplement and message communication.

Combined water dispensers and coffee making devices are disclosed, which include a cabinet configured to house a water bottle in a bottom half of the interior portion of the cabinet; a cold tank that is configured to receive water from the water bottle, which is connected to an evaporator; one or more hot tanks that are configured to receive water (directly or indirectly) from the cold tank, which are connected to a heating coil to heat the water that is contained therein; and a coffee making device located on a top side of the cabinet. The coffee making device receives water from the hot tank, receives a disposable cartridge that contains coffee grinds for a single-serving of coffee, causes water to contact the coffee grinds to produce a coffee beverage, and employs a set of spikes to make water entry and exit apertures in the cartridge.

In order to provide a generic apparatus with improved properties with regard to an advantageous design, a refrigeration appliance apparatus, in particular a domestic refrigeration appliance apparatus has at least one water-dispensing unit with at least one guiding unit for guiding water and with at least one actuating unit having at least one switch element for starting a water removal. At least one actuating element is provided for actuating the switch element. An inner liner has a side wall, on which the water-dispensing unit is arranged. The actuating unit and the guiding unit are part of a mounting assembly.