Ranking Water on Campus

One of my goals for this year was to always stay hydrated. The water-bottle fill stations around campus are essential for this goal. HOWEVER, unfortunately, not all fill-ups are created equal. Or I guess they were created in the same way, but they definitely do not give equally good water. So, I went around testing various spots on campus and rated them based on water temperature, taste, and accessibility (to me). I included some specific notes to help you get a sense of what each experience was like. 

Disclaimer: this is all subjective information. Don’t take the ratings too seriously, but my opinions are definitely the best ones. 

Burton Dining Hall Water

I have a teammate who claims the water from this soda machine is the best water on campus, but he’s wrong. It’s not bad, but not the best. I often have to mix my water with a little bit of lemonade to make it taste better. 

Temperature: 7/10. Chilled but not cold. Good, not ideal.

Taste: 5/10. Not great, not terrible. Very mid.

Accessibility: 9/10. Water is always available when grabbing meals in the dining hall, so it’s very accessible. I gave it a 9 versus a 10 because if I wanted this water whenever I wanted, I wouldn’t be able to get it outside of meal swipe times. 

Final Score: 7.5/10. Very solid start. 

Gould Library Water

This wasn’t a water bottle fill station (there are some on other floors of the Libe) but I decided to add it anyway. It should be pretty representative of water from the library. 

Temperature: 4.5/10. Not necessarily warm, but not cold.

Taste: 5/10. Very similar taste to the Burton fountain. 

Accessibility: 6/10. Available pretty much any time I would want water, but it’s deep in the library and something about the silence of the lower floors in the Libe freaks me out a bit. I definitely wouldn’t seek this water fountain out in times of desperation. 

Final Score: 4/10. Not a great experience overall. Not worth it unless extensively studying in the Libe and options are limited. 

Mailroom Water

This station is on the ground floor of Sayles, right next to where students can pick up and send mail. It stands alone on a wall to the side, but in the path of lots of foot traffic in a very solid spot. 

Temperature: 8/10. Chilled water at a very pleasant temperature. 

Taste: 8/10. Solid. Enjoyable. 

Accessibility: 10/10. This station is always available and pretty close to my room so I can pretty much go whenever I want or need to fill up my water bottle. It’s a good distance away, and the walk to fill my water bottle here is a good study break. 

Final Score: 8.5/10. Top three water fill-ups on campus. Highly recommend filling up here. 

Laird Stadium Water

 This is the water I usually have to fill my bottle with during our baseball team lifts. 

Temperature: 6/10. Not a great temperature, but not bad.

Taste: 4/10, but during lifts 7/10. Something about needing water while working out masks the not-great taste of this water. When I drink this water when I’m not actively working out, it does not taste good. However, it’s solid during lifts. 

Accessibility: 3/10. During workouts, it’s in a great spot, and because it stands right next to the whiteboard it provides a good spot to take a breath, grab some water, and refresh yourself on the movements of the workout. However, outside of workouts, it’s in a terrible spot and I would never find myself getting water there. 

Final Score: 5/10. Very average spot to get water. 

Sayles Dining Water

I saved the best for last. The Sayles soda machine water. What an incredible spot to fill up. 

Temperature: 10/10. Ideal temperature-cold, but not too cold where it will give you a brain freeze. 

Taste: 9.5/10. Something about the water going to areas around Sayles is elite. I couldn’t give it a 10 because the water that comes out of my fridge at home is on another level, but this water is easily the best tasting on campus. 

Accessibility: 8/10. Sayles is on the way back to my room from my classes, so I usually just stop by and fill up. If it’s open, I’ll leave my room to go fill up with this water. However, it’s not always open, and that unfortunately hurts its accessibility score a bit. 

Final Score: 9.5/10. Hands down the best water on campus, any other opinion is a lie. 

Ryan (he/him) is a freshman from Alameda, CA. He is currently undecided on a major but enjoys stem classes. He plays on the varsity baseball team and is an avid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ryan loves spending his free time playing video games, listening to music, or spending time with his friends in the dining halls.