Okay, maybe this is too granular, but I just moved to Hamilton Heights and I go through a lot of water for coffee and cooking. The C-Town near me has a refill machine by the front door that has been “temporarily out of order” for three weeks. The guy at the counter just shrugs. I don’t want to buy plastic gallon jugs every week. Are there stores around upper Manhattan or west Bronx that actually keep the machine working? Do I need to call the number on the machine? I know this is small, but it's the kind of neighborhood intel I need.

I can't speak to upper Manhattan directly, but in Astoria I keep a mental list because I’ve been burned too many times. The Key Food on 30th Ave and the Associated on Steinway both have functioning machines, but they're not equal. The Key Food one is by the back dairy case and usually kept clean; the Associated one gets serviced but can run out of pressure after weekends. The C-Town on 34th Ave has had a dead machine for months—same shrug situation.

Call the number on the machine, not the store. These are usually owned by a third-party company, and the store staff generally won’t refill the sanitizer or clear a jam. If you call while standing at the machine, they can sometimes reset it remotely. The machine operator cares more than the store manager because that's their money.

Also check if the machine has a little service log sticker; if the last date is months old, skip it. Some places keep the machine in a vestibule where the door gap lets it freeze in winter, so try one inside the store near the registers.

Yeah in my part of Bed-Stuy the machines are pure fantasy. The one by the Associated on Fulton used to work, now it's a glorified shelf for lost MetroCards. Honestly if you find one that works, go early. After 5 on a Friday the water pressure drops and you're standing there for seven minutes filling a five-gallon jug.

Also bring quarters, but tuck a few singles too because the card readers on those things are trash. Big Beth if you're up by 145th, try the little grocery on Broadway near 147th. They used to have one in the back by the mops. Can't promise it still works.

Thank you both. I went to the grocery on Broadway near 147th after work. The machine was on, but the spout had that crusty white scale around it. I wiped it with a paper towel and ran the first gallon into the drain grate under the machine. It worked, but the tank? It made a very sad grinding noise for the first minute. Still, I got two gallons and my coffee tastes normal, not like old pennies.

Is the grinding sound a bad sign? I don't want to be the person who breaks the neighborhood machine. Also @astoria_arch, the service log sticker said “next service” was two years ago, but the owner said the vendor came last month. Which do I believe?

I wouldn't overthink the grinding, those pumps just sound like that when they haven't been used in a while. But if the water starts coming out warm or the bottle feels slick, that's a no.

In Jackson Heights, the Food Universe on 37th Ave has one that works more often than not, but there's a line Saturday morning. The Fine Fare near Roosevelt is good for regular food but their water machine has been unplugged so long the cord is missing.

I just use the one at the laundromat on 74th Street—not a grocery store, but it's inside and they actually change the filter when the sticker says. Not worth chasing grocery machines in this borough honestly.

A few things worth separating: the machine's status, the filter status, and the store's relationship to the machine. Downtown, most larger grocery chains gave up on in-store refill stations because the footprint didn't pay; that's why you'll see them wedged by fire exits with cardboard taped over the screen. The few that remain in my area are in smaller independent groceries, and the best predictor is whether the same employee who handles the produce also knows where the extra caps are.

If you ask a cashier and they point vaguely toward the back, the machine will probably work but the filter will be old. I would not trust the service log sticker alone either—vendors often slap a new sticker during a quarterly check without actually doing a full sanitize.

The quieter test is to fill a clear bottle and hold it up to the window. Slight cloudiness means the membrane is shot. Also, don't use the rinse water between jugs as drinking water; that line hasn't been flushed. If you want to keep using the Broadway one, ask on a Tuesday or Wednesday when the deliveries come; that's when the store owner is most likely to have complained to the vendor and gotten a visit. For upper Manhattan, the smaller Dominican grocery stores are your better bet than the bigger C-Towns.

Oof, the lost MetroCards shelf is too real. @OceanHill_O, the Associated on Fulton is exactly the kind of machine I won't use anymore—one near me had a dead pigeon in the drip tray once.

To Beth's question: I'd believe the service log over the owner, but as @financial_district_f said, a new sticker doesn't equal a new filter. If the machine has a removable drip tray, check it. If there's standing water or black flecks, that tells you more than the sticker. You can also pull the little rubber spout guard down and smell it; a heavy chlorine smell is normal, a swamp smell is not.

I know “smell the water machine” sounds insane, but you're already doing neighborhood intel.

Okay, smelled the spout. It smelled like a YMCA pool—so chlorine, not swamp. I'm calling that a win. I went back today around 6 and the machine was fine, no grinding. I also did the clear bottle test and it looked clear, maybe one tiny bubble but not cloudy. Thanks for talking me off the ledge.

Now I have a new mini quest: the machine has a little rack of empty one-gallon jugs for people who forgot their own, but there's no sign with a price. Is that one of those “take one, leave one” things, or am I going to get yelled at at the register? Also, any recs for mornings before 8 a.m.?

Those jugs are for paying customers. If you bring one up to the counter they'll charge you maybe a buck or two, but half the time they just wave you through if you also buy something else. Don't just grab one and leave because the owner will remember your face and side-eye you for eternity.

Before 8, the bodega on 145th and Edgecombe actually has a little machine in the back, but it's coin-only and I haven't been there in a minute. Bring quarters.

If you're filling a five-gallon bottle, do not take the rack jug unless it's still sealed. The “empty but maybe clean” ones have been sitting next to a mop bucket all day. Just buy a proper bottle from the machine company once and keep the cap.

And @big_city_beth, for early mornings, the 24-hour Fine Fare in Queens has machines but no staff around to reset if it errors, so it's a gamble. The best early hours are at the laundromats—they unlock at 6 and the water machine is usually inside with better lighting. I know it's not a grocery store, but that's where the reliable ones went.

One last pattern worth naming: these neighborhood machines fail the same way the Citi Bike docks do—not uniformly, but block by block, depending on who complains and which vendor route they're on. There's an earlier thread Why is every Citi Bike at the Vernon Blvd docks an e-bike by 8:15 a.m.? that gets into that block-by-block infrastructure logic, and the same “check the service log, don't trust the staff” rule applies.

For upper Manhattan, I'd still vote for the smaller Dominican groceries or a laundromat over a big C-Town. The machine on Broadway is likely fine if you keep an eye on clarity and smell. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the fact that you have a working spout two blocks away.