OK, now I admit, you might read this and feel insulted. If so, I apologize. I come from a part of the world where the ground water is between 4 and 8°C (about 40°-48°F I think). This means, when I want a cold glass of water, I just turn on the cold tap.

When I come to Costa Rica, I am disappointed. The cold water is about 25°C more or less (I didn't measure it) that's something like 80°F for my American friends.

In the past, I used 2 jugs in the fridge, kept one cold, one 'new' water. But it turns out that renters in Costa Rica think that anything not nailed down is intended for them to take home with them (Things like scales, mirrors and .... water jugs) so I have a hard time even keeping ONE water jug in each unit.

When I used ice cube trays of ice - that worked, but the little ice cubes seem to melt very quickly even in the fridge.

So here is my silly little tip:

Freeze a larger block of ice. Mine is about 10cm by 10cm by 4cm (4"x4"x1.5"), the exact size doesn't matter.

I then set another large block of ice freezing (same size as above), I find for 2 people that 1 ice block a day means there is always a little ice in the jug when I add the next day's block of ice.

Then, every 2 or 3 glasses of water we take out, we refill the jug, with the water flowing over the ice into the pitcher.

For more people, I would just make more than one brick of ice a day.

Anyway ... it is a simple trick, I can't figure out why the same volume of ice cubes doesn't work as well, but they don't.