Hot is really hot like it should be, cool is room temperature (yuck-personal opinion), cold is really nice and cold, which is how we like it. That way we're not having to put more water in our ice machine because of the amount that we are having to use to chill our ice-water drinks.
We travel and live in our RV for most of the year. My biggest complaint was using 16oz bottled water for our drinking and cooking, and all of the trash accumulated by doing so. My daughter-in-law suggested that we purchase a cooler so I looked online to find one. Avalon coolers got great reviews and so I purchased one with hot, neutral and cold temperatures. I will never look back. We love this machine. The dimensions were smaller than some of the other brands and it fits perfectly where we had an empty space. This machine is easy to use and saves so much time. Thank you.