A water cooler for home! Do you really need one? According to the Pacific Institute, in 2008, 53% of Americans were worried a great deal about pollution of drinking water (Top Environmental Concerns of the American Public: Selected Years, 1997-2008).
If you don't trust your city water, you do have a couple of choices: filter your water at Point of Use; or purchase bottled water.
With bottled water, you can buy cases of little plastic bottles, contributing to landfill problems.
Or, you can have chilled, ready to drink spring water from a cooler which holds 5 gallons of great tasting water.
So what is a water cooler anyhow? It's a freestanding device that cools water for drinking.
This includes both bottled and bottle-less water coolers.
Most floor mounted water coolers are around 3' high.
However, there are table-top models also available on the market, if you have room on your counter top or table.
There are basically two different types of water coolers available on the market: Point Of Use water cooler: This cooler connects to your city supplied water system, and holds the water chilled, ready for drinking.
Also called a bottle-less cooler, there are filtered and unfiltered units available.
Bottled-Water cooler: This cooler dispenses water from a removable plastic (or rarely, glass) bottle commonly positioned on top of the unit.
Most bottles are 5 gallons, but 3 gallon bottles are also available on the market.
There are a couple of different types of bottled water available: Spring water is the most popular.
Spring water is generally defined as groundwater that flows naturally and discharges to the land surface or into a a stream, river, or lak About 75% of bottled water sold in the U.
S.
comes from natural underground sources, which include rivers, lakes, springs and artesian wells, according to the FDA.
Purified water, which may have been purified by any one of a number of methods, may have started out as plain old city water.
The most popular method for this water to be purified include reverse osmosis, de-ionization, and distillation; various methods of filtration may also be used, depending on the bottler.
According to a four-year study by the Natural Resources Defense Council about 25% of U.
S.
bottled water sold is purified city water.
Most water coolers have cold and room temperature water dispensing...
more expensive units have a heater.
Here are the types available: Cold-Only Units: These units dispense either cold water only.
They use a refrigeration unit to keep the water cold.
Cook-and-Cold Units: These units dispense both cold and room-temperature water, the latter primarily for use for cooking, hence the "cook" part of the title (no, the water isn't cooked in the cooler!) Hot-and-Cold Units: These units dispense both hot and cold water.
Some units may even have a third tap for room-temperature water.
These models have an electric heater and a refrigeration cycle.
You're probably wondering, how hard is it to maintain one of these things? Well, not hard at all.
It's generally recommended that you clean the machine on every bottle change.
How to clean your water cooler:
If you don't trust your city water, you do have a couple of choices: filter your water at Point of Use; or purchase bottled water.
With bottled water, you can buy cases of little plastic bottles, contributing to landfill problems.
Or, you can have chilled, ready to drink spring water from a cooler which holds 5 gallons of great tasting water.
So what is a water cooler anyhow? It's a freestanding device that cools water for drinking.
This includes both bottled and bottle-less water coolers.
Most floor mounted water coolers are around 3' high.
However, there are table-top models also available on the market, if you have room on your counter top or table.
There are basically two different types of water coolers available on the market: Point Of Use water cooler: This cooler connects to your city supplied water system, and holds the water chilled, ready for drinking.
Also called a bottle-less cooler, there are filtered and unfiltered units available.
Bottled-Water cooler: This cooler dispenses water from a removable plastic (or rarely, glass) bottle commonly positioned on top of the unit.
Most bottles are 5 gallons, but 3 gallon bottles are also available on the market.
There are a couple of different types of bottled water available: Spring water is the most popular.
Spring water is generally defined as groundwater that flows naturally and discharges to the land surface or into a a stream, river, or lak About 75% of bottled water sold in the U.
S.
comes from natural underground sources, which include rivers, lakes, springs and artesian wells, according to the FDA.
Purified water, which may have been purified by any one of a number of methods, may have started out as plain old city water.
The most popular method for this water to be purified include reverse osmosis, de-ionization, and distillation; various methods of filtration may also be used, depending on the bottler.
According to a four-year study by the Natural Resources Defense Council about 25% of U.
S.
bottled water sold is purified city water.
Most water coolers have cold and room temperature water dispensing...
more expensive units have a heater.
Here are the types available: Cold-Only Units: These units dispense either cold water only.
They use a refrigeration unit to keep the water cold.
Cook-and-Cold Units: These units dispense both cold and room-temperature water, the latter primarily for use for cooking, hence the "cook" part of the title (no, the water isn't cooked in the cooler!) Hot-and-Cold Units: These units dispense both hot and cold water.
Some units may even have a third tap for room-temperature water.
These models have an electric heater and a refrigeration cycle.
You're probably wondering, how hard is it to maintain one of these things? Well, not hard at all.
It's generally recommended that you clean the machine on every bottle change.
How to clean your water cooler:
- Unplug cord from electrical outlet of cooler.
- Remove the empty bottle from your cooler.
- Prepare a disinfecting solution by adding one tablespoon of household bleach to one gallon of water.
I have personally used a stronger blend of bleach; just make sure you rinse your cooler thoroughly (as below).
Other disinfecting solutions may be suitable.
Some people have had good results with a combination vinegar/water mixture.
However, I personally use bleach.
You just have to be careful to rinse it extremely well afterwards! - Pour the bleach solution into the reservoir.
- Wash reservoir thoroughly with bleach solution and let stand for not less than two minutes so as to be effective.
- Drain bleach/disinfection solution from reservoir through faucets.
- Rinse reservoir thoroughly with clean tap water, draining water through faucets, to remove traces of the bleach/disinfection solution.
Repeat at the very least, four times. - Lift off the drip tray under the faucets and wash the tray in mild detergent.
- Rinse well in clean tap water and replace on cooler.
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