All Articles
2012 Articles
- An Improving Environmental Footprint for the Bottled Water Industry
- Strong Performance for UK Bottled Water in 2011
- Venezuela’s President Announces Price Caps on Bottled Water
- Polyethylene terephthalate
- Marathon Rehydration
- Taking Water into the Exam Hall Improves Grades
- Two Thirds of French Children Dehydrated when they get to School
- Marvellous Minerals
- Defining Water: Minerals vs Hydration
- International World Water Day 2012
- Water Quality – The Issue of our Age
- BWCA Golf Day, Conference and Trade Show 2012
- Bottled Water Sales Banned at the Grand Canyon
- New Study into Perceptions amongst Health Professionals of Hydration and its Importance
- New Year’s Greetings
- Smart Water
- Classy Water
- Olympics a Welcome boost to Bottled Water Industry in 2012
- Water Cooler Cannon
- Dehydration in the Elderly
- 60% of Europe’s Spring Water is Found in Romania
- How safe is it to Refill your Plastic Water Bottle? Pt 1 – Bacterial Concerns
- How safe is it to Refill your Plastic Water Bottle? Pt 2 – Chemical Concerns
- The Water Cycle
- Algae
- How Filters Work Pt 1 - Granular Activated Carbon Filtration
- How Filters Work – Pt 2 – Ultraviolet Treatment and Ion Exchange
- How Filters Work. Pt 3 - Microporous Filtration and Reverse Osmosis
2011 Articles
- World Health Organisation Drinking Water Guidelines
- European Commision Drinking Water Directive
- And Finally for Today
- Water Cooler Test for Giant Octopus
- Yate Water Cooler Company Welcomes Local MP in Bid For the UK to Stay Cooler!
- Where’s Cooler? – British Water Cooler Association Competition Aims to Raise Public Awareness
- Introducing the Everest Office Water Cooler
- A Call to Improve Kerbside Plastic Bottle Collection
- The Flavia Creation 400 Brewer – Bringing Café Culture into the Office
- Why it's so important to keep our children hydrated?
- Why Do Ice Cubes Float in Water
- Keep It Light
- Plumbed In Vs Bottled Water coolers (Part 1: Cost and Convenience)
- Plumbed In Vs Bottled Water Coolers (Part 2: Water Quality and Environmental Impact)
- FoodBev.com Awards 2011
- Swindon Named Most ‘Water Conscious’ Town in the UK by Thames Water
- Drinking Water Helps Prevent Diabetes
- Bottled Water Industry denies EFSA hydration claims will affect them
- Top Tips for A Hygienic Water cooler – Pt 1
- Top Tips for A Hygienic Water Cooler – Pt 2
- BWCA Recruits ‘Hydration Heroes’ as part of its Stay Cooler Campaign
- What’s Coming Out of Your Tap
- Water Coolers for the Education System - Free Trial On Water Coolers To Keep Your Pupils Healthy
- Curing the New Year's Party Hangover Pt 1 – Water the Ultimate Elixir
- What’s the Difference Between Spring Water and Mineral Water
2010 Articles
- Pow wow administration
- The official Powwow Rescue Package
- Office Watercoolers are now live on Twitter
- Scientists Create Dry Water!
- Water is Weird!
- Autumn Promotion
- Essential Care of Your Water Cooler
- Essential Care of a Plumbed-in Water Cooler
- How to Choose a Water Cooler Supplier
- How to Choose a Water Cooler
- Fancy a Coffee?
- What are the Different Types of Water
- Why Choose a Member of the British Water Cooler Association
- Our Staff Are Now Criminal Record Bureau Checked
- Office Water Coolers and the Save A Cup Scheme
- Office Water Coolers Waste Policy
- Water Coolers in Schools Evaluation
- The Office Group Expands its Product Range
- Office Water Coolers and the AWS Group
- Drinking Water and Perpetual Youth!
- Bottled Water Vs Tap Water
- How Does a Water Cooler Work?
- How Much Does a Water Cooler Cost
- Water and the Environment - The Industry Speaks
- Getting a Water Cooler is Easy
- Customer Testimonials Mars Flavia
- Water Coolers and Purification
- Do Bottled Water, and Water Coolers, Contribute to Global Warming?
- Bottled vs Plumbed-in Water Coolers - Carbon Footprint Compared
- Which Water Cooler is Best to Install - Bottled or Plumbed-in (POU)?
- Get a Free Flavia Coffee Machine!
- Bottled Water vs Tap Water - Carbon Footprint Compared
- Does the bottled water cooler industry recycle its water bottles?
- Website Improvements
- Case Study: Beverage Service Station
- Introducing the Coolcask
- Introducing the Elite Water Cooler
- Introducing the Blizzard Fountain
- The Supreme Stylish Water Cooler
- Low Cost Water Coolers
- Environmental and sustainable hot and cold beverage supply
- Dealing With Algae in Your Water Cooler
- Hydration and Health
- What is the Drinking Water Inspectorate?
2008 Articles
- Well Being Checks, On The Spot
- Campaign for hydrated meetings!
- Water Helps Prevent Cancer
- Workplace wellbeing: a water-based solution?
- Health and Hydration in the work place
- Office Health, Hydration And Now Hot Drinks
- Environmental Initiative 2009
- Office Watercoolers Carbon Offset Program
- The Dangers of Working Up a Sweat
Water Coolers and Purification
27/02/2012 By Chris Cook
You may or may not know that many commercially available water coolers come equipt with filtration, sterilisation or purification systems. These systems improve the quality of the water dispensed from your water cooler ensuring the water is clean, safe, free from contaminants and tastes good.
We want to explain the various water treatments so that you understand how they work, what they do and their implications on your drinking water.
A filtration system will typically use a filtration substrate to capture particulate matter. This may sound a bit complicated, but it's essentially saying that you pass the water through something in order to filter it. The filtration substrate in a water cooler is often either a granular activated carbon, a metallic alloy, microporous ceramic, carbon block resin or a ultrafiltration membrane (source: wikipedia). Water is passed through the filter which captures any large particles in the water, and in some cases (particularly activated carbon) it also captures molecular or biological contaminants. Once the water has emerged from other side of the filter it is free from contaminants and may be safer to drink.
It's worth bearing in mind that filtration alone does not provide sterilisation. Some pathogenic microbes may still be present in the water after filtration. To ensure the water is safe to drink, water is often passed through an ultraviolet (UV) light. UV light damages the DNA of microbes present in the water, preventing them from being able to reproduce, this renders most microbes almost harmless.
You probably already know that boiling water kills microbes rendering the water sterile, boiling is also used in the treatment of water, but you do not typically find a boiler treating water in a water cooler.
The best approach for water purification in a water cooler is a two-step filtration combined with UV light exposure, but water coolers come in a range of models and not all provide this two step purification. If you're concerned about water quality, ask us for information about a suitable water cooler.
© 2012 Office Water Coolers
Recent Articles
An Improving Environmental Footprint for the Bottled Water Industry
Consider this; recycling a single large plastic bottle (made
from PET) conserves enough energy to light a 60 watt bulb for 6 hours. The National
Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) reported that in 2010 1.5
billion pounds of PET was recycled in America.
Recycled PET (rPET) can be made into all sorts of things like car parts,
playground equipment, carpet or even clothing.
Now consider this; in America (and I daresay the figures are
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Strong Performance for UK Bottled Water in 2011
Good news for the bottled water industry as it reports a 2.8%
increase in sales in 2011 (1.8 billion litres). As an industry that employs two
thousand people it is good news in these economically trying times as the UK officially
enters a double dip recession. So with unemployment remaining high and when
people are cutting back on so much, saving their pennies, why does the bottled
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Venezuela’s President Announces Price Caps on Bottled Water
Flamboyant Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, has started
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expanded as the government announce new prices for different products and it is
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Polyethylene terephthalate
What is polyethylene terephthalate? Well chances are you’ve
encountered it already today if you’ve swigged from a bottle of water or any of
a whole range of bottled drinks. Abbreviated to PET, polyethylene terephthalate
is probably most associated with the packaging for plastic bottles due to its
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