Do you use a water cooler?

[miss_thenorth]

And if so, how often do you clean it out? One of the engineers at hubby's work did a water report, testing the water coming out of their coolers. His report indicated that the water was bacteria laden, and a better option would be to just drink tap water. His results found that the coolers needed to be cleaned about every week or two (dismantled, bleached etc). Since dh told me of this report, I have dusted off the old Brita.

We get town water, and the chlorine taste is strong, so that is the initial reason we bought a cooler in the first place, but Brita takes out the chlorine taste, and the water is 'clean' (said tongue in cheek, but it is cleaner than our cooler.)

Dirty coolers can contribute to sore throats/irritation etc.

And then you can look at it from a frugal/financial viewpoint. I used to buy 5 gallons for $2. RO water--cheaper than alot of other bottled waters out there. Or, for comparison, we truck in our water in a 450 gallon tank, which costs us $3 to fill.

So, when thinking about it that way, even with a $5 brita cartridge (that lasts a month), we will be getting rid of the water cooler.

Just rambling--thought you might find it interesting.

 

[Henrietta23]

I just saw a Food Network show (Food Detectives) about this. They tested public drinking fountains as well as office water coolers. The public fountains were actually much cleaner than the coolers.

And if so, how often do you clean it out? One of the engineers at hubby's work did a water report, testing the water coming out of their coolers. His report indicated that the water was bacteria laden, and a better option would be to just drink tap water. His results found that the coolers needed to be cleaned about every week or two (dismantled, bleached etc). Since dh told me of this report, I have dusted off the old Brita.

We get town water, and the chlorine taste is strong, so that is the initial reason we bought a cooler in the first place, but Brita takes out the chlorine taste, and the water is 'clean' (said tongue in cheek, but it is cleaner than our cooler.)

Dirty coolers can contribute to sore throats/irritation etc.

And then you can look at it from a frugal/financial viewpoint. I used to buy 5 gallons for $2. RO water--cheaper than alot of other bottled waters out there. Or, for comparison, we truck in our water in a 450 gallon tank, which costs us $3 to fill.

So, when thinking about it that way, even with a $5 brita cartridge (that lasts a month), we will be getting rid of the water cooler.

Just rambling--thought you might find it interesting.

 

[FarmerChick]

EEEwwwwww
I just never thought of it.
don't get water from a cooler often and never drink from a public foundation (unless dying..lol) so I think I might live.....we are surrounded and everything is out to get us..HA HA

 

[TanksHill]

So, because I have a cooler and must admit I probably don't clean it every two weeks. Can we put a positive spin on this. Can we say by ingesting the various bacteria in the cooler we are actually building up our immune systems and making them stronger??

You know they say that germ-aphobes(sp) who use Purell and the likes have more of a chance of catching something because they have not been exposed and their defences are down.

 

[miss_thenorth]

I think clean water is where I would tend to be fussy about. Look at the third world countries who don't have clean water, and the problems they have becasue of it.

I am not a germaphobe, but unclean water can make you sick.

 

[Homesteadmom]

Only to a certain extent are you building up some resistance. There are certain bacteria that will not do anything but make you ill if you consume even a micro part of it.
I had a cooler that was a ceramic crock that the 3 gal jugs sat on & I got my jugs filled at the dispenser outside a grocery store for $.15/gal. Now in our new house we have the water & ice in the fridge door & it goes thru a filter system that I change out. So the crock is going in the sale we will have in Jan.

 

[Cassandra]

Oh well. At work, we have a Kentwood cooler where they come and deliver the 5 gallon jugs of water to you. I know for a fact it hasn't been cleaned out in over 3 years--probably never.

No telling what's growing in there!

Cassandra

 

[lupinfarm]

No idea, probably at least once a week, we live on a well and were considering getting the Pur system with the flavoured water option and getting rid of the big cooler.