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If you’re an employer, then you already know it’s your duty of care to keep your team well hydrated. It isn’t just a ‘good manners’ thing – providing clean drinking water is good for productivity, health, and wellbeing. Access to drinking water might not be easy or may involve your employees walking distances to the nearest tap, which could waste precious work time. Installing a water cooler can solve those problems – but which should you choose, a bottled cooler or a mains fed one? Both have pros and cons; you just need to need to decide which would best work for you.
Bottled water coolers are the ones which have large water bottles sitting on top of the cooler unit – you will often see these in surgery waiting rooms or staff rooms. The bottles are replaced and recycled when they are empty, and the cooler chills and dispenses the water as needed. Of course, there are pros and cons to think about, and here they are:
Pros
No plumbing needed – Ideal for older buildings or workplaces without easy access to water mains.
Easy placement – You can move them around the office whenever you like.
Quality water – Bottled water is filtered and sealed at source, which offers businesses consistency in quality, taste, and purity.
Cons
Bottle supply – You’ll need enough storage to house replacement bottles, and the empty ones until your next delivery/collection.
Waste – Even with recycling, bottles can create plastic waste if not managed properly.
Manual handling – Full bottles are heavy! Changing them can be too much for just one person, so it’s worth remembering that, especially if you have to transport them from the storage area to the unit.
Mains fed coolers connect directly to the mains water supply in your building. They filter and chill water, and best of all, you never have to lift and replace bottles!
Pros
Supply – Your filtered water supply will never run out, even on the busiest of days!
Low maintenance – No storage needed for heavy or bulky bottles.
Eco-friendly – No plastic waste from bottles past their recycling lifespan.
Cons
Installation – You’ll need access to the water mains.
Immovable – Once it’s installed it stays connected unless you get a professional to disconnect it.
Dependent on quality of Mains supply – Most machines have built in filtration systems, and the quality of your supply varies by area.
| Feature | Bottled | Mains |
| Initial set up cost | Lower | Higher |
| Long term running cost | Medium | Low |
| Mobility | High | Low |
| Maintenance | Bottle change & storage | Low (filter changes only) |
| Environmental impact | Medium to high | Low |
| Water quality consistency | High | Depends on filtration quality |
The choice really is yours, but it will come down to what’s the most convenient and practical. For instance, it may be best to choose a bottled model if you need a cooler in a location without easy plumbing, you’d prefer not to deal with installation, you want a simple plug in and go solution, or your office is small and you won’t be consuming vast amounts of water daily.
If you like the ‘set and forget’ approach, reducing your carbon footprint and plastic waste is an important goal, your office has a higher demand for water, and you don’t want the hassle of bottle changing or storage, then a mains fed machine is for you!
If you’re still not sure, then it might help to go back to basics and think about a few practical upfront questions:
How many people will use the cooler? High usage may point towards a mains fed machine.
Is there access to the mains water supply? If not, or you’re not sure, bottled might be easier.
How’s your maintenance capacity? There will be no manual handling with a mains fed model.
Are you conscious of your company’s carbon footprint? There’s lower environmental impact with a mains fed machine.
Will you need to re-site the machine at any time? A bottled option can easily be moved, where a mains fed can’t.
Your ideal choice comes down to your office’s layout, water needs and operational preferences. At Cooleraid, we help businesses find the right balance, and we’ll never to be beaten on price.
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