Water Coolers and Water Filters Info

Who Looks After Bottled Water Quality For Your Water Coolers

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:03:00 GMT

Interestingly bottled water for your glasses or your water coolers is actually classified as food both in New Zealand and in the USA.

So all you have to have to legally bottle water is a food handler certificate and a certified food safe presence.

Water Coolers: Food And Water Standards

Now we all know the standards for these are actually not hat high and it is quite hard to lose them. The monitoring of these also is not particularly vigorous considering how important they are to our health.

Whereas with a filter system of your own, as long as you get one that has some kind of trustworthy certification like from NSF, then you have a much higher degree of certainty that you will be able to trust the water that is produced.

The other problem is that once a bottle of water has left a food premise it can be delivered by anyone with a truck, so you do not know what kind of hygienic conditions your bottled water is actually being kept in.

Water Coolers: Use Spring And Be Safe

At the end of the day the monitoring of bottled water is not as high as you would expect and not as high as you would hope that it would be. All you have to do is look at all of the cases in which it has been found that bottled water is being bottled in less than satisfactory conditions.

All the pictures of glaciers and mountain tops aside and the lovely marketing script on the side of the bottles do not take away from the fact that you are quite simply better off just buying your own credibly certified water filter system and having it installed by a reputable local water filter company.

There are people who look after bottle water quality but it is by no means as rigorous or reliable as those that look after the certification process for water filters. I will be sticking with my water filters.

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Water Coolers: Is Bottled Water Really That Good?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:06:00 GMT

Well this is really quite a subjective question but if the question is - Is bottled water better than tap water the answer would probably be yes most of the time.

If, however, the question was – Is bottled water better than water you can filter through into your cup or water cooler at home – then the answer would have to be a resounding NO.

In actual fact a large number of the biggest brands of bottled water sold and promoted heavily by the major drink companies such as coca cola etc. are actually just filtered tap water anyway.

So they are getting the same tap water you get and then filtering it with the filter technology that is readily and fairly inexpensively available to you and me the everyday consumer, and then putting it is bottles and charging an arm and a leg for you to buy it – not to mention the environmental cost of having all of those plastic bottles most of which will end up in a land fill after one single use and then sit there for thousands of years.

Water Coolers Should Suit You And Your Budget

So I say get your own water filter system of whatever quality and type suits your needs and your budget, and then get yourself a nice portable drinking bottle that is BPA free preferably a nice food grade stainless steel bottle that will last you basically forever, and then you can filter your own water and drink as much of it as you like without lining the pockets of the big drink companies even further with your hard earned cash.

At least with your own filter system you can be sure of the quality as it is not at all uncommon for bottled water to actually be untreated tap water, or be tap water poorer in quality than your own then put through a very basic filter.

For more information or to have a look at our range, please click below.

Who Looks After Bottled Water Quality For Your Water Coolers

Can’t I Just Boil My Water For The Water Cooler Instead of Filtering

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:26:00 GMT

The old ‘just boil it’ idea has been around for a while.

People think that you can just take your heavily polluted tap water and just give it a boil and then you will have skipped the need for any kind of filtration whatsoever and it can go straight into the water cooler.

This idea I think came about form us being told to boil water if we think it is unsafe e.g. if we are camping and we need to drink from a fresh stream etc.

Water Coolers: Boiling Water vs Bacteria

It is true that boiling water can kill bacteria as they do not exist happily at the 100 degrees of hot boiling water. But there is something that we are all forgetting – you cannot just ‘bring water to the boil’ as happens in a kettle.

No, bringing water to a boil does not effectively kill the bugs; it just makes them temporarily uncomfortable. If you want to use boiling as a method to clean you water you need to boil the water for up to 20 minutes and at least the very least for three solid minutes.

If you do this you will be getting somewhere. Now bugs are nasty and some can give you a very upset stomach when camping but at home they are not the main problem in our water – as it comes pre chlorinated which deals with a lot of the bugs – but not all.

Water Coolers and Inorganic Particles

No, the bigger problem for us at home drinking form the tap is the inorganic particles in the water – think bits of metal etc, these will not be bothered by any amount of boiling, also the chlorine itself you cannot simply boil it away. Not to mention the hundreds of chemicals that may be present.

The fact of the matter is that if you want to have safe clean drinking water - and bathing and showering water too – then you need to forget the ‘just boil it up’ method unless you are out camping and it is your only option as you have forgotten your filter.

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Water Coolers: Is Bottled Water Really That Good?

How Big Are The Contaminants That Are In Tap Water And Water Coolers

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:35:00 GMT

Water borne contaminants can be a great range of sizes from those clearly visible to the naked human eye down to those that can only be seen with a powerful microscope.

These can get into your water coolers.

Water Coolers: Particle Filtration

The types of filtration used to filter out particles of different sizes are Particle Filtration – this includes beach sand, and other visible particles like fine sand, cement dust, human hair, plant spores, insecticide dust, silt and some larger paint pigments and bacteria.

The next stage of filtration is called Micro Filtration – this includes smaller bacteria, asbestos, clay, smaller paint pigments, ground talc etc. the next stage of filtration is called Ultra Filtration – this is the size of carbon black, atmospheric dust, most viruses, colloidal silica.

The next level of filtration is called Nano Filtration – we are getting down to the absolute tiniest things now lie synthetic dye and sugar molecules. The final and ultimate level of filtration is called Hyper Filtration – this is only really achieved by reverse osmosis (RO) water filtration systems and will filter out such super tiny things as aqueous salt, and it filters down to the size of an atomic radii.

Water Coolers: Reverse Osmosis

This is how reverse osmosis manages to filter out basically everything and leave only hydrogen and oxygen molecules themselves which leaves you with true pure H2O. You can choose the level of filtration you want based on the micron level a 1 micron filter will filter down to about the top of the Micro Filtration level just touching into the Ultra Filtration level.

This is very good. If the filter has a KDF component then it will also be able to remove some of the smaller impurities as well as the larger ones as not all filtration is strictly about being smaller than the particle you don’t want.

For instance ion exchange filtration is effective based on the chemical bonding of molecules in the filter to molecules in the water that would otherwise pass by.

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Can’t I Just Boil My Water For The Water Cooler Instead of Filtering

How Many Chemicals are Actually In My Tap Water and Water Coolers

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:19:00 GMT

I am going to use stats from the US for this one but you can rest assured - or actually the opposite of that – that water in most western countries is the same, and most other countries even worse, Water filters and water coolers can help.

In the US they have a non profit non-governmental group that is called the Environmental Working Group.

Water Coolers and Water Safety

The purpose of the Environmental Working Group is to investigate in a non biased and non monetarily motivated way issues that affect the health and well being of the public of the country. So clearly basic food water and air safety come under that umbrella.

When the EEG did their research into the standard of tap water in the US they found that there were over 260 chemicals present in tap water across the nation. 260 chemicals that were being drunk with a glass of water.

Now it gets even worse, of those 260 chemicals that they found to be in tap water there are 140 chemical that do not even have safe limit that has been set for human consumption.

Water Coolers: Keeping Out The Chemicals

So 140 of those chemicals we do not even have good scientific study to know how bad they are for us and what they do to us when we drink them every day of our lives. I have a guess – they all pile up in our bodies and cause cancer.

That is just my guess but I am sure not taking the risk with my health and definitely not with the health of my family while they figure it all out. For the cost of a filter system the peace of mind that it brings to know that I am not drinking 260 chemicals with every sip – I’ll take the filtered water every day of the week, and eight times a day.

For more information please click on the button below.

How Big Are The Contaminants That Are In Tap Water And Water Coolers

Water Coolers: Water and Weight Loss

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:49:00 GMT

A lot of times people attribute certain characteristics to water that are not necessarily warranted, which is a shame as drinking water is good enough for you without having to make anything extra up.

Being a water cooler company we hear this a lot.

One thing that is attributed to drinking water, which sounds pretty incredible and far fetched but actually is true, is it's natural ability to help you lose weight.

How Water Can Help You Manage Weight

The way that water helps you to lose weight is two fold. For example when human beings develop hunger cravings we are (often) in fact just thirsty which is a common cause for overeating. This is where drinking a simple glass or two of water can reduce hunger cravings or at least help you to eat a much smaller portion.

Water acts as a natural appetite suppressant. What this means for those with a large appetite who are trying to lower their appetite by eating smaller portions, is that drinking a glass of two of water 30 minutes before meals, and also a glass of water or two during each meal, will find they can easily eat much less due to the simple fact that there is less room in the stomach for food.

Water Coolers: Controlling Calorie Intake

It is a fact that the more control you have over your calorie intake the more likely you are to lose weight. Furthermore, water will also help you digest your meals, results in a clearer complexion, and helps you with weight loss goals for an overall healthier lifestyle.

If a beauty product could offer all the benefits water does, it would sell for an absolute fortune! The advantage we all have is the obvious fact that water is very affordable. All you have to do is ensure that the water you are drinking has come from a trusted source and has been purified to the highest of standards.

This is where choosing Spring NZ for water delivery and water coolers makes sense. You'll have the peace of mind that the water you are drinking is the 100% Ultra Purified H₂O only Spring NZ can offer.

To view our great range of water cooler options please click on the button below or contact us for a chat on how we can help you.

How Many Chemicals are Actually In My Tap Water and Water Coolers

Water Coolers: What is Alkaline Water and Is It Better For You

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:05:00 GMT

The shame about the movement to more awareness around what we eat and drink is that there are a lot of theories around that can gather up quite a bit of steam even though they are not backed up by proper peer reviewed modern science.

One such theory is that of the alkali diet.

You will be aware of the PH scale that lists things from being 0 through to 14 depending on whether they are considered to be acidic or alkaline.

Water Coolers: To Neutralise Or Not?

Each step up the chart in either direction increases the acidity or alkalinity by a factor of ten so a 1 is ten times more acidic than a 2. Water is usually around a neutral 7 but can go a few points either way without being a problem.

There is a theory in the alkaline diet concept that we are becoming more acidic due to the food we eat and the water we drink. People who believe in this are against reverse osmosis (RO) water filtration systems as they remove minerals and ‘neutralise’ the PH of water. They will argue that this is dangerous to the human body and your system.

They say that it will cause necessary things like calcium and other minerals which are essential to your body to be taken away or stripped out, removed by this ‘acidic’ water.

Water Coolers: With Or Without Minerals

I have even heard them complain that minerals were supposed to be in water – this seems a bit weird as water itself has no minerals they are just picked up when the water passes through its journey to us over rocks and down rivers etc.

They also complain that it makes water ‘tasteless’ this also seems weird to me as water itself has no taste and once again the taste is just what it picks up o its journey to us – most of it being chlorine being added to our council supply.

I am not a believer in the alkaline diet argument against reverse osmosis (RO) on the basis of acidic water but I would invite you to do your own research and that does not mean just Googling it and believing any site you find.

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Water Coolers: Water and Weight Loss

Water Coolers: Why is it Called ‘Reverse’ Osmosis

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 00:31:00 GMT

We have all heard of osmosis back in high school when we were studying plants and other living things and how they leach water from the soil and their environment. Just as we get water from water coolers!

The process is one you probably have not thought that much about since school. Then you start looking into water filtration systems and you start hearing all about reverse osmosis (RO) water filter systems.

You will be thinking I know what osmosis is – when a membrane separates two liquids and the lower saline water will naturally move through the membrane to the water with the higher salinity. After a while the water will have naturally balanced itself out to an equal salinity (salt content).

Water Coolers - Keeping Your Water Safe

So you would hazard a guess that reverse osmosis is in some way similar to this. The original purpose of reverse osmosis (RO) was to remove salt from water; yes it is what they use to create fresh drinking water for large ships etc. Water is forced through the membrane from the most salty to the least salty and you end up with the salt molecules being caught in the filter as they are larger than the molecules of water which are hydrogen and oxygen.

The membrane required to do this is so fine that reverse osmosis (RO) is not just good for removing salt it is actually an incredible water filtration method – quite possibly the best available in the world today. It will give you absolutely pure water pure H2O, two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen.

It will be pure and delicious water but it will have none of the mineral content that some people prefer to have in their water for varied health benefits and taste reasons. I am happy to get my minerals from my food and enjoy the taste of totally pure reverse osmosis processed water.

For more information please click on the button below.

Water Coolers: What is Alkaline Water and Is It Better For You

Water Coolers: How To Avoid Water Intoxication

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:24:00 GMT

Water intoxication is when you drink so much water that you actually begin to ‘water down’ your system.

You would have to empty a lot of water coolers to manage it!

Specifically water intoxication occurs when a person drinks too much water – either habitually or in an extreme setting such as an athletic competition – and the level of salts in that persons system becomes too dilute.

Water Coolers For Everyday Hydration

Water intoxication can also lead to an imbalance of water in the brain. Your average human brain already is made up of around 78 percent water and I guess that is its comfortable limit. This is also known as hyper-hydration and as water poisoning, although that is less common, you can also say over hydration.

How dangerous can it be? Well it can actually be fatal but you do not usually need to worry about this pretty much everyone that has died from this issue has either performed an extreme duration challenge in which they are expending large quantities of electrolytes and drinking huge amounts of water to stay hydrated but without replacing the all important electrolytes (salts) in their system.

One of the other causes of death by water intoxication is when people partake in an ill advised water drinking competition to see who can consume the most water. These are usually intended to be fun affairs but anything like this comes with a certain if unknown risk.

Water Coolers: Keeping It Normal

Before you try any games that involve any form of unusual action or duress placed on your body or its systems you should look up and see if there are any potential dangers.

It is also good idea to seek the opinion of a medical professional as simply Googling for the answer can get you a lot of information that is not edited or properly fact checked in any way. Fact checking does not mean finding the information somewhere else online then reusing it assuming it is true either.

For more information or to have a look at our range please click on the button below.

Water Coolers: Why is it Called ‘Reverse’ Osmosis

Water Coolers: Water and Body Weight

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:02:00 GMT

Water coolers are a delicious way to keep your body hydrated.

An adult human body is made up of X% amount of water… now you notice that I say X% this is because I have read, and I am sure you have too, so many varying reports about the actual percentage of an adult human’s body weight that is made up of water.

I have read reports varying from anywhere for 60% which seems a little on the low side to up to 90% which seems a little on the high side.

Water Coolers: Helping You Get Enough Hydration

So what is the truth about this water versus body weight question? I also wonder how much of a difference the hydration level of a person makes.

I mean if you weigh a not outrageous 100 kilograms and you drink 2 litres of water in an hour without going to the bathroom then surely you now have just added an extra 2% body weight, and what if a person that weighed a not unusual 50 kilograms did the same thing surely they have added another 4 percent to their total.

From what I can tell different parts of your body also contain different amounts of water, for instance your brain is reportedly very high in water content at an average of 78 percent. But that is far outdone by organs such as your liver and kidneys and lungs which all sit comfortably in the 85 percent area.

Water Coolers: Keeping Your Body Safe

On the flip side human bone comes in around a measly 22 percent – although that is probably a good thing as it needs to be dry and hard enough to keep us standing up! I have even read reports that women have a lower body water percentage than men as much as 10 percent less on average – but the source did not explain why.

But whatever the statistics are it adds up to a lot and if you are going to be made in a large part of water better make sure that you use clean filtered water.

For more information or to have a look at our range please click on the button below.

Water Coolers: How To Avoid Water Intoxication

Should I Buy or Rent my Water Coolers and Filters

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 01:00:00 GMT

Whether you should buy or rent your water coolers and or your filter systems is not a simple one or the other.

You have to take into consideration a number of factors, including how much the total cost would be if you were to buy it, what additional services are included when you rent it.

Sometimes when you rent you will get the servicing and cleaning of the machine included at a lower price than if it is your own machine as you are an ongoing customer for the company.

If you rent the machine you can also not have to worry about if there is a mechanical malfunction as the company you rent it from will be happy to exchange it for another unit and if the problem wasn’t your fault there won’t likely be any cost to you.

Water Coolers: Factors To Consider

Often people look at the cost of things that they rent and think that if they were to just buy it then they would save money after 12 months or so but as we have seen there are a number of factors that must be considered not just the initial buy price against the monthly rental.

Your time or your staff’s time is valuable and you do not want to have to spend time cleaning a water cooler or filter system when you could have had a company come and do it for you properly, on a regular cycle, for a reduced rate, because you are a rental customer.

Often rental machines are of a very good quality as it makes sense for the company renting to have good machines that will last for years and years so they don’t have to keep replacing them, this means you both win as better machines with better components are likely to be of better quality for all of the internal components such as the water tank etc.

For more information or to have a look at our range please click on the button below.

Water Coolers: Water and Body Weight

Bottled Water vs Filter Water and Water Coolers

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 01:01:00 GMT

A lot of people drink water in small bottles, you know the ones they come from the supermarket and dairies in 500 ml, 750ml or 1 litre bottles and you are supposed to carry them around and sip on them through the day.

If you calculate the cost per each litre you buy in this way it is hugely more expensive than just having your own bench top or under bench filter at home; or water coolers that you fill up from a filter.

Added to this expense there is the cost to the environment, every single one of those plastic bottle that you buy uses something like 25% of its size in oil to get to you once you take into account the actual plastic used in the bottle plus the various methods of transportation it takes to get to you.

Water Coolers: Better Water

But is it better water you ask? Well this is a common conception, I mean it must be better if it costs so much more right? Actually wrong, a quality home filter can provide you with exactly the same quality of water and in some cases far better quality of water than anything you can buy in a bottle.

So it really is going to do your wallet a favour and the planet a favour to ditch the bottled water and just use your own refillable sports bottle with your own water cooler / filter system.

There is one more concern people have about the filtered water not having the minerals that some bottled water has – in my opinion the amount of minerals in any bottled water is tiny in importance compared to what you eat in your food so focus on that rather than the tiny amounts of minerals in the bottled water you drink.

If you are really worried about this you can get ‘mineralised’ water this is where the minerals are added to filtered water for you. Any good water filter supply company should be able to discuss this with you and make sure that you get a filter that will provide you with what you need.

For more information or to have a look at our range please click below.

Should I Buy or Rent my Water Coolers and Filters

What to do if Your Water Coolers Bottles Go Green

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 01:01:00 GMT

It is one of those things, you are happy with your water coolers that you fill up from your bench top water filter.

Then all of a sudden you have a closer look one day while filling the bottle and notice that is has taken on a green tinge.

This does not look very appetising and it sure isn’t.

Do not ignore it as the problem will just get worse.

Water Coolers: Time to Clean the Bottle

You need to clean out your bottle. When water cooler companies deliver these re-usable big bottles of water they clean them out with a special solution that prevents the growth of any of this green stuff.

When you have the water bottle at home yourself and you are filling it each time then you will not have access to this system. Do not worry you can very easily and safely fix and prevent this issue yourself using common household items.

You do not want to wash it with detergents etc as you do not want to leave any taste in the bottle to be picked up by the water when you next fill it. All you actually have to do is sprinkle some baking soda into the bottle and then follow with some white vinegar, they will react with each other and fizz.

Recipe for Cleaning the Bottles in Your Water Coolers

If you swirl this solution around and shake it in the bottle it will remove / loosen most of the green stuff. You can then fill the bottle up with hot water but not boiling hot) with a teaspoon or two or citric acid powder and let it sit overnight when you empty it your bottle should be clean and sterile. If this is not enough then contact your water cooler or filter provider as they will be able to sort you out with further cleaning instructions.

For more information or to have a look at our range please click on the button below.

Bottled Water vs Filter Water and Water Coolers

How To Change the Bottle on a Water Cooler

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:30:00 GMT

It is one of those things that some people make look easy and some people make to look really difficult, truth is it can be both.

Changing the bottles on your water coolers is a necessary task whether you have a bottle delivery service or whether you have a bench top water filter unit which you use to fill up the bottles yourself.

It is easy to get it off when empty however once full, can be a strenuous task.

As you would be aware water is heavy –about 1 kilogram for every litre so the normal 14 or 19 litre water coolers bottles therefore weigh in at about 15 and 19 kilograms respectively.

Tips On Lifting Bottles For Your Water Coolers Safely

When lifting bottles for water coolers, the trick is to bend your knees – as with all lifting – get the water cooler bottle in a comfortable position so that you can easily move with it. Once you are at the water cooler place one hand at the neck of the bottle and carefully ‘roll’ the bottle onto the water cooler. This way the weight slowly tips onto the water cooler and you can maintain control of what you are doing.

Where people get into trouble when replacing bottles on water coolers is that they try and invert the bottle completely then kind of place it on, this is a rather ungainly thing to achieve and made especially difficult by the weight of the bottle. You are much more likely to hurt your back if you try lifting like this.

If you are not able to easily and safely lift the bottle when full for whatever reason then – and this is an advantage of using a filter – you just fill it up three quarters or half way and then it will be a much more manageable weight.

For more information on water coolers go ahead and contact us on 0800 477 746 or click below to check out our range online.

What to do if Your Water Coolers Bottles Go Green

Do Water Coolers Need Cleaning?

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 23:11:00 GMT

It is very important that water coolers are cleaned thoroughly on a regular basis.

You will be aware that water is vital for life. But it is not just vital for our lives; most organisms rely on a water source to survive including the nasty ones.

Water Coolers: Unclean Equals Unsafe

Not only do they rely on water to survive wherever there is water they will thrive. You can test this yourself by leaving a tray of water standing for a couple of weeks it does not take long for all sorts of visible moulds to form, and they are only the ones that you can see.

Unfortunately, in many situations, water coolers sit in the corner of an office for everyone to use however it is seldom maintained or even looked inside of - if someone was to it is highly likely that you wouldn’t drink out of again!

This is not to say water coolers aren’t fantastic – they are, people drink a lot more water when there is one around which is good for everyone. What we would like to promote is more awareness around is the importance of regular cleaning and maintenance.

Get Water Coolers from a company that cleans!

The advantage of ordering water coolers from Spring NZ is the benefit of our cleaning/sanitisation service. Our staff know how to do it properly, they have the right equipment and can provide you with useful tips and recommendations making it a worthwhile service.

It make sense to ensure your water cooler is cleaned on a regular basis to provide fresh, cool filtered water which helps keep everyone hydrated, healthy and productive.

For more information on our clening/sanitisation service contact us on 0800 477 764 or view our range of water coolers online.

How To Change the Bottle on a Water Cooler