Water cooler maintenance: how often should you do it and why it’s important

In times of increased sanitization requirements everywhere we go, companies and individuals want to know what level of cleanliness is appropriate for their water coolers. It’s important to ensure that the water we are drinking on a daily basis is clean, healthy and pure.

Whether you have a water cooler in your office or at home, the following questions are important to think about when it comes to cleaning your dispenser. Jenny Hinch, the owner of Lucid Water Co., shares her insights about water cooler maintenance and what that means to you and your business.

Water cooler service and maintenance: what's involved and what exactly do you do during a service call? Why is it important to do these things?

JH: At Lucid Water, we service our water systems every 3 months for corporate customers. The following procedures are performed during each of our service calls:

At the 3 month mark, we inspect, disinfect, and clean the exterior of your water cooler. Then, at 6 months, our technician will inspect and thoroughly sanitize the interior of the unit. At the 9 month mark, we inspect and disinfect the unit, and do a thorough exterior clean. Finally at 12 months, we take your water system apart and clean all inside pieces, sanitize entire unit including taps and filter housings, and replace filters.

For residential customers, we service the water system every 6 months. All water dispensers tend to get a build-up of bacteria and biofilm. More information on this topic can be found in our blog titled how clean is your water bottle. Additionally, filter housings need to be cleaned and sanitized before you put the new filters in them, or else you just transfer the bacteria from the old filters to the new ones.

Whether you are a business or a residential customer, we always leave a service sticker on the cooler so everyone can see what service was done and when. This gives you peace of mind that the quality of your water is always 100%.

You could pay less for a water cooler supplier that only ‘services’ once a year, but what’s the point of even paying $1 for a unit that gives you bacteria-ridden, poor quality water because it’s not maintained regularly? You may as well just drink tap water then.

Why is it necessary to clean and service our water cooler every 3 months, as opposed to less often?

JH: We service our corporate customers every 3 months because they generally have higher consumption usage, which means their water system gets dirtier faster and parts could wear out quicker. It’s important to inspect all parts to ensure there are no leaks or other issues. The higher the consumption and the dirtier the location, the more important this becomes.

What is the cost of servicing a water cooler?

JH: At Lucid Water, there is no extra cost to service. When you rent a Lucid Water dispenser, our flat monthly rate includes the service, maintenance and sanitization every 3 months as described above. If you have your own dispenser, and you need someone to take care of the maintenance for you, we can do that as well. The cost of our signature triple stage filter change and sanitization is $115.00.

We have an existing provider, but we are not sure what their maintenance contract involves and it's less frequent than 3 months. What are our options?

JH: Most of our competitors do not clean out the inside of the cooler. They just unscrew the filter and put a new one on. They don’t even look inside the cooler.

If you would like to know what you are drinking, allow us to open up your reservoir so you can see what it looks like inside there. Then you can decide if you want to upgrade to Lucid Water or not. Alternatively, you may call your existing provider and ask them what all is involved in their maintenance contract. Compare that to Lucid Water’s service package.

At Lucid Water, we make sure that you are drinking only clean, fresh and pure water that tastes great. Our high standard of servicing water systems is a big part of that. Our owner, Jenny Hinch, is passionate about bringing the absolute best water to your home or office. We know that hydration is essential to maintaining a healthy immune system.

All client visits are conducted with social distancing and COVID-19 precautionary protocols in place. We maintain a 2-meter distance from others, wear a mask when physical distancing is not possible, and sanitize our hands before entering your building. Our teams are required to stay home if they are displaying any cold or flu-like symptoms.