It sounds as though the Swiss are becoming as bonkers about water as we at The Water Cooler Company are, celebrating their new-found passion in a concert held on the 29th May, during which audience members found themselves bombarded with only the sound of various watery occurrences. The Basel-Geneva-Zurich Pavilion was filled with spectators/music lovers, who then enjoyed recognising all sorts of noises, ranging from trickling streams, to magnificent thunder storms. The concert was part of the Joint Cities Celebration weekend (hence the name of the venue), and was a tribute to the fact that all three of the mentioned cities enjoy wonderful water resources from lakes throughout Switzerland. We’re wondering if next year we might be able to get the sound of one of our plumbed in water coolers giving refreshment to our lovely clients, into the concert of watery sounds. Or maybe the gentle gurgle of the pipes and filters inside the cooler, not overlooking the cheery chatter of our efficient engineers, available at your convenience…the campaign starts here.

Plumbed Water Coolers Basel-Geneva-Zurich Pavilion, plumbed in water coolers, The Water Cooler Company

It’s a tale we hear over and over- the batteries in my alarm clock went flat, it fell off the bedside table and smashed whilst I was asleep, I accidentally-on-purpose forgot to set it…all excellent excuses for being late for work. Or not. If you’re prone to using any of these corkers, why not make a change and get yourself a plumbed in water cooler. ‘How will this help?!’, we hear you cry. Simple, say we. Just like they used to do in the good old days, take a big glug of water before you hit the hay, and we guarantee (almost) that you’ll naturally wake early enough when your body decides it’s high time you went to the bathroom. On the upside: you’ll never be late for work again. On the downside: you’ll never be late for work again. Whatever your excuses, make a change today with a plumbed in water cooler from The Water Cooler Company, and your boss will love you even more. We promise.

Plumbed Water Coolers Alarm clocks, Bottleless Water Cooler, plumbed in water coolers

New Delhi police are searching for a gang in the city who’ve come up with an exceptionally crafty and disturbing tactic for making sure that their victims fall fast asleep before they empty their house of valuables.

Plumbed Water Coolers New Delhi, plumbed in water coolers, water coolers in the news

These days it’s important to be aware of the environmental implications of our actions as it’s in such a fragile state. The ozone layer is depleating, pollution is the highest on record and global warming is an issue we have all been warned about, so it’s up to us to ensure we do all we can to help minimise the problem not add to it.

There are plenty of small things we can do to help with these issues, things such as turning off lights and appliances when not in use, riding your bike instead driving around and buying recycled products.

If you are looking at getting a water cooler for your home, office or school, renting or purchasing a plumbed in water cooler, or mains fed water cooler as it is also known, over a bottled water cooler will cut the need for bottles completely thus reducing the amount of bottles that will need to be recycled.

No weekly or fortnightly delivery of water bottles has a definite and quantifiable effect lessening the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that your office water supply causes. 

The Water Cooler Company is aware of these environmental issues and is now a carbon neutral company. If you have any questions please contact us on 0845 500 4455 or email contact@thewaterdeliverycompany.com

Plumbed Water Coolers, Plumbed in Water Cooler plumbed in water coolers

The Water Cooler Company has been doing a significant amount of work recently on our plumbed water cooler offering to the hospitality trade – and one of the considerations we have had to make has been around the London-on-Tap initiative. Famed by Ken Livingstone and thus inherited by Boris Johnson, this initiative has been an unusual soapbox for London Mayors, and over time. It was launched by Thames Water in February 2008 and has received press coverage through the support or the Evening Standard initially, and the initiative has had copycat models in other cities around the world.

To the right you can see the result of a competition run by London-on-tap where designers were asked to design a “carafe for London” which would then be used to dispense drinking water to customers who have requested tap water. A visual statement of intent from restaurants that they are following the initiative and offering tap water to customers.

The headlines from the London-on-tap quote the normal taglines rolled out re tap water giving space to comment on the environmental cost of Fiji Water, and the savings if everyone drank tap water. To be fair to the campaign there is thought given to the importance of having consumer choice – but we would have liked to have seen the championing of tap water and English bottled water (two options for consumers). We would also have liked to have seen the issue widened to locally sourced produce and especially to English Wines – although bottled water from abroad is the alleged culprit there is no mention of the environmental cost of a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. A fully inclusive approach would have surely made a more logical and balanced argument.

What is interesting is that at no stage has the plumbed water industry sought to work actively with the initiative. Plumbed water coolers, drinking water fountains and undersink chillers potentially play a valuable part in any restauranteurs roll out of the London-on-tap initiative as they allow the caterer to provide tap water that has been filtered to remove any impurities and that is chilled to a level customer have come to expect.

There are products developed by the plumbed water cooler industry specifically for the catering trade – and which provide customers with a bar pump system that is housed on their bar facility and allow for the easy catering of a filter tap water to restaurant customers. The Water Cooler Company have installed these in facilities across London. Interestingly this is one of the points where the restaurant has looked to replace the income stream that they are potentially losing from bottled water sales. Across London customers are now often being aggressively charged for tap water that has been filtered through a bar pump system – just check to see if the bottle of water you are being charged for has the word “pure” on the bottle. This is potentially counter productive for the London-on-tap initiative but restaurants have to find a way to replace the income stream from bottled water they now cannot sell.

If you would like to discuss this further either email contact@thewatercoolercompany.com or call 0845 500 4455.

Plumbed Water Coolers London, London on tap, Plumbed Water Coolers

The Water Cooler Company today launches its Total Cooler Care® range of plumbed water cooler maintenance contracts. The market for water coolers is changing and many customers now prefer to choose purchasing over renting plumbed water coolers.

When customers choose to purchase plumbed water coolers they often require an installation service and also will need a supplier who can maintain, sanitise and service their water coolers.

The Water Cooler Company has launched a national plumbed water cooler installation service, basic water cooler maintenance package and a comprehensive package, which will allow customers to choose maintenance services that are relevant to their needs. We have called this Total Cooler Care®.

WATER COOLER INSTALLATION SERVICE

We can arrange for an installation of any bottleless water cooler purchased through us to any location within mainland UK. For £95 ex VAT we will have an EPDWA and WRAS approved engineer install your plumbed water cooler.

Basic Bottleless Water Cooler Cover

Our basic service costs customers £150 per year per water cooler. This basic package includes two six monthly sanitisation and filter changes in accordance with EPDWA regulations. If you own a watercooler this should be done as an essential part of your water cooler care and to ensure hygenie standards.

Comprehensive Bottleless Water Cooler Cover

Our comprehensive service costs customers £200 per year per water cooler. This basic package includes two six monthly sanitisation and filter changes in accordance with EPDWA regulations. If you own a watercooler this should be done as an essential part of your water cooler care and to ensure hygenie standards.

Please email contact@thewatercoolercompany.com or call us on 0845 500 4455 for further details.

Plumbed Water Cooler Maintenance Plumbed Water Coolers, sanitisation, water cooler maintenance

The Water Cooler Company celebrated three years of serving London customers with plumbed water coolers on 15th April. Since separating from it’s sister company, The Water Delivery Company, the company has gone from strength to strength in establishing its position as the number one plumbed water cooler company in London.

The owners of The Water Cooler Company, Robert Laughton and Antony Flower reflected on the development of the business and the timely entrance into the market when talking to a local journalist for a leading South London newspaper. “We came into the plumbed water cooler market at a time when many companies were looking at the costs of bottled water coolers and were keen to make savings. Increasingly we work alongside our sister company which supplies bottled water coolers to provide customers the most suitable solution to hydration at the workplace. It is not simply about cost.” 

Antony Flower further commented about plans for the next three years, “We are increasingly working with the HR departments of companies and showing them the cost savings possible by looking to the health benefits of water coolers for staff. For a large local Wandsworth business we have found that by doubling water coolers available to staff, one effect was that staff sickness has been reduced 50% over a two year period.”

For further information on the health benefits of water coolers to companies please see the health section of our website. The Water Cooler Company can be contacted on 0845 500 4455.

Plumbed Water Coolers, The Water Cooler Company Antony Flower, Plumbed Water Coolers, robert Laughton

Today saw the start of the annual spring onslaught against the bottled water industry and has restarted the debates  in our office regarding bottled water . We thought we ‘d share some thoughts with interested parties.

It is commonplace at this time of the year for the media budgets of the large utility companies to be spent attacking bottled water while propounding tap water.  A cursory glance at the front page of a London Utility company website  shows their rolling news banner promoting the Londonontap scheme – and their spokesmen were involved today in a debate on Radio 4 about the pros and cons of bottled water.

In defence of bottled water, the Natural Hydration Council have launched a spring campaign for UK consumers  regarding the importance of hydration - www.yououghttodrinkmorewater.com – to argue against the position put forward in the media campaigns of the large utility companies. Firstly we feel the  use of “ought”  in a website name  is lazy,  ”should”  is a more suitable word. Past this level of criticism we think that the counter arguments are well researched.

One argument put forward by the Natural Hydration Council (NHC) is backed by evidence and deserves further exposure. People often do not drink bottled water in replacement of tap water – but rather as a replacement for soft drinks that are the only alternative choice when in shops and  travelling etc etc. This makes perfect sense and it certainly cannot be argued that soft drinks are more hydrating than bottled water.

However through the aforementioned “ought to” website the arguments for bottled water are massively simplified and culminate in the very old and dated list of 10 reasons to drink more water.  This to us is a bad example of a dumbing-down for consumers that in fact fails to put across the important research they have done

The debate regarding the ethics/carbon costs/costs of bottled water is a media favourite at this time of the year and for us marks the start of Spring. It is also one that we are keen to play a part in – with the proviso that the debate is educated and that cheap soundbites about “Fiji Water” are left out of the debate.  Our plumbed water coolers provide a perfect balance between keeping people in offices and homes hydrated while having little carbon footprint.

For more  details on our company’s environmental stance and our plumbed water cooler services in London please look at www.thewatercoolercompany.com or call 0845 500 4455.

Plumbed Water Coolers Natural Hydration Council, Plumbed Water Coolers

The Water Cooler Company is a London based provider of plumbed water coolers to customers within London, we also sell the UK’s widest variety of plumbed water coolers across the UK. When we sell customers plumbed coolers they can either use our nationwide installion service or choose to use one of our water cooler installation kits.

When customers are installing a plumbed water cooler themselves they need to carefully look at whether they are attaching a water cooler to a mains-fed water supply. Plumbed water coolers that are not attached to a mains-fed water supply are illegally installed and can lead to serious health and safety issues. Customers often mistake mains-fed water for tank-fed – this blog should help you understand the difference.

You need to talk to your water supplier

Legally it is your responsibily to contact your local water utility supplier if you are installing any machine attached to your mains-fed water supply. We can provide you with the relevant contact details if required – and they will confirm with you if they are happy with an installation.

If you decide to use our nationwide plumbed water cooler installation service, we have all the necessary qualifications that permit us to install coolers with the water suppliers consent.

Checking if you have mains-fed or tank-fed water supply

If you are in an office we strongly recommend that you consult with your freeholder or office facility manager and ask them to confirm on plumbing within the building. They will have a clear idea which pipes are mains-fed water. If you have no-one you can consult with follow the tips below – please note that these are not proof of the type of supply and should be used as pointers.

1) Place your finger a tap that comes from the piping you are looking to connect to – if you can hold back the water when it is on full strength it is likely to be tank-fed water supply and unsuitable to plumb onto.

2) Leave the tap running for about a minute and then check the temperature of the copper pipe near to the tap – with a mains-fed supply you will feel the temperature of the pipe dropping significantly. The mains-fed water is significantly colder than tank-fed water can get.

The Water Cooler Company take no responsibility for customers who choose to use the advice that we list above. If in any doubt please check with your facility or local utility company. For advice please call us on 0845 500 4455 or email contact@thewatercoolercompany.com.

Plumbed Water Coolers Mains fed Water Coolers, Plumbed Water Coolers

The Water Cooler Company can provide businesses in the UK with a range of WRAS approved water cooler products and accessories. This blog provides detail on this.

For many larger businesses in the UK purchasing or renting office equipment also means finding suppliers whose range  of products carrys certain quality assurances. For plumbed and plumbing products the highest level of assurance is often seen to be the WRAS certification.

About WRAS Certification

The Water Regulations Advisory Scheme Ltd (WRAS) runs a free service for technical enquiries about the Water Fittings Regulations and Scottish Water Byelaws.  It administers the WRAS Approved Product scheme for water fittings and materials in contact with water and publishes on-line the Water Fittings and Materials Directory.

WRAS represents the UK Water Suppliers in discussions about Regulations and Byelaws with Government, water fittings manufacturers, and professional and trade associations.  For 19 of the Water Suppliers, WRAS also administers the Water Industry Approved Plumbers Scheme and publishes a register of competent plumbers who are approved contractors under the Regulations and Byelaws.

WRAS Ltd is a company limited by guarantee which is owned by 26 UK Water Suppliers. It has a Board of Directors comprising senior executives of some of the Water Suppliers and since April 2009 is managed and run independently of any other company, employing a staff of seven to provide the technical and administrative services

The WRAS cerification ensures that manufacturers and suppliers of water fittings  develop and market their products with an understanding of their customers’ requirements, and with regard to local regulations and product approvals. They have specific testing methods and understand the needs of the water cooler market. The certification standard also ensures that approved plumbed water coolers wholely meet the standards laid out in the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999.

Our WRAS approved Plumbed Water Coolers

Only certain parts of our range of plumbed water coolers and water cooler accessories is WRAS approved. Approval takes water cooler suppliers and importers a long time and certain parts of the market are not targetted at companies who understand the value of this level of certification.

The Dream plumbed water cooler is imported by a great supplier we have in the UK – they refer to this plumbed water cooler as the WCBC  3300 and we have been supplying it to customers for over five years now.

Details on the certification can be found on the WRAS website page listing WRAS approved water coolers.

Our WRAS approved plumbed water cooler accessories

The majority of our installation work is done using John Guest push fit plumbing parts – as do our plumbed water cooler installation kits. For details on all of the plumbing parts please call us.

If customers have any questions regarding WRAS approved plumbed water coolers and water cooler accessories please call us on 0845 500 4455 or email contact@thewatercoolercompany.com

Plumbed Water Coolers plumbed, WRAS