Pros & Cons of Bottleless Water Dispensers for Office Breakrooms
Bottleless water coolers, also known as bottle free water coolers, are a great option for office environments. Before investing in one it’s a good idea to get a better understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of these systems. Compared to other office water cooler options, bottleless water coolers are more cost-effective and environmentally friendly. But you might be wondering what the downsides are. Let’s take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of these water cooler systems for your office environment.
Advantages of Bottleless Water Coolers
Let’s start by taking a look at what advantages a bottleless water dispenser has over alternatives like bottled water delivery services.
Lower Ongoing Costs
With a bottleless water cooler dispenser, your drinking water will be significantly cheaper over time than with an alternative like a bottled water delivery service. This is because you’re filtering the water you are using on-demand from a tap. Tap water is substantially cheaper than even the cheapest bottled water, which means you’ll get clean water for pennies a gallon.
Environmentally Friendly
Going bottleless gives you access to a more environmentally friendly water dispenser. The combined environmental impact of bottle production and the delivery model of bottled water delivery services takes a toll on the environment. Going bottleless allows you to eliminate those impacts. Instead, the clean water you drink uses existing delivery networks to arrive at your building and is filtered on-demand when you need it, allowing your office to reduce its carbon footprint.
Save Space
Those stacks of unsightly bottles sitting in your office are taking up a lot of space that could be put to better use. In contrast to bottled water, a bottle free water cooler has a small footprint. By swapping to a bottle-free solution, you’ll take back that wasted space in your office, and you’ll never have to worry about where to stage your full bottles or where to store your empty bottles until the next delivery.
No More Heavy Bottles
Going bottleless means that you’ll no longer have to wrestle those 42-lb bottles into place. Not only can the process be messy, particularly with top-loading coolers, many people simply can’t lift or drag the heavy bottles into place. In contrast, bottleless water solutions don’t require any heavy lifting to operate. With a bottleless cooler, you won’t run out of clean, filtered drinking water. The only thing you’ll have to change occasionally is the water filtration media. This makes bottleless solutions more accessible to everyone.
Disadvantages of Bottleless Coolers
When weighing the advantages and disadvantages of water cooler systems, it’s important to keep in mind that every system has tradeoffs. While going the bottle free cooler route carries several key advantages, there are a couple of things you should keep in mind.
Require Access to a Water Line
Bottleless water coolers filter tap water on-demand, which means they require access to an incoming water line. If you have easy access to a water line in your office then this isn’t a disadvantage, but it can limit where you can place your bottleless water cooler. If you aren’t sure whether a water line is available, contact our specialists at Rayne. Our technicians will make installation a breeze and will be happy to answer any questions about the installation you might have.
Require Maintenance
All filtration systems require some type of ongoing maintenance, and bottleless water coolers are no different. With a bottleless water cooler, you’ll need to change the filtration media at regular intervals. This ensures that the unit continues filtering out all of the contaminants it is supposed to. Maintenance cycles vary depending on the specific unit you end up purchasing, so be sure to talk to a technician about maintenance options.
Higher Initial Cost
Bottleless coolers require a larger initial investment than a traditional bottle-fed cooler. But that investment is rewarded with substantially lower ongoing costs than a traditional water cooler. Each glass you fill up with a bottleless cooler costs a fraction of that provided by bottled water, which allows you to reap the savings each time an employee fills their water bottle at your office. So, while the initial cost is higher, it might be a better investment and cost less over time than individual water bottles.
Closing Thoughts
Bottleless water coolers have the advantage of being more cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and accessible than other clean drinking water softeners for an office environment. They also take up substantially less space than alternatives like a bottled water delivery service.
However, bottleless coolers do require a more substantial initial investment than other alternatives, which is offset by lower ongoing costs. Like other drinking water systems, you’ll have to maintain your bottleless water cooler over time. You should also keep in mind that a bottleless water cooler will need access to a water line, which may impact where you can install it.
If you aren’t sure whether a bottleless cooler is right for your office environment, or you’d like to learn more about bottleless water coolers, contact us at Rayne Water! Our technicians have decades of experience offering the best water filtration systems on the market, and we’d love to help you find a solution that fits your needs! You can also get your water quality tested to determine if you’re in need of a filtered system, like reverse osmosis or a pure water filter. To learn more, contact us today.
Sources:
- “Top Three Reasons to Avoid Bottled Water”, https://green.harvard.edu/tools-resources/green-tip/reasons-avoid-bottled-water
- “How Coke and Pepsi Make Millions From Bottling Tap Water, as Residents Face Shutoffs”, https://www.consumerreports.org/bottled-water/how-coke-and-pepsi-make-millions-from-bottling-tap-water-as-residents-face-shutoffs/
- “Water and Wastewater Annual Price Escalation Rates for Selected Cities across the United States”, https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/10/f38/water_wastewater_escalation_rate_study.pdf
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