It can be a right pain in the neck changing the bottles on your water cooler – and a pain in your back too if they're not lifted correctly. In fact health and safety legislation recommends that a woman lifts a maximum of 16kg at elbow height and a man 25kg. Typically a standard bottle of water for a traditional bottle water cooler weighs 18.5kg so when closely following legislation, women should not be changing the bottles in your office. It is a legal requirement to provide your staff with fresh drinking water, so how can you do that without risking their health and safety? See below for a number of drinking water alternatives that as well as eliminating health and safety issues would almost certainly be more cost effective and efficient – eliminating your requirement for bottle deliveries and the need to store numerous big bottles.
  • Plumbed In water cooler – A plumbed in water cooler is for most people, the best solution. The water cooler is plumbed directly into the water mains in the building and provides a constant flow of filtered, chilled and room temperature water. You can also choose to have a ‘hot tap' dispensing instant, filtered hot water. They look good too and are easy to maintain.
  • Under Sink Filter – You could install a filter system under your sink, providing your kitchen is accessible to all members of staff. Your staff would then benefit from filtered tap water however it wouldn't be chilled.
  • Under Sink Chiller – This would do the same job as the under sink filter but it would also chill the water. It is plumbed directly into the mains water and is usually dispensed via its own dedicated tap.
  • Hot Water Dispenser – This is an efficient solution that can be installed into office kitchens and provide a constant, instant supply of filtered cold and hot tap water. It is ideal for making teas and coffees so your staff won't be wasting time waiting for the kettle to boil either! The Zip Hydrotap is an example that is installed into the kitchen worktop and looks very stylish, however this can be an expensive solution.
So, unless there are a number of generous and reliable men in your office to replace all of the water bottles you might want to consider the above!!