What's the point in having filtered or bottled water if your water cooler is filled with bacteria?

People spend a lot of money on buying clean bottled water or an expensive water filtration system. Only thing is that in most cases, that clean, good water gets soiled when it goes into the water cooler. Damp environments always grow bacteria quickly, especially when not cleaned. Like the back corner of some people's fridges.

With every passing year, people are becoming more and more concerned with bacteria. And as research shows, almost every water cooler has bacteria levels many times higher than the maximum the government recommends as safe. Not only that, but over 1/3 of household water dispensers have at least one disease causing form of bacteria. The basic reason is that almost no one cleans their coolers often enough. It's just too much work.

As a result demand for self cleaning water coolers is on a rise. Europe now enforces mandatory water dispenser cleaning because of the bacteria issue. And it’s possible in the future that similar laws will be passed in North America. But regardless if any law is passed or not. The fact that it has become a public issue shows how concerned people are.

Hot water disinfection is a new technology based on one of the oldest cleaning principles. Everyone knows that hot water disinfects just about anything. It's used to clean in dishwashers, laundry washing machines, professional steam cleaning vacuums, and even in industrial applications.

This technology generates hot water in the hot tank. A microprocessor controls a solenoid that releases this hot water into the rest of the water dispenser. The computer turns the cold system off during disinfection. The hot tank then continues to heat the water in the entire water cooler until a temperature a little below boiling is reached. The temperature is then maintained in the water cooler for an extended period of time. Allowing for any bacteria, viruses and fungi to be killed.

Afterwards, the microprocessor instructs the solenoid valve to close, and the water dispenser to resume normal function.

This process maintains an extremely clean water system. Like ozone, the hot water travels throughout the water cooler, getting into every nook and cranny exposed to water.

Simple soaping won’t work, since scrubbing cannot be done in the small waterways like the faucet paths and various tubes. This process takes at least an hour to do properly.

Modern research has demonstrated that bleach solutions don't kill all the water cooler bacteria, like once thought. The bacterial biofilm acts as a protective shield for the bacteria cell, and makes them an amazing 150 to 3000 times more difficult to kill, depending on the types of bacteria that are found in the water dispenser. Wiping with bleach solution only works in the areas of the water cooler that can be reached. But the internal tubing still retains bacteria cells which are shielded by the biofilm. So populations return even after cleaning.

The alternative to not cleaning the water cooler is to allow bacteria to develop biofilm slime in the water dispensers. This layer of slime gets think enough to see by the eye. And when that much forms, the water cooler contains many billion bacteria. Which in turn causes high quantities of bacteria to populate the water. Generally hundreds if not thousands of times higher than in tap water.

And while most water cooler bacteria is considered harmless. A recent study showed that a whopping 36% of household dispensers had disease causing, pathogenic bacteria as well. A high percentage of that being coliform. Coliform bacteria meaning bacteria commonly found in human feces. A healthy adult with a strong digestion may be able to drink water like this, and not see any obvious side effects, except perhaps the occasional stomach flu. Far more at risk are toddlers and young children, and anyone else with immature immune systems or weak digestion.

E coli, Legionella, and other serious bacteria have all been found in water coolers. In order to remove any colonies from your water cooler, you need to use automatic sterilization.

Hot water self cleaning is the best option. It thoroughly cleans the water cooler at a heat that not only kills bacteria cells, but fungus and viruses too. UV disinfection has a serious drawback. It can only kill bacteria that comes close to the UV bulb. Areas that are far away from the bulb, or hidden areas, like the tubing, are not effected by the UV at all. So bacteria can thrive in these areas. Ozone is just as effective as our hot water. But most water dispensers that have ozone aren't sealed properly. Therefore, they release high levels of ozone into whatever room they're in. Which can cause lung damage, and other ailments.

The hot water self cleaning function destroys all types of bacteria, as well as fungi, viruses and protozoa, such as E Coli, Giardia lamblia, Vibrio cholerae, Legionella pneumophila, Cryptosporidium parvum, Salmonella, Campylobacter jejuni, Shigella sonnei, Entamoeba histolytica, Yersinia enterocolitica and even the most heat resistant viruses like Hepatitis A.