Posted By Son of SkyWalker I have been asked an interesting question. Does it affect the quality of drinking water in a water cooler bottle, currently on a cooling/heating unit, if the power is switched off when the work area is empty (i.e. staff have finished for the day) and then switched on prior to staff arriving the next day or in the case of a Friday coming in on a Monday? Is there potential for bacterial growth as temperature is not being maintained at a constant level but will heat up from a chilled temperature? In the case of sealed bottles I do not think there would be any hassle as contamination would not have entered, but in the case of bottles on the cooler/heater units the bottle may have been contaminated by low levels of bacteria. Son of SkyWalker

Posted By Son of SkyWalker Thsnks Anon What if they are not being cleaned? Have anyone ever seen someone clean a water cooler? I know I haven't. People complain at having to put on a new bottle and don't think about cleaning the cooler. I was disgusted at the state of one I was putting a new bottle on recently and cleaned it up but was this an unusual occurrence?!? This then brings us onto a safe system of cleaning which would have to in place prior to even thinking about turning the power supply on or off! Do the suppliers of these systems provide us with cleaning advice? To my knowledge no! Son of SkyWalker

Posted By Liam Mc Conalogue Hey Jim, I guess it all has to do with your water supply- I think I'll stick with the bottled stuff coz the H2O in my neck of the woods is pretty cloudy and the pressure is up and down like a fiddlers elbow. Although on a Friday night I would say a bottle of something other than water may be in order!!! Liam

Posted By Descarte In a previously position it was noted that in one of our water bottles satr on top of the water cooler, as it was in direct sunlight for most of the day had started to grow a film of algae within it on the side of the plastic. If these bottles are standing for long periods of time at room temperature than I presume they could lead to a build up of bacteria or other such organisms, though these will only be introduced if the appliance is not regularly cleaned. Knowing the acceptable limits for amounts of bacteria allowed within mains drinking water and that most mains water pipes are many many years old and develope a film of bacteria and growths all along it for many if not hundreds of miles and that these films and filaments can sometimes break off, I would still go with the bottled water. Is bottled water such as the large industrial sized bottles for drinking water UV irradiated before packaged?

Posted By Paul Devlin The company that supplies them should carry out the cleaning and maintenance. Our company has now switched from the bottle type dispenser to one that "taps" into the cold water supply which means its cooled and filtered before drinking but doesnt sit for day/weeks on end in a large bottle.

Posted By Alan Haynes In a previous life, - the office I worked in had its water coolers regularly cleaned etc. However, dispite of all this - on at least one occasion, testing showed low levels of Legionella bacteria, and they were taken out of use for further cleaning. The question is - how many of you have such tests done?

Posted By Son of SkyWalker Alan Do you know if there is any documentation re legionella in water cooler bottles that I could have a look at? Thanks Son of SkyWalker

Posted By Son of SkyWalker Paul You would think so. Son of SkyWalker

Posted By John Murgatroyd http://www.asm.org/Media/index.asp?bid=31170 http://www.ehso.com/ehsh...ingwater.php#conclusions http://www.unison.org.uk...ety/doc_view.asp?did=817