Why Isn’t Your Office Switching To The Bottleless Water Dispenser?
Are you using a water bottle dispenser at work? And who’s job is it to make sure all those empty bottles get picked up and recycled every month? Hopefully it’s not yours, but if it is, maybe you should think about a bottleless water dispenser instead.
If you think about it, your office breakroom or lunchroom can’t function without water. Providing clean, healthy drinking water at work gives your staff the most essential tool to their success – and yours. With clean drinking water on demand, your employees have so many more healthy options for meals and breaks, while keeping hydrated and alert.
In this article, we’ll explore the key reasons why business owners are switching to a bottleless water dispenser.
Why Switch To Bottleless?
If the tap water in your office is accessible and reliable, having a bottled water dispenser may be adding an unnecessary expense to your daily operations? A bottleless water dispenser essentially serves the same water from your tap, but purified and filtered for healthier, better tasting results.
Even if you have concerns about the quality of your office’s tap water, a simple test with a water test kit can reveal the contaminants lurking in your water. Find a bottleless water dispenser designed to treat the contaminants you need to remove, and you’ll never need to invest in a water bottle service ever again!
Find the right water dispenser for you in this Reviews of the Best Water Cooler Dispensers of 2024.
At a glance, these are the key benefits your company could be enjoying with a bottleless water dispenser:
- Reduce your carbon footprint as much as 72%
- Reduce the production, recycling and dumping of plastic bottles
- Save 30-70% by switching to bottleless water cooler dispenser
4 Benefits of A Bottleless Water Dispenser For Your Office
Here are some of the key reasons business owners are switching to a bottleless water dispenser:
1. Cost Savings
- Bottled/delivered water = $0.79/gallon
- Bottleless Water Dispenser = $0.02/gallon
A bottleless water dispenser eliminates the need for weekly bottled water delivery. A business with 15 employees, for example, might consume a total of 1825 gallons per year, or about 7 gallons per day. That works out to a savings of $1,405 per year!
Did you know that bottled water has become America’s number one selling beverage?
2. Less Maintenance
Once your bottleless dispenser is properly installed, there’s really nothing left for you to do except enjoy clean drinking water. There are no bottles that need to be replaced, ever. There are filters you will need to replace, however. Quality RO filters, activated carbon filters or sediment pre filters need to be changed every 6 – 12 months, which is significantly less frequent than changing water bottles.
3. Reduced Carbon Footprint
By reducing the use of water bottles in your office, you can significantly reduce your carbon footprint by 30 – 70%. You’ll eliminate the need for additional trucks on the road to deliver and pick up your water bottles. You’ll also eliminate the chance of adding more plastic to our landfills, since as much as 91% of all plastic bottles never get recycled [1].
4. Healthier Drinking Water
Many US cities have discovered contaminated tap water with dangerously high levels of lead, arsenic, PFOA’s, chlorine, and radon, to name a few.
A bottleless water dispenser includes a multistage filtration system for removing harmful chemicals in your tap water. Bottled water is purified and treated, then bottled and shipped to you. In reality, many brands of commercially bottled water source their water from the same as your city water supply.
Are you drinking ‘forever toxic’ chemicals? Read about the 43 US Cities Are Drinking Toxic “Forever Chemicals”.
Why A Bottleless Water Dispenser Is Good Business
There’s more to good business than the bottomline.
Is a bottleless water cooler going to save you from insolvency? Of course not, but the devil is in the details, as they say. Whether you own a cozy 50 seat neighborhood diner, or you operate an interstate logistics business from a 10,000 sq ft. warehouse, you need a healthy, hydrated staff.
And you’d be surprised at how much your office morale might improve with a few simple changes to your breakroom.
Find out why it’s so important to stay hydrated!
Your office breakroom, lunchroom or kitchen is a hub of employee social engagement. Conversations lead to friendships, bonds, and deepened respect among your employees. For some of your staff, the breakroom or lunchroom may be the only place they get to socialize during their workday.
Many employees take their lunch to work, as well as snacks. They may choose to do so because they’re extremely health conscious. They may have dietary restrictions that require them to watch their diet carefully. Or, the office may simply be in a remote location where there are no alternatives nearby for food.
Workplace water quality matters. How is the water at your work?
Your employees rely on healthy drinking water to keep them motivated, alert, and active at their work. A shabby breakroom with second-hand equipment, poor lighting, and only the essentials sends the message that you’re only willing to do the bare minimum for your staff. If they can’t rely on the tap water for a simple cup of coffee, or they have to purchase bottled water every day, this adds to their frustration. Eventually, they will need to choose between their well-being and a paycheck.
Find the best Reverse Osmosis filtration system for your home or office.
As the owner it’s your job to ensure that the working environment is a place where workers feel safe, supported, and valued. If your employees value a healthy work-life balance, and you don’t, it will be much more challenging for you to retain employees and build your business.
Employers who invest in providing the best for their staff earn their respect and loyalty.
By helping your staff achieve a healthy work-life balance, you’ll show them that you support and value them beyond the labor they provide.
Bottled Vs. Bottleless Water Dispenser
Switching from a bottled dispenser to a bottleless water dispenser has several key advantages, but it does require some adjustment. Although both devices dispense water, their design features are quite different.
Installation
- Bottled Water Dispenser – NO
Bottled water dispensers don’t require any installation. At most, you’ll need to assemble a couple of the components, such as a drip tray, and the water bottle. For the most part, bottom loading and top loading water dispensers usually come fully assembled and ready to operate. - Bottleless Water Dispenser – YES
A bottleless dispenser requires installation at the point of use in your kitchen or breakroom. It is attached to the intake pipes of your kitchen sink, for example, much like a point of use countertop water dispenser.
Need to save space in your breakroom or office kitchen? Read the Best Undersink Water filters of 2024 for a solution.
Energy Efficiency
Reducing your energy costs can help increase your profit margin, and an energy efficient bottleless water dispenser can do just that. Avalon, Brio, Aqueverse, and Oasis are some of the top name brands that offer Energy Star rated solutions for either hot and cold dispensers or cold-water-only dispensers.
On average, a water dispenser uses 100 watts per day. Energy Star certified appliances are 30 – 50% more efficient [2]. A bottleless water dispenser uses approximately the same amount of energy as a classic water dispenser because both require electricity to operate.
Hot and cold dispensing units use more energy than a cold dispensing only unit. You can, however, find brands of bottleless water dispensers that include an auto shutoff feature and a timer for conserving energy when the unit is not in use.
- Cold-water-only water cooler uses 0.3 kWh per day, or approximately $25.00 a year
- Hot and Cold water dispenser uses 2.8 kWh per day, or an estimated $227.00 a year [3]
Operation And Features
Innovations in digital technology have enhanced the performance and today’s best bottleless water dispensers. They include many of the same features you’ll find on a classic bottled water dispenser:
Bottled Water Dispenser Features Include:
- Freestanding: Stands upright and can be positioned anywhere near an electrical outlet
- Countertop: Sits on your kitchen countertop near to an electrical outlet
- Dispenser: Push-button or lever options. Either single, dual, or three-way dispenser for ambient temperature water
- Storage Tanks: Stores cold or hot water when not in use. Can be single or dual. Stainless steel options are healthier and safer. These can be removed for annual cleaning.
- Refrigeration unit: Keeps water cold, needs at least 20 -30 minutes to refrigerate water
- Heating element: Operates on electricity. Heats water to sufficient temperature for hot beverages (soup, coffee, tea, etc)
- Auto Shutoff: Turns heating element off overnight or after a specific time of inactivity.
Bottleless Water Dispenser Features Include:
- Point Of Use: Must be connected to a plumbing line or pipeline in your office
- Dispenser: Push-button or lever options. Either single, dual, or three-way dispenser for ambient temperature water
- Storage Tanks: Stores cold or hot water when not in use. Can be single or dual. Stainless steel options are healthier and safer. These can be removed for annual cleaning.
- Refrigeration Motor: Keeps water cold, needs at least 20 -30 minutes to refrigerate water
- Heating element: Operates on electricity. Heats water to sufficient temperature for hot beverages (soup, coffee, tea, etc)
- Filtration System: Multi-stage filtration units that filter water for a range of contaminants. Can also include a purification stage.
- Auto Shutoff: Turns heating element off overnight or after a specific time of inactivity.
Take our 21-day challenge and reduce water pollution in your community!
Bottled vs Bottleless Water Dispenser Comparison
Product Cost Installation Waste Maintenance
Bottled $50 – $200 No (countertop or freestanding) Yes – bottled water Reloading water bottles
Annual cleaning of storage tanks
Weekly exterior cleaning
Bottleless $300 – $3000 Yes (point of use) No (30 -70% fewer bottles needed in your office) Filter changes every 6 – 12 months
Weekly exterior cleaning
Final Thoughts…
A bottleless water dispenser won’t turn your business into a fortune 500 company, but it can drastically improve your office kitchen, staff room, or break room.
With each year, your carbon footprint will shrink as you come to rely on your bottleless water dispenser more and more. You can eliminate the bottled water service and invest back into the growth of your company.
By providing staff with healthy clean drinking water straight from the tap, you’ll save money and support a better work/life balance for your valued employees. They’ll be able to enjoy healthy meal options and beverages without having to spend more.
Those long hours you spend in your office will be a lot easier with a fresh pot of coffee or cold glass of refreshing H2O to keep you and your staff perky and motivated.
References
[1] A Whopping 91% of Plastic Isn’t Recycled (National Geographic)[2] Energy Efficient Products: Water Coolers (EnergyStar.gov)
[3] How Much Electricity Does A Water Cooler Use? (Reference.com)