by Fern Shaw | Dec 16, 2020 | bottle fed water coolers, water cooler, Water Coolers
Seeing where we are, we thought it might be prudent and practical to update the guidelines around what is considered good etiquette when replenishing your water bottle or water glass at your office water cooler.
Queuing instead of gathering. Unlike previously where we referred to confusing queues, that’s unlikely to happen currently. Therefore, less queue confusion and more distance queuing is in order. The positive here is it’s unlikely that you’ll need to fight your way past other chatters seeking hydration, allowing you more time and easier access to your cool water or hot water for your lemon water, tea, coffee or a newcomer, the bubble tea (more on this in another instalment).
Distance dispensing. We’re sure that every employer, as with all employees, is making sure that their office or workspace is routinely sanitised and cleansed, to ensure you a safe working environment, with you doing your bit, of course. At AquAid, each of our range of top quality water dispensers is designed in keeping with the highest levels of hygiene at the forefront. This includes the recent introduction of a range of Touch-Free hot and cold water dispensers as well as a non-touch, easy fit attachment for our entire range of hot water boilers.
Sanitise, sanitise, sanitise. As with distance dispensing, maintaining good sanitisation habits protects both you and your colleagues. Again, integral to our business, we understand the importance of sanitisation, which is why we sanitise all Bottled water coolers every three months and all Mainsfed water dispensers every six months.
But, what about your water cooler supplier? How are they helping to ensure a constant, safe supply of drinking water? Rest assured that here at AquAid, we continue to take all precautions and necessary steps to reduce any risk to both staff and customers.
We’re sure, with these updated water cooler etiquettes, we can continue to band together (at a respectful distance, mind) to keep the water cooler the friendliest spot in the office, wherever that may be.
by Fern Shaw | Oct 12, 2020 | bottle fed water coolers, water cooler
Under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulation 1992, the employer has a responsibility to provide an adequate supply of drinking water. However, the employer must ensure that the facilities provided are done so safely and are maintained correctly to avoid any risk to the employees.
The location of your water cooler is the first step to ensuring the safety of your staff. The water cooler needs to be seen to encourage drinking water yet it should not impede the flow of movement in and around the office. Power cables need to be neatly tucked away and any spare water bottles should be stored safely to avoid any mishaps.
A qualified technician should also carry out the installation of your machine.
The WHA (Water Dispenser & Hydration Association) is an association that was formed:
‘To ensure the attainment of the highest standards of quality, safety, hygiene and ethical conduct in the water dispenser industry through unimpeachable products and services supplied by Members to their Customers, in full recognition of the Industry’s environmental responsibilities, whilst promoting hydration benefits.’
The WHA only use WRAS (Water Regulations Advisory Scheme) approved training courses. It is highly recommended that when considering your water dispenser supplier you choose one that is a member of the WHA. In this way, you can be assured that the minimum required standards are being met.
By using a WHA member you can also be assured that, the materials used for the installation of your water coolers are suitable for contact with drinking water and that the technician installing your dispenser has WHA accredited training.
Should you opt for a Mainsfed Water Cooler: a water cooler that is connected directly to your water mains – there are further installation guidelines that will be adhered to by the technician.
- The machine must be connected to a fresh water supply and not to a water storage tank.
- The water cooler should also be located within a close proximity to both the power socket and the mains water supply.
- The WHA guidelines advise that the location of the machine needs to be within five metres of the mains supply to ensure optimal hygiene is taking place as well as getting the best water pressure levels available.
As with all equipment, it is not enough to just ensure that the water dispenser has been installed safely and correctly. Maintenance, servicing and cleaning play a vital role in ensuring you are getting the optimal value out of any piece of equipment and the water cooler is no different.
Due to the nature of their water delivery, Bottled Water Coolers need to be sanitised every three months whilst Mains Fed Water Coolers should be serviced and their filters cleaned every six months.
Keep a formal record of the services carried out by your supplier, ensure the guidelines are being met and good quality filters are being used. However, do not simply rely on your visit from your supplier to keep your machine in its best condition. By carrying out simple yet effective maintenance you can easily contribute to ensuring your water cooler continues to offer high quality drinking water. Empty the drip tray regularly and keep all external parts of the water cooler clean. A dirty water cooler will not encourage staff to drink.
Having a water cooler on site is indispensable to any organisation and it plays a vital role in the well-being of your office staff. To be assured that you are getting the best out of your water dispenser, begin by ensuring it offers no risk to your employees.
COVID-19 – Risk Assessment
The health and well-being of our staff and customers is of paramount importance to us here at AquAid. We are continuing to closely monitor the Covid-19 outbreak situation and would like to reassure you that we are taking all precautions and necessary steps to reduce any risk to both staff and customers. Follow the link to read our Covid-19 Risk assessment statement. It will be continuously updated in line with changes to best practice or government advice.
by Fern Shaw | May 1, 2020 | aquaid, bottle fed water coolers, water cooler, Water Coolers
Irrespective of the current circumstances that affect us all, we, of course, remain a proponent of how vital it is to maintain proper hydration levels while we self-isolate. That said, now we’re all hydrated and our neurons are firing (as they will do – a hydrated brain is a happy brain) there may be some uncertainty as where to (virtually) go in order to engage our thinking centres.
That’s where we at AquAid come in. We understand that being online may not be a focus of your typical day to day responsibilities, so for your convenience and to save you time, we have conducted our own online research, searching far and wide, in order to present to you a range of online channels that may pique your interest while you learn something new.
One we liked in particular is the FB page for The National Archives – as an example, they’re inviting followers to encrypt and crack a code using Alan Turing’s probability-based method: socsi.in/oJtap
Another is the Mental Floss Twitter account. The content is pretty much in the account name, although they do cover deeper and more thought-provoking content too.
innocent drinks remains a favourite of this blogger – their posts and tweets are a hilarious mixture of humour, useless information (by their own admission) and social distance challenges guaranteed to keep your grey matter engaged.
Last and by no means least, we highly recommend following AquAid’s social and business networks online – where we constantly refresh and update our content.
Of course, there are countless social networking pages and accounts that are slightly more serious and weighty, but for now, we’ll leave those for you to discover.
Before we bow out on this particular subject, a reminder that here at AquAid, we remain available for all your water dispenser requirements and bottled water deliveries.
Web us here, call us on 0800 772 3003 or e-mail: info@aquaidwatercoolers.co.uk
by Fern Shaw | Apr 10, 2018 | aquaid, water cooler, Water Coolers
When we see the most recent statistics of how many people in the UK make use of the internet, these figures probably won’t come as any surprise. What may be surprising though are the demographics of online use.
According to a statistical bulletin from the Office of National Statistics:
- In Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2017, 89% of adults in the UK had recently used the internet (in the last 3 months), up from 88% in 2016; while 9% had never used the internet, down from 10% in 2016.
- Virtually all adults aged 16 to 34 years were recent internet users (99%), in contrast with 41% of adults aged 75 years and over.
- 90% of men and 88% of women were recent internet users, up from 89% and 86% in 2016.
- Recent internet use among women aged 75 and over had almost trebled from 2011.
- Northern Ireland is catching up with the other UK regions in recent internet use, reaching 84% in 2017; however, it remained the region with the lowest recent use.
At AquAid, we believe it’s of paramount importance to be at the forefront in being able to offer our customers easy access to our wide range of water coolers, water related products and water services.
In view of this, we developed a website some 12 years ago, which we’ve constantly striven to keep as user friendly and informative as possible. In keeping with this philosophy we launched a new website in January 2017, introducing a cleaner, more modern look whilst also incorporating a significantly more user-friendly operation.
Looking at the above stats and considering the marked increase in online queries we receive on a daily basis, this has definitely been of benefit to both our customers and ourselves.
Based on the successes brought about since the launch of our new website, we’ve looked at a number of customer-centric options. The most recent addition is the new Place an Order / Book an Engineer feature.
Should you wish to contact us online, whether you have a query or enquiry, require information or would like to order a water cooler, order your bottled water or book a service, all you need to do is simply click on the Place an Order / Book an Engineer button at the AquAid website, fill in your information, press send and we’ll take it from there
by Fern Shaw | Nov 18, 2015 | Water Coolers
Just when you thought AquAid were all about the staid and serious supply of a quality range of water coolers and water related products, we show that we too, can be frothy and fun. How, you may ask? Well, our Free Standing Bottled Water Cooler is a music video sensation!
The song, Get Things Done, by British neo-disco songstress, Little Boots, features the AquAid Bottled Water Cooler as part of her fizzy interpretation of office culture.
The water cooler features at 1:53 and again at 2:03 – fame at last, AquAid Bottled Water Cooler, fame at last!
All thanks go to Steve Norley and the team at AquAid London Central for the supply of this water cooler (complete with bottled spring water, naturally filtered at the source in the Purbeck Hills) to the music video team who put this video together.
Catch the video here.
