by Fern Shaw | Sep 28, 2026 | water cooler, Water Coolers
How many hours are spent looking at a screen during the average day?
Between computers, phones, tablets and the other screens that have become part of everyday life, our eyes get very little time off. By the end of a busy day, tired, dry or irritated eyes can be a familiar feeling.
With World Sight Day taking place in October, it’s a good opportunity to look at something we don’t always associate with eye health: hydration.
Our Eyes Need Water Too
Our eyes rely on a thin layer of tears to stay lubricated and comfortable. Tears do more than simply keep the surface of the eye wet. They also help protect the eyes and provide a smooth surface for clear vision.
Drinking enough water supports the body’s normal fluid balance, including the fluids involved in keeping the eyes comfortable. When we’re not drinking enough, we may notice signs of dehydration elsewhere too, such as tiredness, headaches or a dry mouth.
And then there’s screen time.
Eyes and Screens
When we’re concentrating on a computer screen or phone, we tend to blink less frequently. That can mean the tear film on the surface of the eye evaporates more quickly, leaving eyes feeling dry, tired or irritated.
It’s not necessarily the screen itself that’s the problem. It’s often the way we use it.
Taking regular breaks, remembering to blink and adjusting screen position and lighting can all help reduce the strain that comes with prolonged screen use. And, of course, keeping a glass or bottled water within easy reach is a useful reminder to drink regularly too.
Don’t Forget the Water
It’s surprisingly easy to become absorbed in a busy working day and realise several hours have passed without a proper drink.
Having drinking water readily available makes regular hydration easier to maintain. A water cooler in a communal area, for example, provides an obvious opportunity to pause, refill and step away from the screen for a moment.
That short break can do more than top up your water. Looking away from the screen gives your eyes a chance to rest too.
As we explored in our Brain Health feature, hydration can support concentration and mental alertness as well. So, a quick water break can be a useful reset for more than just your eyes.
A few habits that can make a difference:
- Having water readily available makes it easier to drink throughout the day.
- If you’re working at a screen for prolonged periods, give your eyes regular breaks. The 20-20-20 approach – looking at something around 20 feet away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes – is one commonly recommended way to do this.
- It sounds obvious, but concentrated screen use can reduce how often we blink. Making a conscious effort to blink regularly can help keep the eyes lubricated.
- Regular eye examinations can identify changes in vision and other eye problems, sometimes before you notice any symptoms yourself.
Our eyes work hard from morning to night, particularly when much of the day is spent reading, concentrating and looking at screens.
Staying hydrated won’t solve every cause of tired or dry eyes, but it’s a pretty simple part of looking after your general health and supporting your body’s normal functions.
And sometimes, stepping away from the screen for a glass of water is exactly the break your eyes – and the rest of you – needs.
by Fern Shaw | Sep 23, 2026 | water cooler, water dispenser
It’s 8:15 on a Monday morning.
The building is only just waking up. Coats are off, sleeves rolled up and desktops are powering up.
Someone stops at the water cooler on the way in. A quick drink of water and they’re off.
By 9:30, the building is filling up and the water cooler has a steady stream of visitors. Someone fills a bottle before a meeting or replenishes their water glass.
Another day at work but these everyday scenes show how easily the role of a water cooler can go unnoticed.
11:00 – Meeting break
A meeting finishes and several people need a drink at once. Bottles are filled, glasses topped up and someone pauses for a quick chat before heading back to their desk.
It’s an ordinary part of the working day but the demand isn’t always quite so ordinary. In a larger organisation, hundreds of people might use water dispensers across different floors, departments or buildings. Where they are positioned and what type of dispenser is used can become more important as the scale increases.
12:30 – Lunch
People are coming and going from kitchens, canteens and break areas. Some are filling bottles before heading out. Others are simply stopping for a drink.
Perhaps this is where the water cooler gets overlooked. It just needs to be there when people need it.
2:00 – Visitors arrive
Visitors arrive for meetings. Contractors are on site. Someone from another branch has travelled in for the afternoon.
The workplace is no longer just serving its own staff. The people using the building have changed, even if the building itself hasn’t.
Reception, meeting rooms and staff areas all have different patterns of use.
An experienced water dispenser supplier can help identify what fits each setting and the organisation as a whole.
3:30 – On the move again
Someone fills their water bottle before heading across to another building.
Perhaps there’s another office on the other side of the site, a university campus or a temporary worksite.
The water cooler might stay put but the people using it don’t.
5:00 – The building empties
The phones are quieter. Desktops power down, monitors switch off and desks are tidied as people leave.
The last few water top-ups are done ahead of the commute home and the building settles for the evening.
The water cooler space/time continuum
A workplace isn’t always one building with one set of requirements. A university might have lecture theatres, libraries and sports facilities. A hotel has guest and conference areas. Medical, retail and construction settings have their own demands.
The same basic need is there but the circumstances around it can be vastly different.
But somewhere in the middle of all that activity, there’s usually a water cooler having a busy day. And tomorrow morning, at 8:15, it’ll be ready to do it all again.
by Fern Shaw | Sep 21, 2026 | water cooler, Water Coolers, water dispenser
Businesses rarely stand still for very long.
An office that once seemed spacious can suddenly feel rather cramped. A company moves into a larger premises, takes on another building or refurbishes the one it already has. A hotel adds new facilities. A university opens another teaching space. A construction project gets underway. A temporary site appears where there wasn’t one six months ago.
And while plenty of attention goes into desks, furniture, IT and everything else that needs moving, installing or reorganising, there’s another practical question that needs considering:
What happens to the drinking water?
The water cooler that was perfectly suited to a small office may not be quite so well suited once the workforce has doubled. A dispenser that worked in one corner of a building might no longer be in the right place after a refurbishment. And a permanent installation isn’t necessarily the answer when a business needs drinking water somewhere for a few weeks or months.
In other words, the water provision that made perfect sense two years ago may not make quite as much sense today.
Businesses change. Water provision can change with them.
There’s no single definition of a workplace these days.
A business might have a traditional office, a warehouse, several retail locations and a head office. A hotel might have guest areas, conference facilities and staff spaces. A university can have lecture theatres, libraries, sports facilities and administrative buildings spread across a large campus.
Then there are the less permanent arrangements: temporary offices, events, refurbishment projects and job sites that exist for a particular purpose and a particular length of time.
Each has its own demands.
That’s where having different options becomes useful. A business might choose to purchase a water cooler for a permanent location, while water cooler rental could make more sense for a temporary or changing requirement. A mains-fed water cooler may suit one part of a building, while bottled water coolers are a more practical option elsewhere.
Sometimes it’s simply a matter of putting the right equipment in the right place.
The move itself is only part of the story
Moving into a new building is a good opportunity to look at what is actually needed rather than automatically recreating what was there before.
Perhaps there are now more people using the building. Perhaps there are several floors instead of one. Perhaps the staff kitchen has moved, the reception area is busier or a previously unused space has become a meeting area.
Even the position of a water dispenser can make a difference to how useful it is.
The same applies when a business isn’t moving at all. A refurbishment, expansion or change in how a building is used can be enough to make existing arrangements worth reconsidering.
And sometimes the change is temporary.
A company may need additional water coolers while work is being conducted on its main premises. A theatre may require extra provision during a production. A construction project will have different requirements as the site develops. An event may need bottled drinking water brought in for a defined period.
Not every requirement needs to become a permanent fixture.
There’s no rule saying it has to stay the same
Perhaps that’s the simplest way of looking at it.
Your business has changed. Your building has changed. The way people use that building has changed.
So why shouldn’t the way you provide drinking water change too?
Whether that means installing a new water cooler, moving existing equipment, adding temporary cooler placements, arranging bottled water delivery or switching from one type of dispenser to another, the right solution is likely to depend on what the organisation actually needs now.
Because sometimes the most sensible thing to do with a water cooler is not to leave it exactly where it was.
Especially when everything else has moved on.
by Fern Shaw | Sep 14, 2026 | water cooler, Water Coolers, water dispenser
The British weather has many talents. Being predictable isn’t one of them.
One minute it’s sunny enough for sunglasses and the next you’re wondering where you left your jumper. As we head towards autumn the days may still be pleasantly mild but it’s also the time of year when thoughts turn from keeping everyone supplied with chilled drinking water to considering what happens when demand for hot water starts picking up again.
And there’s another seasonal change worth thinking about: schools are back.
From Chilled to Steaming Hot
A water dispenser doesn’t necessarily have to be about keeping things cold. As the seasons change so can the way people use their drinking water facilities.
A hot water boiler can be particularly useful as demand for hot drinks picks up. Rather than waiting for hot water to be heated when it’s needed, a mains-fed boiler provides hot water ready when required.
For larger workplaces or busy environments that can make a noticeable difference to the morning tea and coffee queue. And let’s be honest, when autumn arrives the queue can become surprisingly long.
Meanwhile, Back at School …
As schools return, classrooms, staff rooms, sports halls and canteens are busy again.
For schools the requirement is slightly different. It’s not just about having drinking water available. It’s about making it easy for pupils and staff to refill bottles and reach for water throughout a busy school day.
AquAid’s school hydration solutions include a range of drinking fountains and bottle-filling options designed with the school environment in mind. They can be installed indoors or outdoors depending on the requirements of the site with features designed to make everyday use straightforward.
So, while the weather forecast may be making its usual attempt to keep everyone guessing there’s a little more certainty when it comes to planning your water provision.
Now is a good time to look at what people need today and what they’re likely to need as the seasons change.
Because whether it’s a school welcoming back pupils or a workplace heading towards the cooler months a well-chosen water solution should be ready for whatever the weather decides to throw at us.
by Fern Shaw | Sep 9, 2026 | water cooler, Water Coolers
What do a water cooler, a tractor and a wheatsheaf have in common? More than you might think.
We all know that staying hydrated during the working day is important, whether you’re refilling a glass at the water cooler between meetings or simply keeping a bottle of water to drink on your desk. But while we’re taking a sip, it’s worth thinking about where another everyday essential comes from: our food.
That’s where Back British Farming Day comes in.
From field to fork
It’s an opportunity to recognise the farmers and growers who produce the food we rely on every day and the enormous amount of work that goes into getting it from the field to our plates.
British farming is about much more than growing crops and raising livestock. Farmers also play a major role in looking after the countryside, with agriculture managing around 71% of the UK’s land.
And there’s plenty of variety in what’s produced here. In fact, the UK is home to more than 700 different types of cheese. So that humble cheese sandwich at lunchtime suddenly has a rather impressive story behind it.
Spot the red tractor
You may have seen the Red Tractor logo on food packaging. It’s one of the familiar signs consumers can look for when buying British produce, providing assurance that food meets recognised standards for safety, traceability and production.
Then there’s the wheatsheaf pin badge, traditionally worn during Back British Farming Day to show support for British agriculture.
Both have become familiar symbols of a much bigger story: the people, land and hard work behind the food we eat.
And if you need another reason to appreciate the humble wheat field, consider this: an area of wheat roughly the size of a football pitch can produce enough grain for around 11,500 loaves of bread.
Not bad for a field!
A little closer to home
Back British Farming Day is a useful reminder that the food on our supermarket shelves doesn’t simply appear there. Behind it are farmers, growers and rural communities working throughout the year, whatever the weather.
So next time you fill your glass, grab a sandwich or sit down for lunch, spare a thought for the journey that food has taken to get there.
From field to the fork, there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than we might realise.
Sources
National Farmers’ Union (NFU)
Red Tractor
