Industry insights

The Dangers Of Refrigerated Water Dispensers

1 min read

By Will Vickery |  Published

Access to filtered, purified water in your home and at work is essential and holds many benefits. There are a variety of options available to people to provide filtered water including refrigerator filters and mains fed water coolers which have built in water technology, however, their level of effectiveness varies.

The risks associated to drinking water filtered by a fridge, includes exposure to microorganisms such as coliform and salmonella, which affect your health and the quality of water. The unfortunate truth is fridges are not as clean as they could be. Fridge filters commonly use carbon filters, which remove compounds that affect taste and smell. The effectiveness of a refrigerator filter relies on the water being in contact with the carbon for extended periods of time. In a high usage environment such as a busy office or family home, this is likely not the case. The refrigerator water filter is often out of sight. If you forget to replace or clean the water filters, they become clogged with bacteria that pose unseen risks.

Be aware of substandard carbon filters

Carbon filters are effective because the permeability of the material allows water to flow through while the carbon talks hold of the impurities, including pesticides or petrochemicals. The risk with fridges is the lower quality filters will not catch as many contaminants, while the manufacturing process can also introduce impurities directly into the filters.

Therefore if you did decide to go for a cooler, you would have the assurance that you would be drinking safe, refreshing, chilled drinking water.

Your refrigerator could be contaminated

Waterborne bacteria thrive of having fungus and moisture amongst its environment – two elements that are present in your fridge. Contaminated foods and inadequate refrigeration is a cause of foodborne illnesses. The growth in waterborne bacteria can pose a risk to the water supply itself and the quality of your drinking water. This can pose a big risk to you and could even lead to you becoming seriously ill.   

Drink contaminant free water

Thirsty Work pride itself on using premium, high quality filters in our mains fed water dispensers, which virtually removes all known impurities through our carbon block filtration systems.

Whether you decide to go for a mains fed machine or bottled water dispenser, you can be assured that you will be drinking water of the highest quality, rather than having to think about the risk of refrigerator dispensed water.

If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to get in contact with us.