Industry insights

How Often Should Water Coolers Be Cleaned?

2 min read

By Matt Stimpson |  Published

The cool, refreshing taste of a glass of pure, fresh water from a water cooler is as revitalising as it is invigorating – especially on a hot day. But to get that same fresh taste day in, day out, your water cooler needs to be kept clean, germ-free, and safe for everybody to use.

How often should water coolers be cleaned?

Drinking water is good for you and it’s still the best choice of fluid intake to maintain overall good health. So we should all be drinking more of it throughout the day, to keep us hydrated and feeling alert wherever we are and whatever we’re doing.

The NHS recommends drinking 6-8 glasses a day and that can mean a lot of water passing through your water cooler every day. So keeping your water cooler clean gives you the best chance of benefitting from all the watery goodness without any contamination, whether you’re using a bottled water cooler or a mains-fed water cooler.

For a deep, sanitising clean, your water cooler should be thoroughly cleaned every six months. Carried out by a fully trained engineer, you should receive high-standard maintenance, essential or otherwise, together with a full sanitisation programme inside and out to make sure everything is working properly and is fully safe to use. And, if you’re a mains fed water cooler user, this will include a complete filtration system change too.

Regular water cooler cleaning

But as a water cooler owner, there are several daily, weekly, and monthly tasks you can do yourself to keep your water cooler clean, especially as we come out of the COVID-19 pandemic. While you leave the deep, six-monthly water cooler cleans to the experts, there are plenty of ways to keep your water cooler clean – here’s how:

A daily water cooler clean

To keep your cooler free of visible dirt, sticky finger marks, or minor scuffs, thoroughly wipe it over on a daily basis with food-safe sanitising wipes. This will keep it looking clean, while high-touch and hi-germ areas like the taps, cup dispenser, and drip tray can have any bacteria build-up safely removed.

A monthly water cooler clean

Alongside a daily clean, setting aside time for a monthly clean will keep your water cooler in great shape. There are six, easy steps to help you do this, which include draining and flushing the cooler, and one of our previous blogs gives you all the information you need for the best way to clean and disinfect your water cooler.

A monthly clean is especially important if your cooler hasn’t been used for a while and staff and colleagues are starting to return to work after any period of furlough during the pandemic. Combined, all these tips will keep your water cooler visibly and deep down clean and hygienic to give your staff and any visitors complete peace of mind before they use it.

Get your water cooler Thirsty Work clean

To help you with your six-monthly water cooler clean and sanitisation, our engineers will complete this for you as part of your Thirsty Work service and maintenance package. For more information on our service and maintenance packages or to start your free water cooler trial, call our Customer Support team on 01392 877172 or email us at hello@thirstywork.com today.