Every school and most of the parents now know of the importance to children health of drinking lots of fresh water to keep the body well hydrated. But it is surprising how many schools still have very basic facilities not giving pupils easy access to good quality water.

With high sugar type drinks at last disappearing from school vending machines and dining halls the children now need to be encouraged to drink more water.

There are a number of alternative ways of supplying water to the children. One way would be to supply small bottles of drinking water from vending machines. This can be very expensive for either the school, if it is free vend, or the parents if the children have to pay.

Another alternative is bottled water dispensers. With the 19 litre bottles this gives the children easy access to water as they can be placed anywhere there is a power supply.

The third option is to have POU (Point of Use) water coolers and dispensers installed. All these units need is a mains water supply and a power supply. If a water supply is not available near to where the cooler is to be sited this problem can be a overcome by using micro bore flexible plastic tubing. You can now run water lines similar to running a telephone cable.

Most of the reputable suppliers of POU machine will be able to install the tubing. Once the tubing is installed and the machine has been commissioned and sanitized, the only expense will be for regular servicing, filter changes and sanitizing. It is recommended that this be done at least twice a year but best if done at the beginning of each term. There can be greatly reduced administration cost and substantial savings over bottled water systems by using POU machines.

There are many type of POU machine on the market ranging from small wall mounted non-chill drinking basins to large chilled and sparkling high capacity dispensers, ideal for the dining hall where you might be serving many hundreds of meals in a lunch time. When making a decision on a water chiller, you need to ascertain how much water is going to be used at the busiest time, making sure you get the right machines for the right application is very important. Buying a basic water cooler that has been designed for use in offices for a few staff will not survive the rigors of school and college life. Asking it to supply many times more water than the machine was originally designed for will only lead to poor performance and reliability problems.

Many schools are now fitting water fountains; these are very good as they can also be used to easily fill sport bottles. With water fountains as with drinks dispense machines; it is important that they are kept clean and hygienic.

Aqua Planet has been designing water cooling and supplying schools and colleges for many years and has a large range of machines from very low cost chillers ideal for small staff offices to large catering dispensers offering 200 litres per hour. With a nationwide dealer network of installation and service engineers they are in an ideal position to help and advise.

Aqua Planet manufactures the Rhino extra heavy-duty water fountain specially designed for the rigors of school life. The company also market a large range of water boilers including the new AquaBoil under counter dispenser. Aqua Planet is able to offer a full sales, rental and service programme to suit each schools individual needs.

For further information, or to discuss a particular requirement please call our technical sales team on 0870 3217810