Cleaning a Bottled Water Dispenser to Keep Harmful Molds and Bacteria From Contaminating Your Water

You get a bottled water dispenser for both healthgovernment sources, which tend not to be in
and convenience. While they are quite easy totouch with the reservations people have about
just set and forget, it's not safe to just leaveusing bleach in their drinking system. A good
them alone without maintenance and cleaning.alternative is to use white vinegar. The main
Even though you may be putting clean water intodifference between the procedures will be that
the system each time you change a bottle,you only leave the bleach in contact with the
bacteria and molds can still get into the systemcooler for a couple of minutes, and not more than
through the air. So it's important to follow a seriesfive minutes. With the vinegar you should leave it
of steps periodically to keep your drinking waterin contact and cleaning for at least ten minutes. In
safe and your people healthy.economic terms though, bleach is much cheaper
It's recommended that you follow a cleaningto use than vinegar.
procedure each time you change the bottle. But ifAfter removing the bottle from the cooler, you
you don't change the bottle very often then youwant to drain the reservoir. Then fill the reservoir
should clean the dispenser at least every sixwith your cleaning solution and let it sit for the
weeks. This may seem too frequent, but it's easyrecommended time. After that drain the cleaning
for biological contaminants to grow in moist, darksolution through each of spigots your dispenser
places during that time. Since the reservoir of ahas. When its all drained. flush the system with
bottled water dispenser is a cool dark place, itclean water through at least four cycles. Try
turns out to be a perfect breeding ground.tasting or smelling the water coming out after
Some sources recommend using bleach water asthat to make sure all of the cleaning solution is
your cleaning agent. This is usually fromremoved.