Requirements for Stainless Steel Water Cooler (Floor Standing / Wall-Mounted)

1. WATER INLET
If the water cooler is to be placed near or on same side (not across the room) as the water basin or sink, we can tap the water inlet from under the sink.

However, if there is no sink in the space or room where this water cooler is to be placed, you might want to get your contractor to provide a water point with a THREADED end or an on-off valve like that circled in green:

2. ELECTRICAL SOCKET
Electrical socket (if the electrical socket is lower than the body of the water cooler, it is recommended to have waterproof cover)

A standard Singapore socket is required, our appliance is of 230V, 13A.

3. DRAINAGE
A drainage is required. Your contractor could provide us with a constructed open pipe like that:

Or if there is available floor trap that is near (within 1m) where it could be accessed with no bends in pipe or hose, it is also ideal. 

Some reference pictures after installation:

While this is not recommended, since the water is premium, we do not want people to accidentally touch the lever and thus dispense water when not needed. There is also the concern about safety at hot water.

However, if you do not have kids in the environment and find pressing the button + pushing the lever a chore, feel free to do the mod, but if you have water in your machine already, I suggest you do this when the bottle is empty. When this bottle is empty, you will still have water in the machine as there is hot and cold water tank inside the machine (which is not visible unless you open the machine).

Step 1: Remove the header panel
Unscrew the 3 screws as per the image:

Step 2: Remove the spigot cover
Pull cover downward to remove.

Step 3: Replace the spigot cover
Push cover up till you hear a click. Hopefully you have done so successfully, or else you might need to make do without the spigot covers, with does not affect functionality but looks less pretty without it.

Depending on the types of dispensers, some dispensers do require piped-out drainage. Office type of water dispensers that have plastic exterior usually do not require water drainage points.

4 Types of water discharge points

1. Under Sink Discharge pipe

If location of water cooler is near the sink, we can make use of the drainage pipe under the sink. Eg:

2. Contractor/plumber built drainage pipe

Plumbers / contractors can do a site visit to quote and propose how to run the discharge point, it could be linked to the nearest toilet or any discharge point.

3. Floor trap point

If location of water cooler is near the floor trap, discharge pipe or hose can easily be connected to it.

4. Into drain (hack floor to conceal discharge pipe)

If location of water cooler is near a small drain, it is also feasible to hack the floor to conceal a discharge pipe, linking dispenser to the drain, so that the pipe is conceal and does not pose as a trip-over hazard.

Pros and cons of renting / leasing water dispenser at HappyPenguin (vs outright purchase)

Pros of rental (yes, the good):

• BRAND NEW
  Rest assure that even though you are renting, water dispenser is brand new. (min 2 years contract)

• NO HUGE LUMP SUM PAYMENT
  Outright purchase of water dispenser can cost up to thousands of dollars. You can have the convenience of hot & chilled water right away with a $20 admin fee and first month’s rental fee. (Note that a $200 returnable deposit applies)
• SCHEDULED SERVICINGS
  All servicings are scheduled in our system so you do not miss out on any regular servicings.
• WARRANTY
  Outright purchase of water dispenser typically covers 1 year for warranty. For rental of water dispenser, there is no surprise expense on repair or breakdown because our ASSURE rental programme covers it all.
• MINIMAL DOWNTIME
  Should the water dispenser one day require time at workshop, we will loan a dispenser so you can still have disrupted good drinking water at work
• RENEW CONTRACT WITH LATEST WATER DISPENSERS & DISCOUNT
  Yes, we sometimes need a little novelty in life, even for water dispensers. You will be entitled to renew water dispenser rental agreement with a new latest design water dispenser that we offer, at even lower prices!

Think of it as a subscription and focus on what you do best at work! Can’t find the model that you want for rental? Email us and we will work out the quotation for you.

Cons of rental (& the not so good):

• Less attractive for small outfit 
  It might cost less to do an outright purchase should you not require frequent servicings.
• More paperwork 
  We require customer to register a card with Stripe for monthly auto charge. IC or business profile and agreement are to be submitted to process application and may take a tad longer in processing.
• 2 years committment 
  Min 2 years committment of monthly payment

So, are you ready to rent a dispenser? Check out > renting / leasing water dispenser at HappyPenguin

Well, there are a few ways to increase the height considerably.

1. Customise your own!
You could customise a platform for it to sit on. We have customers doing that.
Pros:
– You can customise the height to be really tall & it can be very stable, strong and matches the look/ colour of dispenser.

– Even if you change a dispenser, you could still use it (dispensers seem to be universally short)

Cons: It will cost a bit to make it.

For example:

2. Fridge stands
Or the cheapest and fastest is to but this old style fridge height extension (which can be bought at neighbourhood hardware stores. Just ask for “fridge stands” and they will show you.

Pros:
– Cheap & readily available (less than $10 for a set of 4)

Cons:
– Limited height (8.3cm extension is as tall as it gets)
– May not look too classy

Let us know if you need help to buy this one, its less than $10 for a set of 4, extension height of 8.3cm. When we change filter or when we install, we can bring it.

Notice the fridge stand is used at the foot of this dispenser:

3. Use whatever short stand you can get
Just bear in mind the weight of the dispenser or keep your eyes open when you shop.

Cons:
– When buying ready-made generic furniture for this, it may not be tested to take the weight, so think of the structure of the furniture selected. A floor standing dispenser plus the water in it is around 30ish kg.

There. This is how it looks:

Yes, water coolers can be any water dispensers that has the chilled water function. Different countires and places term it differently Over here we are going to talk about this type of stainless steel EXTERIOR water dispensers (don’t worry, ALL of our water coolers & office-type water dispensers have STAINLESS STEEL water tanks). This type of stainless steel water dispensers has the ones that can dispense hot water too.
If you have not bought or installed one before, you might not know a thing or 2 about it though. I mean, who gives the water cooler much thought, even if you use it daily. But if you are reading this article you must be keen to find out more about water coolers, maybe to source for one or many, & perhaps wonder what REQUIREMENTS there are, to install at the preferred locations.

2 types of dispensing outlets
There are 2 types of dispensing outlets typically, at a water cooler, the BUBBLER and the GOOSE-NECK Spout. However, some water fountains (like what we see at like the Singapore Changi airport, etc,) only comes with the bubbler.

Bubbler:

Bubbler is the basic dispensing option at all water coolers and water fountains since it offers the ability to drink water without a cup, all you need is to put your mouth near it, press the button on the bubbler and you get a stream of chilled water shooting out in an arch. However, due to Covid-19 experience, we do get some customers we does not want a bubbler anymore, for a more precuatious approach towards hygiene practices. This can be removed and still look nice (see image below).

Goose Neck Spout:

Goose neck spout offers the height, which makes it easy for you to refill your water bottle with the nice chilled water to cool down in our hot Singapore weather. It also makes getting hot water in a cup easier for your fix of coffee or even cup noodles. However the ones you see in public rarely comes with hot water function (which makes sense).

Hot & Cold Water Coolers
Yes, there is the Hot function ones if you need the hot water. Typically, there be 2 spouts, one for hot and one for cold. And of course for safety’s sake, the bubbler is only for the cold water.

Drainage is required
Because water coolers are used for outdoor (likely with shelter) and the masses, there is no one to clear the drip tray often enough, it is designed with requirement of the drainage. So you should plan to install the water cooler near to a drainage point.

Planning for location of water cooler
Near WATER POINT
A water cooler of the type we have been discussing is a piped-in type. That is, it is installed by connecting to a water point directly so water is fed into water cooler uninterrupted. If no water point is nearby then perhaps some plumber works is required for piping.

Near POWER SOCKET (1M PREFERRED)
Having a chilled water cooler means you require electricity so that the compressor could work. So having a power point nearby definitely helps. If otherwise, an electrician’s work is required to install the power point.

Near DRAINAGE POINT
This drainage point will dispose of the water from the basin of the water cooler to the drainage so least maintenance is required.

Water Filter for water dispenser
Some purchase of water coolers come with filter. In Singapore, our government says that water is safe for drinking without any Point of use treatment. However, if you are like me, I definitely do not like to taste chlorine in my drinking water, & prefer filtered water JUST before drinking. If you have the option to get water filters at POINT-OF-USE and CHANGE your filters fairly regularly, I bet it improves the water quality. Water after all, also travel through pipes which we have no control of. If your organization is the type that could leave the filters in for a long long time without changing, then go WITHOUT a filter.

For FLOOR STANDING water coolers, the water filters  are usually installed inside the the water cooler body since there is space inside the body. However, for WALL-MOUNTED ones, the water filters may have to be installed INSIDE or OUTSIDE the water cooler, depending on the make of your water cooler. It is definitely neater to have the water filters inside the machine. But if you are going to have in-house handy man or facility co-worker change the filter, it may be easier to have it outside if you do not want him to open the panel on the water cooler body (it is not difficult to do so though). Some wall mount water coolers are made such that the filtration system is inside the body while some are made such they may not have space for the 10″ filtration housing.

Why Wall Mount?
Wall mount water coolers are great where you need the CUSTOMIZED HEIGHT. So this comes in handy in schools where there are small kids and children who might not be able to reach if it’s the floor standing. It is also HANDICAP FRIENDLY, so people sitting in wheelchair will have no problem accessing water. It is especially so when the BODY of the wall mount is short, so partial of the wheelchair could go under, thus providing a better angle to access water for one sitting in a wheelchair.

If you require water filter change and is using the universal 10” type of water filter element, do check with us, we sell that! Usually water cooler filters come in 1 or 2 –stages water filtration, 1st stage sediment element and 2nd stage carbon element. We also have a 2-in-1 type of Sedi-Carbon filter replacement for the 10″ type of water filter housing.

If there is anything you would like to add on to make this resource more complete, please let us know at enquiry@watefilter.com.sg

Want to test drinking water in Singapore? Not all labs do retail tests and on drinking water. This list is by no means exhaustive but these few are most popular for testing drinking water.

These are popular labs in Singapore for water:

Feel free to let us know on your experience!

Height of Dispensing area

Dispensing area HEIGHT can be a consideration factor for some customers. While smaller dispensing height is good for hands free mugs and cups, some customers prefer taller dispensing area for ease of filling up taller water bottles without tilting.

The following are measurements from tip of spigot to the top of the dish tray:

Another consideration customer ask is the dispensing height relating to the need to bend a little towards the dispenser when getting water. We have an image to compare the height of our dispensers. Height extension for water dispenser > Read more

Simply replace current faucet with a 3-way faucet like this to cater to hot and cold water (unfiltered) and  filtered water. Yes you can have them all in 1 faucet. A 3 way faucet like that costs $150 onward.

This 3 way faucet is great with under-counter filtration models