Water filtration devices come in a variety of shapes, sizes, applications, and they can target a variety of contaminants and applications. One application is the point-of-use (POU) water cooler for home, office, schools, restaurants, coffee houses, and industrial locations. Typically these units have been designed to add a filtration module to polish or improve the drinking water quality and not as an alternative to ensuring that the water meets drinking water standards. These units can be used on city water systems and private water supply systems. A few terms:  Point-of-Use Device - "POU can refer to several different types of units: plumbed-in units, plumbed-in units with separate faucets for the POU device, faucet-attached unit,; and faucet-connected countertop units (Source). The water cooler units are typically used when individuals have chlorine sensitivity, a concern about corrosion by-products, or when the user wants to improve or polish the drinking water quality.

The Water Cooler systems are very much like the under-the-counter systems.  They are typically used for a variety of applications that include disinfection, reverse osmosis, chlorine sensitivity, nuisance odors from the water, arsenic, nitrate, fluoride, salts, volatile organic compounds, pesticides, and metals. These units can provide either basic or nanofiltration, distillation, reverse osmosis, disinfection, sub-micron filtration,  ion exchange, and adsorption of organic compounds. They come as floor stand-alone units or countertop treatment systems.  Typically, these systems are not used to directly treat a water that does not meet the drinking water standards but are used to polish the water to improve the overall water quality and to further reduce health risks and concerns after other treatment has been implemented.  These systems have also been used in emergencies, as short-term solutions to water contamination, and, in some cases, integrated into a long-term solution for water purification as well as water cooling.

The following is a partial listing of what some water cooler POU filters can remove from your drinking water:

Contaminants that can be removed using POU Filters in Water Coolers

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Follow the Path to Clean Water

We recommend that, prior to installing a CounterTop POU (Point-of-Use) Unit, you Get Informed by gathering as much information as possible and Get Tested by conducting multiple levels of testing depending on your needs: Level 1 Observational Testing using our Self Test Web App, Level 2 Do-It-Yourself Testing, Level 3 Informational Lab Testing and, if needed, Level 4 Certified Testing conducted by a water professional.

If you have any questions please Contact the KnowYourH2O team.