What is direct chill cooling in a water cooler?
Ever wondered how your water cooler chills the water in your office or home. Water at work and water at home are now taken for granted very few people actually take time to consider the different cooling options available when considering how to choose a cooler. Cooler ratings or water cooler comparisons should always have a rating on the cooling capacity.
Direct chill cooling is typically found in some plumbed in water coolers and has two benefits, increased chilling capacity and better hygiene.
Think of direct chill cooling as a little like a hose pipe which comes into the cooler and then raps/coils itself around the chilling unit (which chills the water as it flows) and then out to the taps. This process known as direct chilling will provide anywhere typically between 18 and 50 litres per hour depending upon the model and type of cooler (and your wallet size)
Because the direct chill system means the water continually free flows through the cooler it has major hygiene advantages over a “traditional†type cooler using a reservoir type cooling. Think of reservoir cooling as being like placing a jug of water in the fridge) and using this for six months without ever cleaning the jug (clearly okay but not ideal as anywhere stagnant water sits is never the preferred option)
So in a nut shell, always consider spending the small amount extra and go for a direct chill cooler. One small thing to remember about direct chill, make sure you have sufficient water pressure at your premises as this is required to make the water flow through the system. In only 1 out of every 30 mains water cooler installations do we encounter this problem and have to install a reservoir type cooler as last resort.
