What is this, Spout.ly?!
This reminds me of something I recently discovered. I work with a kid who’s scared of automatic hand dryers (he accidentally set off a really loud one once, and now he’s scared to go near them.) To help him become comfortable with them, I’m tasked with showing him videos of people using hand dryers.
Not only do a ton of people post video reviews and “Top 10” lists of bathroom hand dryers, but Youtube even has video ads for hand dryers as sponsored videos at the top. Of all the random things to try to sell. Do people buy these for their homes? Or are companies using Youtube to decide which hand dryers to buy? I’m having trouble finding the practical reasoning here. Part of me thinks “Well, the web’s gotta enshittify in whatever way it can, so this is par for the course.”
Is this an American thing? I’ve never seen one of these IRL.
Yes they exist(ed?) in the US. They were all over the place in schools and universities/ colleges when I went. Probably the one on the left is still around, but I don’t have a reason to be on campus, so I don’t go on campus.
My workplace still has one
Granted there are actual filter water dispensers as well, but this water fountain isn’t uncommon still
Yeah they’re definitely still around and in heavy use.
FWIW the ELkay LZS8WSSP is the Cadillac of water fountains and I go out of my way to use near me.
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In college I had a job that required me to travel all over campus. I decided to grade the various water fountains as I traveled. I had stickers, red, yellow, and green to evaluate the quality, temperature and stream. So as I walked around campus I would place a sticker on every fountain I could find.
In general the model of fountain didn’t seem to matter much. It was clear some had been hooked up poorly or just had a poor water supply. But if the fountain was in a newer building or near a gym, then they were good quality.
Long way of saying it’s not always the fountain, sometimes it’s the infrastructure.
In general the model of fountain didn’t seem to matter much. It was clear some had been hooked up poorly or just had a poor water supply. But if the fountain was in a newer building or near a gym, then they were good quality.
Could also be that they are poorly maintained.
A lot of the chilled ones have an internal filter what needs changing, or else the water quality/flow varies a lot depending on whether they had a bypass and good pipes.
I always assumed that’s why the ones near the gym were some of the best. No one complains about a fountain they use sometimes, but one you use daily/weekly, you have to make sure it’s good.
New contender enters the arena: LZS8WSLP
We had one of those at work. Sadly my campaign to have it stocked with vodka failed.
I still maintain it would have had a negligible effect on the quality of work. The boxes wouldn’t have been stacked as straight but other than that
…then the contractor installs some murdock ‘equal’ for your specified elkay LMABFTL8WSSK despite REJECTING the substitution and it drips like a sieve…
👑
The new gym that opened near me doesn’t have one of these and I went “Oh come on!”
Those are sorta nice cause just for the water bottle refill, but the water doesn’t taste great and it doesn’t get really cold.
I could also just tilt my bottle at EZS8L
if it doesnt taste good, the filters arent being changed. my job has several of these and water tastes fine
You get filters? I’m pretty sure ours is just from the main water supply I don’t think it goes to any filtering.
The set of stoplight-looking lights to the left of the brand name in the image are filter status indicators. Check that yours is on green!
Any ones that support chilling water generally have filters.
If the filter is blocked, some have a bypass that will routeains water around the filter.
it should have a replaceable filter if you take the top off. we do that at my job anyway
Tilt? TILT!? Like a caveman?? I’d sooner die of thirst!!!
It’s not entirely clear from the image which is which, but apparently the LMABF8 is the one on the right, and the EZS8L is on the left.
Personally I think the EZS8L looks classier than the LMABF8
Also both of them are refrigerated to 50°F. The LMABF8’s main two advantages are that it typically has a water filter, and it has mechanical push bars meaning that it will usually work even when the power is out. The EZS8L is usually not filtered and has an electronic push bar.
Why are they refrigerated? Wouldn’t cold tap water do the trick?
Come to the southwest during summer where taking a shower doesn’t involve the hot water tap.
Huh. I live in Finland and cold tap water can be a bit warmer during summer if the tap hasn’t been run in a while but it still doesn’t get very warm. And you’ll get cold water by running the tap. I wonder if in addition to the air temperature it varies how deep the pipes are put in.
The southwest of the US gets really hot for long periods of time. For example, Pheonix Arizona has four months of the year with a daily mean temperature above 30 C and highs around 45 C. Pheonix is also part of the Sonoran Desert, meaning water itself is hard to get. Running a water tap for minutes to fill a cup of mildly cool water is deeply frowned upon.
It’s unpleasant to say the least. Although the heat is not as bad as the rumors I hear about Finnish mosquitoes.
jokes aside this model is the best, the water that comes out of these fuckers is like goddamned glacier melt
Fun fact, I actually grew up with the right one inside my house garage, running. My dad managed to find a working one somehow, and was just handy enough to hook it into the water in the wall of the garage. It was actually really neat.
I can barely find the words to describe how much I hate this.
Complicated looking water fountains. We usually just have a faucet
Never drinking from there
Can either one of them survive being outdoors in a city park without totally rusting out underneath?
No? They’re indoor drinking fountains…
Said not our Rotary Club.
I don’t know exactly what model water fountains they installed out there, but they look like the one on the left, totally rusted out now.
Probably not supposed to be installed outdoors, but they did… 🤷
Outdoor ones typically get made of material that doesn’t rust. But if it’s going to be inside they might as well make them out of nicer materials.
I’m pretty sure that most outdoor water fountains I’ve ever seen are actually made of concrete.
I took a pic today…
If I remember later today, I might take a photo of the pair of water fountains at our park. The top stainless steel side looks perfectly fine, but the metal panel underneath both of them is totally rusted out. I’m pretty sure they disabled/disconnected both of them.
Not sure where I might post the photo though, guess I might post under Nowhere Else To Post… 🤷
And how well do they deal with constantly being pissed on by drunk people?
Username checks out.
There’s more chance of someone pissing on them than them going rusty.
Generally true, but the ones out at our city park have totally rusted out underneath. Nobody’s been pissing on them, they’re just exposed to the weather.
