Cooler not dispensing: This often happens in summer and it is because the cooler is somewhere warm. The cooler reads the ambient temperature and thinks it needs to keep cooling, so it ends up freezing the water inside. Solutions include moving the cooler to a less warm area, unplugging the cooler at night so it can thaw or attaching a "christmas light" timer to the plug to do this for you. On many coolers we can also adjust the thermostat.
For Primo Bottom Loading Coolers that aren't cooling:
For top loading coolers without water flow you will notice a small circular piece of foam(quarter sized) under the top of the cooler in a rubber/plastic circle of the same size, this can get clogged up preventing air flow to the resevoir; we recommend removing it. Follow this video:
Cooler Cleaning
Due to covid, we had to stop offering on-site cleanings for customers and businesses. Since then, our delivery routes have grown substantially and we are unable to fit cooler cleanings into our driver's schedules. Below are instructions for cleaning your cooler at home, you should find it quite simple! There is also a plethora of cooler cleaning resources online(ie youtube) to help you.
Approximate Time: 15-30 minutes
The best time to clean your cooler is when the bottle is empty.
In general, all you have to do to begin cleaning your cooler is to remove the top piece(the bottle receptacle) and if applicable remove the plastic baffle inside the reservoir. Be sure to turn off the switches on the back, and unplug the cooler from the wall as well.
For most modern top loading coolers this can be done by turning the bottle receptable from the locked position to the unlocked postion; there is often a marking for this on top of the cooler. If there are no markings, take a look at the video with the white cooler above.
The second most common bottle receptable is pressure fitted with a rubber gasket inside of the reservoir. To remove this, apply gentle upward pressure and shimmy the receptacle gently to remove it from the cooler.
If you have a very old cooler, the top is likely one piece and will have the be unscrewed from the back and then gently lifted off. The rubber in these coolers can often be quite stiff and difficult to remove. Do not force it, instead give us a call or email and we will instruct you what to do next.
Note: Bottom loading coolers are self cleaning
Most baffles can just be lifted out, so gently lift the baffle(you may have to shimmy this lightly as well). The baffle is the inside piece that seperates the warmer water above from the cooler water below to be fed into the hot water tank or the room temperature tap. The second most common baffle simply screws off; a good indication that your cooler has this kind of baffle is that it is circular and has a hole in the center.
The most important thing to remember when cleaning your cooler is never to force any of the pieces off.
After the above steps have been accomplished, follow the steps below to clean your cooler:
1) Clean the baffle, receptable, and drip tray in your sink with some warm water and a brush. You'll know they are clean when you no longer feel slippery "bio-film" on the pieces. Set these aside once finished. You are welcome to use food grade sanitizer or soap for an added layer of cleaning as well.
2) Prepare your cleaning solution: a)consisting of one gallon of clean water and no more than one teaspoon of unscented bleach
OR b) 1 cup of distilled white vinegar with 3 cups of warm water. We also have a slection of cooler cleaning products available for purchase in our Online Store.
3) Drain the water in your reservoir out into a bucket/cup. Pour your cleaning solution into the bottle reservoir and gently scrub the sides with a clean cloth to remove biofilm. Allow solution to sit for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
4) Drain the water by using the taps/buttons on the front of the cooler.
5) Fill the reservoir with clean water and drain the water by using the taps/buttons on the front of the cooler. Repeat.
6) Replace the baffle and bottle receptacle.
7) Place a new bottle of water on your machine, plug it in and turn the switches back on. You're in buisness!