Since I left school I feel like nearly every water fountain I come by doesn’t work. Maybe 70% of indoor ones don’t work and 80% of outdoor ones don’t work. Is this a US lack of public investment thing or are they just really annoying to maintain so no one does it anywhere. Is there a place where MLKs dream lives on and anyone can get a drink of water for free?
And by work I mean you’re able to drink from them without making out with the slow dribble coming out of it.
Where I live these have taken over and I’ve never seen a broken one
Funny how I’ll avoid drinking from these when the filter status goes red while I drink in blissful unawareness at fountains without a filter indicator
I’d say all of the ones I’ve bothered to try work? Some of them have annoyingly low pressure, where I’m almost kissing the spigot, but none have been undrinkable.
Almost all of the ones I see work.
idt i’ve seen one that doesn’t work in years. Maybe a regional thing?
Indoor ones usually work for me, but only half of them actually chill the water. One time it looked like it wouldn’t work, but I just had to hold down the switch for 15 seconds before it flowed sufficiently. What I’d really like to know, however, is why some taste fine while others taste absolutely gross, despite being in the same building.
I haven’t encountered an outdoor one in a while, but they usually don’t work. Unless I’m abroad. By the lack of foot traffic and the state of other public facilities in the US, I’m not too surprised. The last working one I encountered outdoors looked quite old and disused but the water tasted really nice. And sweet. In hindsight, that might have been a great source of lead. Oops.
For me, if a water fountain exist, it had always worked, especially indoors. Why would someone waste space for a broken water fountain?
Germany
They are not that common here in Germany in general, but my city has in the past years put up a dozen or so, mainly in public parks.
They are maintained by our municipal utility service and are basically always in perfect condition.
At least during summer. Being outdoor installations they are shut down (actually completely removed) during the winter months.Other than that I only had one in elementary school 30 years ago, which also worked and a lot of actual natural springs with drinking outlets that are often maintained by rural communities.
Our city also has one of those natural water drinking fountains, but as it is the (still maintained and monitored) remains of a thermal baths project from a hundred years ago, it is not so suitable for actually quenching your thirst. Full of crazy salts and minerals with a faintly sulfuric aroma on top - but supposed to be healthy :-)
So, in general: no complaints where I live.
I live in Denver suburbia, travel to the Midwest a couple times a year, and would say that 95% of the ones I come across work just fine. Outdoor ones can be a lot more hit and miss but other than that things are pretty reliable.
Also, there’s a Lowe’s near me with… I want to say 6 of them all next to each other. It was a really oddly overbuilt setup.
I haven’t seen one in the real world since school.
Where I live : 0%. There were one near my college only working in summer. There’s some in malls but they tend to be phased out when they rebuild/redesign the mall. However I’ve gone to Vancouver this year and there was a fountains at every two or three buildings in some posh quarter working all year round. Very weird for me
