The drinking fountain button is tragically misunderstood

The buttons feel magical. You click hereand invisible connections make something happen elsewhere. But “magic” probably no How I would describe most public drinking fountains.

Who among us hasn’t gone to a drinking fountain waiting for a bubbling stream of life-giving water to experience the crushing disappointment of a delicious trickle after pressing that button?

But I’m starting to think it’s not the drink button’s fault; they are actually some of the most elegant buttons out there. They are one of the few remaining buttons where your push directly and mechanically controls the result. They are over a hundred years old. And all the action happens within an inch of the button itself.

When your thumb pushes that metal disc in, you press the button under button that turns on the faucet inside faucet There is a seal inside that prevents water from flowing when the button is released and releases it when you press it. Pushing down moves the seal that normally surrounds a small water tube inside the mechanism, allowing water to pass through. Then it’s free to move, fill the faucet, and hit the fountain at about 0.4 gallons per minute.

Sounds simple, right? But the genius of the drinking fountain button is that it can be modularly repaired. This entire mechanism is part of an independent cartridge that can be easily removed and replaced.

A quick patent search shows that the cartridge idea dates back to that time at least the late 1950s, and drinking fountain manufacturers have standardized it all today. “Three out of four of our competitors use the same cartridge,” says Bill Epker, a 45-year veteran of the Haws Corporation, which began building and patenting drinking fountain technology in 1906. Whether it’s a push button, a push rod, or even one of those little silver buttons on the head of a faucet, they almost all have the same cartridge inside, Epker says.

Drinking fountains haven’t always had push buttons. Haws’ original 1906 design had you covered tighten the set of handles like a pair of pliersas he did this early 1897 design From the Hyde Fountain Company. Many of the oldest drinking fountains have no controls at all—Portland, Oregon, still holds more than a hundred “bubblers”. that gives water 18 hours a day, all by itself.

A look at 15 different types of “sanitary fountains” since 1912 it didn’t feature a single button, only levers, toggle buttons, an optional foot pedal, and always-on types. A 1911 patent application points out that this is because the buttons are expensive: “Until now, the objection to push valves has been their cost.”

But fountain giant Halsey Taylor drinks at least imagine In 1912, the first patent of the push button. registers a patent from that year that drinking fountains are “usually equipped with push buttons” to open their valves – just without the cartridge part.

Why the switch from levers to buttons? In fact, unchanged until 1984, Haws said maintenance became easier when cartridge systems came out. Modern ones even have special filters to keep their internal parts from clogging quickly, and a screwdriver hole that allows anyone with a small screwdriver to adjust the height of the flow – by changing the maximum distance the seal moves away from the inner water port.

They’re harder to vandalize, with no lever to break and a silver (or brass) disc cover that just spins in place when you try to bend it. Still, they can be easily repaired: Haws Patented a version in 2006 this allows the repairman to easily remove the button and access the cartridge with a single special key.

But ironically, this a deficiency Haws technical product manager Josh Linn tells me about the basic maintenance that turns bubbles into dribblers. Most just need the filters cleaned or the height screw adjusted, he says. One of the company’s owners used to carry a small screwdriver everywhere they went to fix their dribbling fountains—if you want to try it yourself, Epker says an 1/8-inch flathead screwdriver is the largest that works for him.

You don’t have to because the practice of public drinking fountains is technically illegal in the United States! Americans with Disabilities Act requires them shoot a stream of water at least four inches high. Also, control “it should not require tight grasping, pinching or twisting of the wrist,” and a fountain cannot take more than five pounds of force from one hand to operate.

So before you blame this button, maybe let your local parks department know that this needs to be fixed?

Purely physical drinking fountain buttons may not last forever. Some refrigerated indoor water fountains already use micro switches and solenoids to dispense their product, and many water bottle fillers use silent sensors instead of buttons. Many people now also choose bottled bottled water Most bottled water in the US is refiltered tap water and does not necessarily cleaner.

But Haws says at least customers seem to be cooling off buying silent sensors for themselves normal drinking fountains now that the covid-19 pandemic has died down. “I would say more and more people are going back to manual operation,” says Mike Wilhelm, marketing manager. “The less things can go wrong, the easier it is to maintain over time.”

For now, the button is just more reliable.