Water Dispensers
Activated Carbon Filter
Term from the vending glossary
Filter medium made from porous carbon that adsorbs chlorine, chloramines and organic compounds from tap water. Improves taste and odour. Recommended replacement cycle: every 3 months or 2,000 litres (earlier depending on water quality).
Activated carbon binds dissolved organic matter to its internal surface — primarily chlorine and the taste and odour compounds it carries. For water dispenser flavour, this filter is the single most effective component.
What it cannot do: remove limescale. Hardness is a matter of calcium and magnesium and requires softening or reverse osmosis. And activated carbon becomes saturated; an exhausted filter improves nothing further and becomes, in standing water, a site where microorganisms can colonise. The replacement interval is therefore not a recommendation but part of operational duty.