Culligan Quench of Chicago

Culligan Quench bottleless water coolers.

Take on-demand hydration to the next level. Culligan Quench bottleless water coolers and ice machines use advanced filtration and sanitization technologies such as carbon filtration and reverse osmosis to remove sediment, reduce lead and other chemical contaminants, and get rid of off-tastes and odors. By providing filtered water through a broad array of machines, our bottleless water coolers offer users countless consumption choices.

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Chicago water quality: then

Chicago became a bustling metropolis during the Industrial Revolution, attracting workers from far and wide to the Midwest. But a growing population would soon lead to industrial, animal, and human waste polluting the surrounding Chicago River and Lake Michigan. By the 1850s (and after several cholera epidemics), city planners recognized the critical need to create a reliable source of clean Chicago drinking water.

Originally, waste discharged into the Chicago River found its way into Lake Michigan, carried by heavy rain or melting snow. The construction of four channels, including the 28-mile Sanitary and Ship Canal, reversed the flow of waste to carry sewage away from Lake Michigan.

In 1861, the Chicago Board of Public Works began construction of an extensive water system that remains in use today. A two mile tunnel excavated under Lake Michigan allowed clean water intake protected by a “crib” – a structure that surrounds the intake shaft from possible pollutants. Engineers and miners toiled 24 hours a day, 6 days a week to finish the construction of the Two Mile Crib within a year. Six additional cribs were added over the next 50 years: Carter H. Harrison, Edward F. Dunne, Wilson Avenue, and William E. Dever.

Culligan Quench water coolers.

Worried about contaminants in your drinking water? We offer a full complement of water filtration and sanitization technologies to remove sediment, reduce chemical contaminants, including lead, and get rid of off-tastes and odors. Depending on your local water quality, your Water Expert may recommend our NSF-certified carbon filtration, which works great for water with TDS (total dissolved solids) levels under 250 ppm (parts per million) or our NSF-certified reverse osmosis (RO) filtration, which is the standard for water with TDS levels over 250ppm.