The H2Only FAQ: some questions we often hear

No. We are purely a delivery service, which means we bring the water to you!

When we began 25 years ago, our vision was to make access to pure water as easy as possible. We knew that picking bottled water up was cumbersome, inconvenient, time-consuming, or forgotten.

Also: not all customers keep their bottles clean. To come into a store and do a quick rinse and then refill is not to our standards for cleanliness and water purity.

H2Only is located in St Catharines. Many of the areas to which we deliver are quite a distance from our facility. We are very aware of fuel consumption and time management, so by setting certain days for specific zones we can maximize delivery efficiency and use less fuel. Naturally, as we grow and particular areas get increasingly busy, we can (have to!) increase our delivery frequency, so tell your neighbours about us!

Yes. As much as possible, all of our supplies come from local companies and are Canadian-made. For example, we use an excellent company in Montreal to manufacture our bottled water coolers. We’ve found these Canadian-made units to be longer lasting and more durable than any other we’ve purchased in the past from other countries (the proof is in the warranties!)

Our bottles are produced just north of Toronto and are Ministry of Health approved.

We are also interested in promoting our local-business clients. Contact us if this might be something in which you’d like to participate.

No. We have serious concerns with glass bottles:

• Glass bottles are heavy and fragile and need to be carefully handled and individually encased in the trucks, which means that we can’t carry nearly as many bottles in a vehicle, which in turn impacts delivery efficiency. Also, the special handling requirements add significantly to labour costs both in the shop and on delivery.
• Glass breaks, chips, and shatters, which means that large heavy glass bottles are potentially very dangerous. If a tiny sliver of glass were to break off of the neck of the bottle and end up in your cooler, then your glass, can you imagine you or your child swallowing it?

We have decided as a company that safety and efficiency concerns far outweigh any perceived benefit.

H2Only uses Ministry of Health approved food-grade polycarbonate three and five-gallon bottles manufactured in Bolton, Ontario. If properly looked after, our bottles can last ten years or more. When they finally do reach end-of-life, we bring them to Niagara Recycling. Note that polycarbonate is a very stable material and can be recycled as polycarbonate rather than down-cycled and is a responsible environmental material.

Our facility is very nearly zero-garbage. All byproducts of our operations are reusable or recyclable: caps, bottles, coolers, cardboard, and even heat are recycled. The amount of actual garbage we produce in a month would not fill a small kitchen catcher.

• We don’t shrink-wrap skids of water in plastic wrap before loading our trucks. Instead, we use a strap system to prevent bottles from falling over en route to you.
• Reverse osmosis produces wastewater by concentrating the pollutants removed from the source water and flushing them down the drain with a certain amount of water. However, at H2Only, we use a multi-pass filtration system that reduces that wastewater by about 2/3. Yes, that equipment costs more and this method uses a bit more electricity, but at the end of the day, it is a matter of being responsible global citizens.
• Lights out and heat turned down every day when we are finished.
• As mentioned above, we are careful about our fuel consumption. Using delivery zones and being careful about route planning ensure that we are as efficient about fuel consumption as possible.
• We use a custom dual-stage heat-exchange system that uses the used hot bottle-washing water to heat the cold incoming water on it’s way to the water heater, and that system scavenges more than half the waste heat.

We’re passionate about the world we live in, keeping our community clean, and reducing our carbon footprint (we are currently saving up for a hybrid cube van!). We live here too!

• E-mail: temp.mail@h2only.ca (do not add to contacts - changes frequently against spam)
• Phone: 905-934-0966
• Existing customer order form: Quick order form
• New customer information form: New client form

Yes. A number of our clients enjoy scheduled deliveries, which means we arrive on a pre-determined weekday and replace the empty bottles waiting for us. For some, it is weekly, while for others, it can be every six weeks. It depends entirely on your consumption and needs. Note that being 'scheduled' does not mean you cannot also call for water if you need it... you certainly can!

Probably. Our driver will inspect them to make sure they are usable and fit into our system. If they are disposable bottles, we can’t accept them. Whatever we cannot use will be left at your door. Those we can use we will pick up and credit as deposits on your account.