A PURE water supplier for window cleaners, car valeting businesses and even tropical fish owners has launched its first service in Wales on a Saltney storage park.

Lock Stock Self-Storage’s River Lane site in Saltney, hosts the big, blue box that weighs 12 tons and contains 10,000 litres of pure water which it dispenses through a self-service system similar to a petrol pump.

Spotless Water, based in Basingstoke, Hampshire, is the company behind the venture and the Saltney filling station is the first of three to be installed on Lock Stock sites, with Shrewsbury and Wrexham due to go on line.

The pure water concept is the brainchild of Spotless Water managing director Tim Morris and arose out of his own window cleaning and car valeting business because pure water means no streaks on glass.

It has taken off spectacularly, with an unexpected demand also coming from people who keep tropical fish, which find British tap water a less than ideal environment.

The valeting service benefited from the pure water which made it 27 per cent more efficient but keeping them topped up was a problem.

Tim said: “We had a number of vans travelling around London and running out of pure water and we thought how ideal it would be for there to be filling stations around the city so running out of water would never be a problem.”

He combined the concept of self service petrol stations to pure water and spent two years developing an 8ft x 10ft container that will purify mains water to provide a continuous supply allied to a card and screen system for payment with customers given account cards and key fobs to access the sites and service.

Each water dispenser has 26 internal sensors which measure purity, tank levels and filter lifespan, so they can be easily maintained, while CCTV cameras also monitor their use and they are connected remotely to headquarters via the internet.

Spotless Water currently have 30 sites operational but plan to roll out to 450 locations over the next three years and storage parks with their secure premises with 24-hour access allied to water and electrical supplies have proved ideal and Lock Stock’s sites fit the bill perfectly.

Lock Stock regional manager Jeff Woods said: “It’s been a big hit locally because window cleaners can come in and refill the tanks in their vans as often as they need to in the knowledge there is a constant uninterrupted supply.

“It’s brilliant for car valet services and pet shops and aquariums that keep tropical fish.

“Spotless Water pay us rent for the space their dispenser occupies and for the water and electricity they use so it works well for them and for their customers with the added bonus of us offering Spotless water customers 25 per cent off storage.”

Window cleaner Ellis Forbes, from Ellesmere Port, has a 1,000 litre tank in the back of his van and he said: “This is the first time I’ve used it but it’s ideal and it means you can call and fill up whenever you need to.”

Spotless Water sales manager Darren Minton said: “It costs 3p a litre plus VAT so with all the technology that goes into it that’s a competitive price and it’s always available.

“Even if a window cleaner has a purifying system at home it will take 10 hours to produce 1,000 litres but with this it’s on tap and there’s no worries about maintenance.

“The units are made from shipping containers which contains a bespoke system which has been thoroughly tested and includes UV and carbon filters for maximum purity.

For more information about Lock Stock go to http://www.lockstock.biz/ and for more on Spotless Water go to https://www.spotlesswater.co.uk/

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