Drinking enough water is vital to good health, but some days you forget your trusty reusable water bottle and have to resort to the water fountains. Two of your local journalists set out across the school in search of the best water fountain. In our judging process, we graded the fountains based on taste, temperature, and the quality of the stream. We also took into consideration location. Below are the top 5 fountains and ones to avoid when you’re in need of a thirst quenchin’ drink.

Best Overall Water Fountains:

Choir Room: Connecting the band and choir room is a small hallway containing pianos and other assorted instruments, but amid them is two water fountains. While both contained good cold water, the one closest to the band room had more splatter causing the user to get wet leading us to rank the one near the choir room as superior.

Practice Gym: Similar in taste and temperature to the choir room water fountain, the practice gym water fountain was at the top of our list. It tied with the choir room due to a more accessible location, but the same cold taste. It also contains a water bottle filler for those too cool to drink from a fountain.

Best Water for Location:

10th Street Door: Located in the hallway across from the girls varsity locker room, the 10th Street door fountain offers a good taste and temperature for its location. Unlike the above fountains, this one is in a frequently used hallway, and therefore more accessible.

Honorable Mention:

Attendance Office: Near the attendance office, there are four water fountains. All had decent quality, but the one that stood out was the tall one on the far left. This one earns honorable mention for being the third best tasting and one of the most convenient, especially for RTI students. This station also includes a water bottle filler.

Upper Commons: In the upper commons, outside of Mr. Haberman’s room there are four water fountains. The ones on the left were subpar with warm water (and a red filter status for the bottle filler), but on the right, specifically the tall one, the water was fresh and good tasting earning this fountain an honorable mention.

Avoid at all costs:

History Hallway: The water fountain that lies outside of Mr. Curtis’s room in the history hallway was quite horrible. It tasted bad and was warm. To clarify, not room temperature as if the water wasn’t cooled, but warm as if the water was being heated. The spout was quite yellowed and looked concerning. The taste tester could not swallow the water and instead spat it out.

Bad for the Environment:

Bulldog Room: Inside the Bulldog Room, the water fountain is constantly running causing lots of water to be wasted. Even when the button is pressed the stream causes it to be almost unusable, unless you want to touch your mouth to the spout. There is also some strange water spurting contraption next to it. Your reporters couldn’t quite figure out what it was, but we didn’t try to drink from it.

We don’t always drink from the water fountains, but when we do, we prefer to drink from the best. Stay thirsty, our friends.