Tech Forum

I visited a ward the other day and noticed they had a device to fill all of the sacrament cups full of water at the same time. I have looked on the lds catalog and had no luck at finding this device. Where can I find this water tray filler????

I'd bet it was "homemade". I've never seen such a device the the buildings I have attended (both new and quite old).

The trays used for water are not unique to the Church, there are variations made for other churches as well, some are very similar if not the same. That means that in other places it is possible that someone has come up with a device for use in those other situations and someone happened to stumble across it somewhere.

We've also gone through some variations, but usually each tray can hold about 30-40 cups, some have been plastic and those were a little smaller, the last I saw of the round water trays was in the late 80s, and some of those and the rectangular ones had places to drop the cups into (either side of the handle).

Paper cups were common until about ten years ago. Now the small plastic ones are used, and in my ward we found a way to mitigate the sound when one is dropped back into the tray holder, you take a paper towel from the dispenser in the room you prepare the sacrament in although not all rooms will have one, tear it in half down the middle, and lay the halves in the bottom of the tray. Also makes it easy for cleanup as well after the meeting.

30 years ago when I was a Priest, we had such a device. It hooked to the water faucet, and had a valve/lever which would open up streams over all of the cups at once. Haven't seen anything lately, though.

Frankly, it turned out to be more of a hassle than it saved. The connection to the faucet would often come loose (and spray water everywhere!); if you didn't have the tray sitting just right, it would leak into the bottom of the tray. Plus it didn't really save time.

After a couple of weeks it got relegated to a permanent place under the sink, and we went back to filling the trays manually. By lifting out the top part (which holds the cups), I used to be able to move the tray under the water stream, filling the cups to just the right amount, and then shaking the tray to get rid of the water in between the cups...

-- Steven

I guess we will continue the way we are doing it, thanks for your help!!

Our ward has one- I'll look at it next time I'm over there and see if it has a label. It's a rectangular dish on a pivot, so that you fill it with water, and then tip it on the pivot to drain water out holes that are spaced to match the cups in the tray. Works slick! It's possible that this one is 30+ yrs old, because it was there (or one virtually identical) when I was a deacon that long ago.

I'd like a device that would automatically insert the cups into the tray.

knuteream wrote:Our ward has one- I'll look at it next time I'm over there and see if it has a label. It's a rectangular dish on a pivot, so that you fill it with water, and then tip it on the pivot to drain water out holes that are spaced to match the cups in the tray. Works slick! It's possible that this one is 30+ yrs old, because it was there (or one virtually identical) when I was a deacon that long ago.

We had a similar one when I was growing up in California. I would love to buy one for our ward. Did you find out a brand name or is there a sticker or stock number of any kind?

I have been preparing sacrament trays for years. I have never seen anything like this. If anyone tracks it down or figures out how to make one let's schedule a group conference call to discuss the "how to's".

Our ward had one back in the 80's when I was a YM. Worked great and filled the tray in seconds.

Anyone have luck locating the manufacturer tag or sticker. Would love to get one for our AP boys.