Random question, Is it ok to drink water out the bathroom tap?

[Chloefairydust]

The BF has man flu so is laid up in bed lol, he asked me to fill up his glass with some water, so turn to go downstairs to the kitchen, and he says just use the bathroom water🤢… So I did but I would never drink bathroom water, and I’m not sure why… I assume it all comes from the same pipes 🤣

So is it just me? Why is bathroom water so unappetising? And is it actually the same as kitchen water? 🤔

I do this every day! 10 gulps before bed lol

You must be my long-lost twin 😄

How can you tell if it comes from a tank? … We have a big tank that heats the water, I don’t know about the cold water, what does a tank with cold water look like? 🤔

I also liked to slurp down bathroom tap water as a kid! I feel like bathroom water is better. However I tend to mostly only drink water from a filter jug I keep in the fridge as I much prefer very cold water.

I’m the same as some PP, I prefer bathroom tap water. DH is a plumber and tells me it’s no different, all runs through the same pipes he fitted. But I’ll refill my water bottle upstairs before I come down in the morning rather than in the kitchen.

Is your bathroom cold tap pressurised (do you have a Megaflo, can you hold your thumb against the tap?)

If not, don't drink it. It comes from a tank in your loft, not the mains.

It will be in the loft Chloe

I’ve always drank bathroom water - hasn’t harmed me yet. I think unless you have ancient plumbing it’s fine. Even most people’s toilet water is technically drinking water…

We're back to having a tank after having a mains pressure system so I don't drink from the bathroom tap any more.

I think the building code here in Ireland used to be that every house had a cold water tank in the loft/attic. I'm not sure why, I suspect either for water pressure purposes or in case of loss of mains water. When I had one of the upstairs bathroom redone I got them to connect the cold water tap to the mains and I remember that it required a fair bit of plumbing work to bring a mains connection over to that side of the house. I was always told to use the kitchen tap only when I was growing up, and even though I had mains water connected to the bathroom tap I still go downstairs if I want to refill my glass.

How can you tell if it comes from a tank? …

Turn your main water stopcock off and see if the water still flows from the taps with good pressure. If it dribbles out, or doesn’t flow at all, it is unlikely to be coming from a tank.

I don't tend to drink upstairs water as it sits stagnant in the tank for too long. It's fine for brushing teeth and is unlikely to kill you if consumed regularly but the clean water from the cold tap in your kitchen is much better.

Totally depends on how the house is plumbed. If the cold water supply is off the rising main, it’s good to drink. If it’s from a storage tank in the attic, it’s not (as there. Could be anything in the cold water tank in an attic as they are rarely covered.
Only real way to check is to isolate the cold water feed to the property, then run the cold water tap. If you get lots of water for a real time, it’s from a tank in the attic. If it’s from the rising mains, the supply drops off to very little flow if anything.

I have a thing about not getting a drink from the bathroom tap either. It just feels unhygienic 🤣.

Regardless of the tank situation another factor to consider is how often the tap there is run hot - thus killing bacteria in the taps themselves.

I never would have thought about it until trying to track down a long running and recurring pseudomonas infection in the dog.

Turns out it was in an upstairs tap - used to fill his water bowl for my office. I never used to run that tap hit as it was mainly used for teeth brushing and hand washing.

All it took was a hot water run for about 30mins to kill it.

I used to drink from the bathroom cold tap all the time as a kid until my dad told me not to because same as pp he said it comes from an open tank in the attic except he added And you never know, there might be dead insects, dust or rodent shit in there and that the insulation up there might have asbestos in it (for years I didn’t even want to brush my teeth with it after that).

Do you mean a hot water cylinder?
The tanks are normally in the loft if you have them

I say yes, my DH says no, it's dangerous 😆.

When I asked him why he said something to do with it spending so much time in the tank and that its gone off.

Trying to keep a straight face, I asked where this 'tank' was in our house. He started to say the loft, before it dawned on him that we converted our loft for our bedroom over 10 years ago and there was no, and has never been in our 15 years of living here, tank in our loft!

I then explained how it was the same water, from the same pipes that run into our house, that we drink from our kitchen tap.

He then started muttering about how he probably got confused as he grew up hearing from his parents that you shouldn't drink water from the bathroom etc and they probably had a cold water tank.

I think its quite a common thing that loads of people grew up hearing. Now with most people having a combi, it's much rarer to have a water tank in the loft.

I think no but dh thinks yes. We are both still alive!

Something tells me there would be poo particles on all parts of the tap, from when someone last did a poo and flushed the toilet, or washed their hands after a poo and maybe touched the end of the tap where the water comes out.

I'm sure that's not really the case but that's what makes me not want to drink water from the bathroom tap.

Here to tell the tale. I do it 🤷‍♀️

It isn't ok. You'll get worms and die of diarrhea.

In all seriousness, the thought of drinking bathroom water makes me want to be sick.

(We had a tank in the loft).

This %

Mains is usually directly to your kitchen tap, if you have a water tank in your loft with a lid etc. it will be dusty, possible contamination with the odd mouse droppings, same water but stored longer

Really, unless you KNOW your bathroom cold water tap water comes from the mains, you shouldn’t drink it.
I remember seeing a cold water tank in the loft of a previous house, and the cover didn’t fit properly - there was a disgusting film of crud on the water, with cobwebs around the edges. Also someone once told me they found a dead mouse in their water tank!

I've always heard it comes from a tank so isn’t safe. My house doesn’t but I still believe it

my bathroom tap does however always have black gunk n it that I don’t have on my kitchen tap. Don’t know if that’s the type of tap