No water - what would you do?

[MotherOfGodWeeFella]

In an emergency if you had no mains water, but you had a full hot water tank what would you do?

I'm just interested to gauge opinions, it's not a test. We've had no water for a couple of days and have found our approach is very different from our neighbours'.

I'd go to a friend or family member who does have water to fill up as many things as I could with drinking water, or go to the shop and buy some bottled for drinking, teeth brushing etc.
I wouldn't drink from the hot water tap but would poss cook with it as long as it was boiled first.

Go to the shop and buy the biggest cheapest bottles of own brand water

We have bought bottled water for drinking. There is still some water in the tank as we've been careful. Obviously it's not hot anymore.

This. This is the answer. No one else need apply 😁

Go to a shop and buy bottled water for drinking/food prep. No way would I be drinking water from a standing tank 🤢

Slightly different but my step daughter & family were without hot water earlier this year, they came to us to shower.
If it had been no water I’d have expected them to bring their washing as well as having showers, plus fill up large bottles etc

Boil the water before drinking

When we had no water once, our water company gave us 6 (I think) big bottles of water a day for drinking/cooking.

What about other than for drinking?

I'd use the hot water tank water to flush the toilet and possibly washing up, but tbh, I'd avoid cooking/food prep as much as possible especially if there was a friend or relative I could go to for showers and food.

I'd buy big cheap bottles of water for drinking, although if it's a widespread issue, the water company often supply these.

Our water once went off while I was in the shower and I used the water out of the toilet cistern to finish rinsing the conditioner from my hair.

I would use the water in the tank for washing up and cooking. Buy water for drinking.

All sensible answers. Someone I know who has no water has drained the water from the tank into the bath. They've then been using that to fill the toilet cistern. So they have no other water anywhere.

@BarbaraofSeville - I admire your presence of mind in that situation

If you have no mains supply for over 24 hours, the water company is supposed to provide 10L of drinking water per person per day

Our water is supplied by a spring.
When the hydroram broke, we fot a water bowser delivered. We then siphoned that into our holding tank as and when necessary.

Thanks. I was thinking about going to SILs who lived a couple of streets away to finish off properly, but then she rung us to ask us if we had any water, because they didn't....

@MotherOfGodWeeFella are you in the south east water region? Is that why you didn't have water, because of the incident there?

No - different area and different issue. We have a temporary supply and a permanent fix will be made before winter.

We have a pressurised water system so when the water goes off its off. Yes you could probably manually drain out the hot water tank but wouldn't

We actually had to turn water off recently as had a massive leak and thought it would take days to rectify, so I got a load of bottles and a sort of pouch (like the wine boxes). We have downstairs loos fairly close to water butts so would of filled systerns from them

I was planning on going to DS1's to shower

So what are your neighbours doing differently?

If you read my posts, not even the whole thread, I've said what they did.

We are on mains water but it happens quite frequently. The water company distribute drinking water to households. We just refill the loo cisterns from the well (unfortunately not fit for drinking even with a UV filter). And go to town for a shower at the leisure centre every couple of days. It never lasts longer than a week so no big deal.