to think drinking the water from the hot tap is weird?

[bessie26]

DH seems to think it is perfectly reasonable to fill the kettle with water from the hot tap, boil the kettle & then make a cup-o-tea.

Surely it can't be good for you to be drinking water that's sat around in a boiler & hot water pipes? Or am I just basing this on one of the many crazy notions my grandparents put into my head as a small child?

How are the hot water pipes any different from the cold water pipes?

It is weird! Don't really know why but we were always told not to do it! :)

I have a vague idea of hot water leaching more copper (or something) from the pipes. So best not to drink it. But copper pipes are less widely used now? I could be talking out of my arse though. HTH

Oooh this is one of my pet hates. I'll even run the cold tap for a few seconds after hot has been on to make sure all the hot water is flushed out of the pipe.
Yes I'm aware that's probably going a bit too far .

well I'd prefer not to, but surely boiling the water kills any nasties?

DH recons it depends on what kind of water system you've got.

You can't drink if it's from an open type system with a header tank in the loft to fill your hot water cylinder.

You can drink from a combi boiler cos it's through copper pipework same as the cold. If you're boiling it it'll kill legonaires (sp) as well.

I've thought this too, he's got his uses

Makes sense if you have a hot water tank/old fashioned boiler as yes the water has sat around.
Combination boilers heat water straight from the mains and send it to the tap.

Maybe it's lead pipes I'm thinking of. Gah, I'm no help at all.

Uck, generally hot water comes from a tank as opposed to the mains cold water supply. I have NEVER gone near hot water to drink since my mother got covered with little feathers whilst having a shower and we discovered a recently deceased pigeon which had worked it's way into the hot water feed tank in the attic. As for DH brushing his teeth with hot water, no wonder I don't like snogging much!

Depends on the system you have.

Growing up we had a header tank in the loft where the hot water ultimately came from. A dead rat was once found floating in this tank We were told NEVER to drink water from the hot tap.

Here we have a mains pressure hot water system (I'm shaky on the technical details) but there is no header tank. The water must sit around in the pipes to heat up - but that's it. You can drink it.

That said I bet it doesn't make a nice drink though, having been heated more than once - looses oxygen and dissolves more minerals in it or something. For the perfect cuppa you need very fresh water, boiled only once - you can reall taste the difference!

I thought my DH was a bit weird for brushing his teeth with hot water lostinwales, but it is quite nice cos even though it doesn't get rid of plaque as well it does soften up the bristles.

If you've ever looked inside a hot water tank, you'd know why. They generally have a few inches of sludge in the bottom of them. If it's boiled, it'd be fine though.
In fact, if you have a hot water tank and you're mains cold is cut off, then the hot is fine to use so long as you boil it, but don't whatever you do drain the tank, otherwise after it refills (and churns up all the goo in the bottom) it'll take aaages for it all to settle back out again :-)

The main issue is to educate your DH on how to make a proper cup of tea and to stop defiling this great British beverage with slack habits.

As FromGirders says, you would not want to drink what comes out of your hot tank - it can be really disgusting!

Also, if there is a water softener fitted in the house, the only water that will not be salted (softened) is that from the kitchen cold tap. It isn't healthy or safe to use any other tap for more than rinsing after cleaning your teeth.

I would never drink out the hot tap, been ingrained since babyhood. I honestly thought it was different, not purified in the way the cold water is - this thread has been enlightening and I feel a bit thick!

If you;re boiling it I wouldn't have thought it'd matter.

Hot tap water is called pigeon juice in our house. From te dead pigeons floating in the. No, I wouldn't drink pigeon juice.

From the dead pigeons floating in the TANK, I mean.

Why does he fill the kettle from the hot water tap? Seems a strange thing to do. Not as if it's saving any effort when the cold tap is right there next to it.

Is he thinking 'it's already hot, it'll take less time to boil' or something? Don't think it's worth risking pigeon juice or tank sludge just to possibly save a nanosecond on the boiling time.

Yes, we had a dead pigeon in our tank once too. The hot water was playing up and making weird noises so we called the plumber and he found a dead pigeon in there. It put me off hot water for ever! I guess the heat kills germs (as long as you're not only on 40 degrees) but I wouldn't drink it!

We have a combi boiler, so the whole pigeon-in-the-tank thing isn't an issue, but it still seems wrong to me!

I think he does it to save time. Perhaps he's worried about keeping me waiting for my brew?

If you have a combi boiler the water source and piping is the same, hot or cold. In which case YABU I think.
If you've got a tank in the loft for hot water, then you shouldn't drink water from the hot tap.

[boak] at dead pigeon juice

I've done that before.

Same here! When I was a kid my DF found a dead bird floating in the hot water tank thingy in the loft so it is ingrained in me not to drink water from the hot tap.

But we have an instant hot water boiler thingy so we have no such worries but I still can't bring myself to fill the kettle from the hot tap and still boil cold water from scratch.