To think you can drink from a bathroom tap?

[cheesenpickles]

Help me settle a long-standing debate in my household.

My dh thinks that you can't drink water from the bathroom tap and only a kitchen tap.

I think he's daft as a brush and it all comes from the same source. It's totally fine to drink.

Discuss

Gross. I would never drink from the bathroom tap. I've caught my husband trying to give the kids a drink from the bathroom tap before though...

Depends if it comes from a tank in the loft or from the mains
Our comes from mains but I'm still a bit icky about it, just one of those weird things.

as previous pp said I rinse toothbrush in bathroom - or do all these pp take their toothbrushes to the kitchen sink to rinse ordo they keep bottled water in bathroom to rinse mouth/toothbrush after cleaning

I have chlorinated loft tanks in the past, but only after scrubbing away any visible dirt, and with a clean lid to fit afterwards. You can use a (new, clean) nylon-bristled brush.

Curiously, the tablets also broke up limescale, when left soaking until next use. You drain the water out with the cold bathtap and wipe away residue with a clean sponge.

Bathroom tap usually tank fed, so no not suitable for drinking

Not “usually” at all. Only in houses past a certain age. CWT are generally avoided in domestic properties where possible.

You can never live in a large house then!

I live in a large house. All bathrooms are mains fed.

I only would if I knew the source was okay. In my parents' house, it's from an open tank in the attic as it's an old house. They once fished a dead squirrel out of it. In my apartment in the US, it's straight from mains with no tank so I drink it.

Has anyone mentioned a tank in the loft :) ?

my bathroom tap water tastes amazing compared to the kitchen one

In my childhood home (I lived there until I was 21) there was an attic tank. It never occurred to any of us not to drink the bathroom tap water, & we all have pretty healthy immune systems, & never caught anything hideous.

Not sure I'd want to do it now though. Could be dead rats lurking. Ugh.

We were told only to drink from the kitchen tap because of the water softener system?

@AcrossthePond55 Fri 25-Oct-19 21:15:48

"I'm in the US so pardon my ignorance, but wouldn't the water in the tank come from the mains supply anyway?
If not, where does that water come from? Are these tanks so big that the water doesn't get 'cycled through' very often?"
Yes, the water does come from the mains supply. The cold water tank DOES NOT feed the cold taps. It feeds the hot taps via another tank which has a coil heater inside it.

"I'm not sure I'd want to bathe in pigeon-water, let alone drink it. Don't the tanks have lids to keep critters out?"
Well most of us have a roof on the house so pigeons can't get in our attics and generally there is a polystyrene lid on the cold tank. The hot water tank is a fully enclosed tank which has a hole in the side through which the heater coil is which is timed to come on by the central heating controls. If there is no central heating the hot water still heats up but via an electric heating element in that hole.

Cats are very fussy you know, one of mine is constantly in the bathroon sink, waiting for the tap to be turned on, despite a big bowl full of fresh water, 4 feet away in the bedroom, for the dogs. So it must be ok here!

The cold water tank DOES NOT feed the cold taps

It may not always feed the cold taps, but it does some of the time (In the UK at least it's not unusual in older properties).

My bathroom cold water is fed straight from the mains, like my kitchen so it's fine to drink.

My parents old house had a water tank in the loft that fed the bathroom. I used to drink that, it would just be orange sometimes

I drink out of my horses water bucket

I also drink out of the hosepipe.

I'm still alive and kicking!!

It depends on how your plumbing has been set up. When I had a tap changed, my plumber commented “how weird, most houses have mains water to the sink and not to the bath, but your house is the other way around.” Basically whatever DIYer originally built my bathroom has set it up so that we bath/shower in drinking water but brush our teeth in non-drinking water. Huh. Will be fixing this eventually but it’s certainly untrue to say you can always drink from the sink tap, cos in my house we fill cups from the bath tap but can’t drink from the sink tap.

" The cold water tank DOES NOT feed the cold taps."

Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. It depends on local practice. For example, Essex and East London - tank
Portsmouth and Norwich - mains

modern systems are mostly all from mains. Water supply and plumbing practice have altered in the last 350 years.

Do we have any literary enthusiasts familiar with the letters of Dean Swift?
If anyone wants to check, put your thumb over the nozzle of the tap and turn it on. Can you stop the flow?

Yes = tank supply

No = mains.

@VirtualHamster Fri 25-Oct-19 21:55:35

The cold water tank DOES NOT feed the cold taps

"It may not always feed the cold taps, but it does some of the time (In the UK at least it's not unusual in older properties)."
I have a 1934 and a 1905 property and their tanks don't feed the cold taps. Are you talking of much older properties than those?

We weren't allowed to growing up because it came from the tank in the loft and it was 'full of germs'.

Even though I don't have a water tank and I know the water comes from the main supply, I still harbour thoughts that you can't drink it.

I assure you that our upstairs taps are fed from a tank in the loft (there are 2 tanks up there)

Water from my kitchen tastes different to my bathroom, no idea why because they come from the same source. Although I don't drink from my bathroom because the kitchen is closer.

Kitchen tap mains fed
Bathroom tap usually tank fed, so no not suitable for drinking

I dispute the use of usually here.

If it comes from the main - yes
If it comes from a tank - no

Ours comes from the main

Our house was built 20 years ago with 2 tanks in the loft. Upstair taps fed from loft tanks. Downstairs from mains water

Depends if it comes from the mains or a tank in the attic. My parents found a dead rat floating in their tank in the attic.

There is a hot water cylinder in a cupboard alongside the 2 tanks in the loft