To drink water out of the bathroom tap

[Hihosilver123]

I live in London, and my house is on mains water. At night, I fill my glass with water from the bathroom tap. My friend says you shouldn’t do that and should only use the kitchen tap. Surely, on mains water, the water is the same from every tap?

Of course i do. I had cryptosporidium yrs ago so now dont risk it. I was in hospital on a drip.

Not all of us are on mains gas, so have no option.

Some properties have a water tank which can serve the bathroom but not the kitchen.
But if it's all coming through the mains then if course it's exactly the same water!

Unless you have an absolutely ancient plumbing system you can safely drink from the bathroom tap.

Do people not go into their lofts anymore? And see there isn't a tank there collecting rats and mice and dead pigeons?!

Our "absolutely ancient" house built in 2002 had a cold water tank system. We've since replaced it and have mains unvented heating system.

We still shouldn't drink from the bathroom taps though because we also had a water softening system fitted, so the only drinking water is from the kitchen tap. Fine to brush teeth etc. with the other taps though.

is 30 years "absolutely ancient"? That's how old my house is, owned it since it was new. But yeah I do go into my loft frequently and the water tank is covered.

I don't drink bathroom water, bleurgh! It really tastes different, kind of thick as if it's in a dusty glass or something. I know that sounds odd but even cleaning my teeth with bathroom water leaves my mouth feeling furry & unpleasant, not clean, so I do them in the kitchen, My DH thinks I'm nuts and he can't tell the difference but one time when I was ill and couldn't get out of bed, he got me a drink of water from the bathroom but pretended it came from the kitchen. He was gobsmacked that I could tell the difference but I knew. I fill a bottle of water from the kitchen tap & keep it my bedside table so I don't have get up in the night and get it. It's not just here, it's been the same wherever I've lived houses, flats bungalows it's just not nice.

People are being sadly optimistic about the state of plumbing in this country. Our house is less than 20 years old, and the only sink with drinkable water fed by the mains is in the kitchen- all the other taps are fed by a tank in the loft. This was confirmed by a plumber, a good couple of months after we moved in 🤮

I've not had a header tank in 40 years!

It depends if your bathroom tap is drinking water quality, depends on the pipes and if it's direct from mains or from a tank?
We had a new bathroom recently and our bathroom tap is suitable as drinking water, I wouldn't trust older houses tbh

I also fill up a water bottle from the bathroom tap every night, and sometimes drink direct from the tap! We don't have a water tank, everything seems fine. I am still alive and well. I have always been told not to drink from the hot tap though as the water is not safe, so suffice to say as a child I just had to try a bit of warm water out the tap whilst in the bath, gross 😂

I guess the important thing is that you are drinking (boiled) tap water so you get the benefit of the fluoride in mains water.

Turn the tap on if you can stop the water with your finger it’s from a tank if it is hard to stop and sprays then it is mains and fine to drink

Most UK mains water does not have a high enough level of fluoride to benefit people’s teeth - you can check with your local provider.
Ours is 0.13%, the NHS recommends 1%.

Nah, it gives your immune system something to work with. It helped to keep us healthy back in the day

1% would be 10 grammes per litre, that would be visibly milky. The recommended amount is 0.7 milligrammes per litre.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/water-fluoridation-statement-from-the-uk-chief-medical-officers/statement-on-water-fluoridation-from-the-uk-chief-medical-officers