Do people drink water from the bathroom tap tap

[KW33]

Back story is I work in a perdomately male work place. We have a small coffee machine that needs to be filled up with water every so often. The unisex toilets are not too far from where the team sit. On two separate occasions, one male manager went into the bathroom to fill up the water. I interjected and said no, I will get water from the water despenser in the kitchen which is not close to where the team sit. Then the same thing happened today, another male colleague went to do the same thing. I again interjected and got the water from the kitchen water despenser. When I asked the colleague today, he said it's the same water tank so why wouldn't you use the tap water from the bathroom. I said no that's disgusting at which point another male colleague said there's no difference. He would use his tap water in the bathroom at home. Again I was lost.

So now I want to know is this a thing? I have never used the bathroom tap water as drinking water and never would. However this might be a me thing, or is it a woman thing. I have now started asking everyone....even though what one of them said about it being from the same tank may be true. In my head the kitchen tap water can be used for drinking and the bathroom tap water is for washing your hands etc. Has anyone else had a similar experience or thing to be amazed at what some people class as normal and you class as disgusting.

Why would it be any different?

I'm a woman

I drink water from the bathroom tap.

It's the same pipes.

Our cold water taps are all mains so we use them. I dont drink anything from the hot taps.

Yep.

Been doing it for most of my life and I'm still alive. I think.

If it's a water dispenser plumbed into the mains it probably is the same water.
What do you think is wrong with the water in the sinks in the toilets?

Our bathroom tap is off the mains so yes.

When I was in hospital in London the water jugs were not filled from the sink on the ward 🤷‍♀️

its fine, it’s the same water.

If the kitchen tap is taking water direct from the main and not hanging around in a cold water tank, I would say it's preferable. But if all the water in the house or office is either coming from the main or being stored in a tank, it makes no difference whether you draw the water in the bathroom or the kitchen.

I drink the cold water from my own bathroom (or that of friends/family/hotels etc) but I wouldn’t from the sinks in the toilets at work. I don’t know why.

It used to be (and still can be) that the bathroom in houses was a tank so different and it can be on a separate system (in can say not drinking water) other than that it’s the same

In some houses the bathroom cold feed comes from a tank in the loft which is not a good idea to drink.

If you have no tank and all taps are mains fed it’s fine.

I have no idea of the set up at your office but if it’s a modern building I would assume taps are all mains fed.

Absolutely not 😭 the bathroom tap is for washing and teeth brushing, not for drinking

No physical difference I'm sure but its morally unacceptable imo

I fill my glass from the bathroom

I would drink from bathroom tap at home but not in a public toilet where it could have faeces / urine etc on and unsure how throughly and regularly it is cleaned

I've not got a problem drinking from the bathroom tap at home, but I wouldn't do it at work. It just feels unhygienic for some reason.

People used to have a header tank in the loft that fed the upstairs tap and they could be minging but your office wcs will be fed directly from the mains, just like most homes now.

if the water wasn't drinking water they would have to put up signs for H&S.

I think it depends whether the water in the taps comes straight from the mains or if it comes from a cold water tank.
I don't know about office/commercial premises, but it used to be the case that houses had water tanks in the loft which would supply upstairs bathrooms. These tanks could have dead birds or insects floating in them so the water wasn't recommended for drinking. Water to the kitchen taps comes straight off the mains, so doesn't run the same risk of contamination.
So it all depends where you water supply to the toilets comes from although the taps themselves are likely to be contaminated by people's hands after they've used the toilet so that's another good reason not to fill up there

Personally no, thought it was a man thing when you said it but then am in my 40s and grew up in a very old house so it could have been that! I can taste the difference but it could just be in my head (but I still won’t use for anything other than bathroom stuff 😅)

I drink from the bathroom tap as it's mains water, so exactly the same as elsewhere in my home.

I once lived in a flat with an old fashioned system where bathroom water came from communal water tanks in the loft. Never drank from that (beyond a bit of water on my tooth brush).

Absolutely wouldn't drink from my bathroom tap. We have a cold water tank in the loft. However, if I didnt have a tank and it was directly from the mains, there'd be no difference so it wouldn't bother me.

Our maternity ward recently had no water for over a year, you couldn't even shower after you'd given birth 😬

Not in a house where the upstairs is connected to a water tank in the attic rather than the mains. But otherwise yes, wouldn’t give it a second thought.

Yes, the convention of not drinking bathroom water comes from UK houses often having gravity fed systems whereby the cold water upstairs was from a tank in the loft and the water downstairs was mains, so the cold water upstairs wasn't "fresh". But now not that many homes have that system (cold water is mains fed throughout) so the cold water is the same throughout.

Our taps are all mains but I can't bring myself
To drink from the bathrooms. Thanks and dead animal stories when I was a kid out me
Right off. I know it's irrational.

When I worked from my mum's study for a week upstairs whilst looking after the cats one summer, I kept getting water from the bathroom tap to top up my water bottle. I'm still here...