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.

It all depends on your tank and pipes. In older houses bathroom water would come from a tank in the loft so would not be clean enough to drink, and also not necessarily from drinking safe pipes.
Modern houses usually have drinking water in the bathroom so it's fine to drink.
But "don't drink from the bathroom tap" has been passed down from previous generations.
As long as your work toilet tap water is drinking standard then it's fine.
Also if going to be boiled for hot drinks it's not an issue at all

I don't but am aware that it is the same water.

Came to say this - OP your parent probably drilled it into you as a child but you don't have to worry about that anymore.

My DM was paranoid about the water that had been hanging about in the pipes so if you were filling a glass to drink you had to fill and dump three times before filling to drink. I can't shake that habit too even though I know it's not rational now.

Not a sex-based issue. A tank or no tank issue.

I grew up with a header tank so don't drink from the bathroom tap out of habit.
I also have a water softener and the only unsoftened water is the kitchen tap. Although it is supposed to be safe, my brain says no and doesn't like the taste!

Rationally I know it should be ok, but actually I would not like to fill a coffee machine from a communal bathroom tap like that. Particularly in a male dominated environment, considering the associated poor hygiene!

@KW33 having once been a cleaner in an office block , where the men’s toilets were rank in comparison to the female loos, I would -from a hygiene perspective- insist that they filled it from the kitchen tap! Taking communal food / drink items into a toilet when there is a kitchen available is unnecessary. In my own home it doesn’t bother me.

Can't say I ever fill a glass with water in the bathroom but it's all water from the same source at the end of the day isn't it.

It's all fine, especially if it's getting boiled to make coffee.

I would NEVER drink from the bathroom tap.

You are not supposed to, and it's not 'the same pipes.' Bathroom tap water is not drinking water.

Google it. It's entry level knowledge! You don't drink from the bathroom taps.

So what if you do it sometimes and you're still alive?!

People who have smoked for years are 'still alive.' It doesn't mean their insides are healthy!

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Me too.

Yes, this.

As a child it was drummed into me that it was ok to clean teeth in the water from the bathroom, but it wasn't for drinking.

The water to the bathroom came via a storage tank in the loft. If there is no lid, then all sorts of stuff can end up in there - including spiders and other creepy crawlies. I have heard tales of the remains of rats, squirrels and birds being found.

The kitchen tap came from the mains, so was suitable for drinking.

Nowadays it's more usual for all water to come from the mains in newer houses.

Yes...of course you do ..what's the difference

We don’t. Most places near us have water softeners in all but the cold kitchen taps. We have hard water here.

I drunk from our bathroom tap but not the office one!

Is just water from a tap. Why do you think that's weird?

I would only do that in an absolute emergency.. but I'm not sure why as I guess it's all the same water

So do you brush your teeth in your kitchen then? It's all going in your mouth just the same 🫠

I wouldn’t drink from a bathroom tap unless it’s a ground floor bathroom.

I always use bottled water in coffee machines

Yeah exactly how I understand it, we never drank from the bathroom tap for that reason. I don’t have a tank now though but I still avoid drinking from the bathroom tap.

When our work purchased us a coffee machine I went to fill it via the kitchen tap when someone told me to use the filtered water from dispenser!

Umm, you do realise that micro plastics from bottled water can leak into it? Chemicals like phthalates and BPA can leach into bottled water from the plastic. These chemicals can disrupt hormones and have been linked to health issues like cancer and heart disease.

It does depend on if the bathroom cold water supply is from the rising main, or if it’s fed from a cold water tank. Some older properties have a cold water tank in the loft which feeds bathrooms with only the kitchen cold tap being fed off the rising main.
If you’ve ever seen a cold water tank in an attic, you would never drink any water supplied from it. They are generally open vessels which anything can fall into - birds/ general debris/ rats etc.

Yuck! Less about where the water is coming from but taking it into the loos, touching the taps... Food and drink related anything should be nowhere near a blokes / unisex loos!

I don't swallow water when I clean my teeth FGS. 🙄

Growing up at always drank upstairs water, my sister swore it tasted better.

Tank was in the top of the airing cupboard in the box room, rather than the attic. When it leaked one time and had to be replaced the water that leaked out didn't look particularly drinkable.

Didn't stop me drinking upstairs water in my current house when it still had a tank in the loft. I don't see much difference between using it to clean my teeth and drinking it.

But you still put it in your mouth, don't you? If it's not clean enough to drink then it's not clean enough to brush your teeth with.