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.

I seem to recall it’s an environmental health issue - in commercial/business/work environments. Due to the risk of faecal contamination. Drinking water should not be taken from bathrooms in those environments and would be picked up theoretically on an environmental health inspection.

From memory, similar rules that you couldn’t have a wc/bathroom opening directly on to a kitchen, there had to be a further door/partitioning between.

In a home domestic setting though - where water is direct feed to a bathroom, I guess, as other say upthread - probably ok.

I do. I actually stick my gob under the bathroom tap and drink when I wake up hungover 🤣. I'm in Yorkshire, so I don't know if that makes a difference because I'm aware we have a decent quality of water.

I probably wouldn't get a jug of water from the bathroom at work though, unless we were I desperate need.

Yes, this feeds showers etc.

I love a glass of cold water from the bathroom sink in the early hours while I sit on the toilet. It tastes so refreshing when my mouth is dry from all the snoring I must do!

I prefer the water from the en suite tap. It’s colder and very refreshing for one thing.
The water from the kitchen tap always comes out slightly cloudy (which does settle pretty quickly) and it’s just not as cold.
Mid 1950s semi and I have no idea if it has a water tank in the loft. The en suite is about ten years old and the kitchen was moved to what was the back of the garage before I bought it, so at least 15 years ago.
I wouldn’t want water out of the tap in the toilets at work though even if it was going to be boiled. In fact I don’t have hot drinks at all at work because half of the time the washing up sponge is left lying in the kitchen sink.
I fill up my tupperwear water bottle at the cold water dispenser.

It tastes so good in Yorkshire because it's God's own country apparently. God made the lovely water!

It certainly does taste good, but I'm aware that some areas have more hard water than soft. I suppose I meant that I'm happy to drink it straight out of the tap without using a further form of filtration 🤣.

A few decades ago, water other than the kitchen was typically fed by a tank, so water would be sitting around, the tank could have things in it...
Not sure when it changed, but most plumbing now has all taps fed by the mains, so it's not an issue.

It is a thing, we were never allowed to drink from the bathroom tap. My mum always said the water there wasn't good enough for drinking. We had a tank in the loft and I think it was to do with that. The water in the kitchen just came straight in to where the kitchen sink was.
So it depends on your building and how old it is and the set up.
I've worked in a school where the water was only drinkable from one sink in the whole school, despite there being many sinks.

It also feeds my upstairs taps and I am happy to drink from them

My house was built in 2000 and has water tanks for my upstairs taps and to feed into the boiler.

When you're in a hotel, where do you fill the kettle in the room up from?

As long as it comes from the mains not a tank, any tap is fair game IMO

Yep fill my glass every night from the bathroom

In both the houses I've owned we've replaced older water tanks with mains fed throughout/combi boilers etc so I've drunk from bathroom taps there. But it's only just occurred to me that I grew up in a flat and yet it was drummed into me not to drink water from the bathroom taps due to possible dead animals in the tank... but there won't have been a tank, it was a ground floor flat and must have all been from the mains, surely!

Yes, if it comes from the mains, but some still comes from tanks. My mum still has a tank and we have a redundant one that I think was in use pre 2005.
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I very occasionally drink my own bathroom water if it’s night time and I really can’t be bothered to get water from the kitchen, but it tastes weird and I definitely don’t make a habit of it.

I absolutely wouldn’t drink bathroom water in an office or fill up water for the coffee machine from there. Multiple people use those bathrooms and people touch the taps before washing their hands so there could be fecal matter or norovirus…grim! Also, most modern offices have filtered water taps now, so I would use that.

I absolutely don't know....chances are I have probably have drank it several times before without knowing lol so nothing. It's most likely in my head because now I know people do actually drink from the bathroom tap tap (my error 😂).

Regarding the tank being one of the same, I have no idea and I don't think think the team know either. The water despenser I used is a water despenser that produces 2 types of cold water and I definitely don't know how often this is cleaned. Saying that I would use the kitchen tap but it just so happens the despenser is right next to it so I use that instead.

Thanks all for those who have responded. You have actually made me aware of something I didn't know! It now means I have to change the water before I use the coffee machine just incase it has come from the bathroom tap 🙈.

Okay, so by that standard you could say you'd use toilet water to clean your teeth too? But I bet you don't 😂

It's the same water no matter what tap it comes out of 😂

Nope, as others have mentioned, older homes often have cold taps fed from a tank. These tanks are not sealed and all sorts can end up in them. You do not want to drink the water from them.

In the UK it would be contrary to building regulations to have the water in the kitchen cold tap coming from the cold water storage tank. It isn't classed as fit for consumption as contaminants can easily get into the tank (dead birds and mice). It must come in directly from the mains water supply.

Many domestic water systems have water to the bathroom cold taps coming from a cold header tank. I wouldn't drink from those for the reasons above. If you have a system without a cold header tank that supplies cold water direct from the mains supply to bathroom taps, it is perfectly safe to drink.

It’s a you thing.

It’s really odd (to say the least) to think that drinking water from the bathroom tap is “disgusting “. Do you have other controlling behaviours or overwhelming sense of disgust about ordinary things ? Might be worth reflecting on this feeling of “disgust” - it’s an over reaction to something quite normal.

@LittleBigHead

its a you thing.

It’s really odd (to say the least) to think that posting a perfectly innocuous thread from is “disgusting “. Do you have other controlling behaviours or overwhelming sense of anger about ordinary things ? Might be worth reflecting on this feeling of anger - it’s an over reaction to something quite normal.

Thank you, that's much clearer. Is it now unusual to have a cold water tank? We got rid of ours a few years ago (old house). My parents' house, built in 2000, never had one as far as I know.

I drink from our upstairs taps at home. It’s all from the same supply. I wouldn’t in a public bathroom though