Is it ok to drink warm water from the Tap in the Uk!

[sapo2000]

Hello everyone
I am now in my third trimester and I throughout the pregnancy I drank lots of warm water from the tap whenever I had indigestion. I've just searched about it and I read that drinking warm water from the tap is not a good thing in pregnancy. What are your experiences?

Suppose it depends whether you have a hot water cylinder where the water could have been sitting for ages or whether you have a combi that heats hot water as you use it.

I think its more about the plumbing in the individual home, if you have an old hot water tank there can be impurities in the water. I doubt it is a huge issue anyway.

?

I suppose if you have a hot water tank and the water comes from that it could be less than fresh

I genuinely can’t think of any other issue however

Like others have said, it depends on your plumbing. There’s no way I would drink the hot water from the taps in my house. They are fed from a tank in the loft.

If you live in a relatively new house, there should be no problem. Just check if you have a roof tank (but this is not that usual nowadays, especially if you have a modern boiler and water system).

I used to live in a university college. I have no idea how they store the water...

Well there's not much you can do about having drunk it in the past - it's not a good idea whether you're pregnant or not - but just stick to cold tap water and a kettle now :)

@foxgoosefinch

If you live in a relatively new house, there should be no problem. Just check if you have a roof tank (but this is not that usual nowadays, especially if you have a modern boiler and water system).

Just read that the college has water cisterns and use boilers to warm up the water.

@coogee

Like others have said, it depends on your plumbing. There’s no way I would drink the hot water from the taps in my house. They are fed from a tank in the loft.

Just read that the college has water cisterns and use boilers to warm up the water.

A kettle is your friend.

No you really shouldn't drink from the hot tap or use it for cooking water either, something to do with lead but can't remember more than that

No, you shouldn’t drink warm water from the tap, whether pregnant or not.

But your not sick so no harm done.

Here we go www.scottishwater.co.uk/your-home/your-water/lead-and-your-water/what-you-can-do

We should run the tap for a bit before using cold water as well apparently!

That link is talking about older pipes containing lead which may not be applicable to OP

But you can't do anything about what you have already drunk from the tap so just change what you do going forward

I did not grow up in the Uk and my British husband never told me this. I had no way of knowing this and Nhs guidelines about food in pregnancy don't mention this.

Op don't panic

If you are not sick don't worry

BUT

call your midwife anyway and get re assured don't rely on Mumsnet

Boil kettle or microwave cold water. Add some cold if you cba waiting for it to cool down

Where did you grown up OP? To be honest I don't think I"ve lived anywhere this would be ok. Its the same as not drinking from bathroom taps - generally water for the kitchen comes from a different source, and it drinking water.

Even with a combo boiler I'm not sure I'd drink warm/hot water as its generally gone through a process not designed for drinking water but I"m not 100 % on that. If you want warm water, fill the kettle then let it cool.

But given you haven't acquired any infections, I woudn't worry, I just wouldn't do it again.

@nurserypolitics

Where did you grown up OP? To be honest I don't think I"ve lived anywhere this would be ok. Its the same as not drinking from bathroom taps - generally water for the kitchen comes from a different source, and it drinking water.

Even with a combo boiler I'm not sure I'd drink warm/hot water as its generally gone through a process not designed for drinking water but I"m not 100 % on that. If you want warm water, fill the kettle then let it cool.

But given you haven't acquired any infections, I woudn't worry, I just wouldn't do it again.

I grew up in a farm and here the water is so bad that we could never drink from the tap. So this first time I did it was in the Uk. I never thought that warm water from the tap was different.

I think the risk here is legionella which gathers where there is standing water like in a tank. This is according to my father so take with a large pinch of salt! Likelihood of this is quite low and I suspect if you were going to get sick it would have happened already. Use the cold tap from now but don't sweat it.

@Steamedhams

I think the risk here is legionella which gathers where there is standing water like in a tank. This is according to my father so take with a large pinch of salt! Likelihood of this is quite low and I suspect if you were going to get sick it would have happened already. Use the cold tap from now but don't sweat it.

Thank you for this feedback!

I remember when I was a teen, talking to a plumber in installing the pipes for a new downstairs shower room in my parents house, there was something he used that was like an insoluble paste that was rubbed into the grooves of the screw-into-place connections. He used a different pot for the hot taps (and the radiator pipes) and the cold taps and I remember being told that was because traces of the version used for the hot taps would be bad for you if you drank it, but it worked better and obviously no one drinks from hot taps. The stuff from the other pot was less good (and I guess maybe more expensive?) but was safer to use on pipes intended for drinking water.

These memories are very vague and may be inaccurate but I've always been very careful to check that I am drinking from the cold tap when in an unfamiliar place since. I hate the modern fashion for taps that are too stylish to have a clear and obvious label for which is cold and which hot and will run both taps for a while until there is definite hot from one and cold from the other before drinking.

Ideally you would only drink cold water from your kitchen tap, which should be the first tap that comes off the water supply before it goes anywhere in your house. Then you can guarantee it's still "potable".

Hot water can sit in your hot water cylinder, less nice. Cold water from any other tap might have been in a tank in the loft, the issue with those is that people don't maintain them and all sorts of things can get in. However they are probably maintained much better in a college than a regular house.

Legionella is an issue where you have really long stretches of pipe BUT your university team would have had to do regular testing.

Honestly if you weren't sick at the time you'll be fine.
(Also not every house will have the plumbing described above!)

Did you not wonder why the UK has separate hot and cold water taps in bathrooms? It seems to be the thing people notice when they have grown up elsewhere. It's because the hot water is often not safe to drink and so separate taps means your cold water supply doesn't get contaminated.