bathroom water

[kerrymill]

Can anyone tellme how bathroom tap water is different to kitchen tap water,it tastes foul and i've heard you're not supposed to drink it.My brother-in-law thinks i'm making it up and that water is all the same.Thanks.

[justineo]

Hi kerrymill, I think it's because when you turn your kitchen tap on it draws water from the fresh water coming into your house from the ground pipes.  Your upstairs tap may draw water from your water tank in the loft and is not fresh.

[Cuddlysac]

Justineo is right.  Don't drink the water from the bathroom tap.  It comes from the water tank in your attic which could have a dead rat in it. 

[dilligaf]

CUDDLYSAC is correct. If not a dead rat could be dead mouse or pigeon. However if your tank is covered all you have to worry about is a few dead insects and the silt that collects at the bottom of your tank. Don't know where it comes from but if you ever saw it you would never drink that water again Guaranteed.

[joko]

I think that only applies to the hot water. I think cold water always come from the mains, so bathroom cold water is the same as kitchen - anyone know better, i'd like to be sure myself aswell

[twiglet4frog]

i read in a SAS survival book that u should never drink from a hot tap or an outside tap!

Ok that has nothing much to do with the question but i thought u might like to know if its good enough for the SAS its good enough for me

[tigga]

I would agree with joko and only drink out of the cold tap - up or down, if joko and i are wrong, i am brushing my teeth in the kitchen from now on !

[Coobeastie]

Tank upstairs should feed the water boiler which will supply the hot...cold should be from mains.

We make our tea from the hot tap but boil it first..tastes nicer than our cold water which is very hard.

[kerrymill]

Thanks all,think i'll stick to Evian!

[spudqueen]

I think this was because most houses had a water tank in their loft with dead spiders etc in it. We have a combi boiler which draws ALL the water straight from the mains and so we don't actually have a water tank in the loft.

[tigga]

kerrymill - i wouldnt go so far as paying for the bottled stuff !! what does EVIAN spell backwards ? LOL

[Sasha13]

So howcome we're ok to brush our teeth in bathroom tap water? surely they wouldn't let you do that if there was a danger? Some people must swallow water when they do that surely? I thought that all cold water taps were supplied with fresh water and only hot taps came from a tank in the loft?

[Sasha13]

just read Coobeastie's reply! That'll teach me!

[jampot]

All cold taps and toilets are from the rising main, the hot taps get water from tank in attic, unless you got combi, the tank in the attic should have a cover on it to prevent rats, mice etc soiling the water, as for spiders and flies, well look on it as extra protien.

[Tim Baxter]

Well, up to yet nobody has it right.  The water companies will tell you that at least one cold tap should be from your rising main.  This is, as has been correctly said, for drinking/brushing only and no other purpose other than not to drink/brush teeth in water from the loft tank.

Houses with combi boilers don't need a loft tank and therefore have all cold taps and toilets fed from the rising main.

Older houses will have cold taps and toilets supplied from either the rising main and/or the loft tank.

Toilets can be fed from either the rising main or the cold tank, there is a different filling valve size for each.

All conventional hot taps are fed from the cold, loft tank via the heating system to the hot taps.  That is, apart from combi's which are fed from the rising main through the boiler to the tap.

[commoner]

...Tim ..you forgot (?) to mention the shower head......not the electric ones but ones fed from the header tank. They have both Hot and Cold from the header tank to achieve better temperature control....otherwise the cold water would be at a much higher pressure than the hot and not mix properlyl

[commoner]

BTW..there's a post lower down called Bathrooms and stupidity which will answer you question

[Gef]

Am I the only person who doesn't have a queue of rats, pigeons, mice, flies and spiders waiting to dive into my cold water tank and drown? (assuming they can lift the lid).

[ondemania]

i hope i dont have a big queue of the beasties trying tto jump into the tank. i always drink the cold water from my bathroom tap. it tastes better i think. now i dont know why...

[Tim Baxter]

Yes you're right.  I also forgot to mention the bidet which, if connected to the rising main, might cause a bit of a mess or possibly over stimulation.

Whic part of your shower head is electric, the heater or pump?  How can the hot water be fed from the header tank?

[commoner]

Sorry Tim I wasn't very clear in my post....by "Electric" showers I mean the ones you stick on the Bathroom wall over the bath and are supplied from the mains cold water  with an electric heater which heats the water "on demand" 

 I should have said that in my shower the hot water is supplied from the hot water cylinder which is fed from the header tank and  the cold water to the shower is from the same header then they will both be at the same pressure.

 I also suspect you knew all along what I meant <G>