Using Water From The Hot Tap

[carrot99]

When cooking if I need a saucepan of boiling water, I use the kettle to boil water from the cold tap. However, as I have a combi boiler using water from the mains and no tank would it be safe and cheaper to draw and use hot water from the hot tap? I've always felt that the hot water is not quite as safe as the cold but is the temperature the only difference?

[Atheist]

I don't use the hot water from the combi for drinking purposes, but I think it would be safe. I don't know if it would save energy if used instead of my electric kettle. Perhaps someone else here knows more about it.

[bhg481]

I would be happy to do that. The argument against using water from a conventional boiler with a hot-water storage cylnder is that there could be dead animals in the loft tank that could pollute the water. That can't happen with a combi-boiler.
Incidentally, people seem happy to clean their teeth in the bathroom, where the cold water comes via the header tank. I don't and converted our bathroom cold taps to be directly from the mains.

[bhg481]

gas hot-water is cheaper than electric hot-water but you have to allow for throwing away a pipeful whenever you have to run the tap to get it hot.

[carrot99]

Thank you both. It's not so much the energy saving really, as the time saved by just filling the pan from the hot tap rather than waiting for the kettle to boil. Any energy saving would be a bonus.

[TheWinner]

No.
https://www.water.org.uk/advice-for-customers/water-and-health/

[bhg481]

That reference only deals with water from a storage tank; combi-boilers heat water directly from the mains.

[Hopkirk]

Bhg, modern houses usually have mains water to the bathroom cold taps.

[Atheist]

hopkirk. That might be true, but might not. I wouldn't drink water that had come from a loft tank. It's easy enough to check it out, and that's what I would do.

[barry1010]

I doubt that many houses have cold water storage tanks in the loft these days. I took mine out of my previous house in the 70s, was glad to see the back of it along with the Ascot in the bathroom

[puzzled54]

Don’t use the hot water tap for drinking, cooking etc if you have a water softener though

[Atheist]

puzzled. I think that the water softener companies were aware of stats that suggested that hard water areas were statistically a bit healthier than soft water areas, and so they covered themselves by leaving the kitchen tap connected directly to the main incoming water supply (so that any health problem could not be linked to what they had done.

[diddlydo]

We have a water tank in the loft (covered). I've cleaned my teeth and drunk water from it for 46 years and I'm still alive!

[puzzled54]

I thought it was because a water softener changed the salt content of the water, so the cold water kitchen tap was left as ‘normal’ for drinking

[Atheist]

puzzled; Maybe you should check it out online, rather than accept opinions here. You'll get a wider range of views.

[puzzled54]

Actually it wasn’t my question atheist! I was just advising carrot in case he has a water softener. But nice to chat anyway…..

[Canary42]

///I've ... drunk water from it for 46 years and I'm still alive!///

Sorry, but I can't resist this:- 1 swallow doesn't make a summer ;-D

[Hopkirk]

It's quite safe to drink softened water. The salt you put in the machine does not end up in the water that it gives out.

https://www.harveywatersofteners.co.uk/faq/softened-water-safe-drink/#:~:text=Softened%20water%20is%20safe,the%20taste%20of%20harder%20water.

[bhg481]

We've had water softeners ever since we bought our first house in 1977. I plumbed them in and set all the taps inside the house to supply softened water; only the garden tap has hard water as there is no point wasting softened water on plants. There's no point having a water softener and then letting your kettle get furred up by using hard water in it.