Why can't you drink water from the upstairs bathroom COLD tap?

[nellypope]

My Dad, used to tell us that you mustn't drink water from the bathroom cold tap? Why? and is this rule still applicable today? My husband says that he has never heard of this, my friend says she has! Any ideas why my Dad would have told me this?

[ChuckFickens]

Because the upstairs taps are often fed from a header tank in the loft and not direct from the mains water, the header tanks are often open so may have had dead birds, rats and all sorts of other nasty things fall into it over the years.

If you are sure that your upstairs taps are direct from the mains waters and from a header tank it's perfectly OK to drink from them.

[Playbill]

Because the water from a bathroom tap very often comes from a storage tank (in a loft) and can be contaminated with insects, debris and dead birds. Water in a kitchen normally comes direct from the mains.

[Playbill]

Snap Chuck!

[jack daniels]

I still don't drink water from the upstairs tap & kids come downstairs for a drink or take some up

[ChuckFickens]

LOL :)

obviously my second paragraph should have read

If you are sure that your upstairs taps are direct from the mains waters and NOT from a header tank it's perfectly OK to drink from them.

[nellypope]

Thanks Chuck! :-)

[B00]

Now see, this is what i don't get.

I had the same thing drilled into me as a kid "don't drink from the bathroom tap"....yet it's ok for us to clean our teeth with..?

[ChuckFickens]

if you'll excuse the expression, but....

that's because you spit rather than swallow when you clean your teeth.

[Playbill]

. . . toothpaste?
For further conformation of what can end up in the tank watch the Fawlty Towers episode where Manuel is asked to remove a dead pigeon.

[B00]

Har de har playbill ;-)

Ahh fair 'nuff Chuck, still, it makes you slightly queazy to think you're gargling with water that a dead pigeon could very well have been floating in eh?

[ChuckFickens]

Nah,

We use nothing but Perrier down here in the south ;)

[alavahalf]

Chucks fibbing... I got called to a house in Pagham ( On the south coast) because the lady was finding feathers in her bath.
Two pidgeons out of the tank later....problem solved..!

Pidgeons dont like perrier..!

[B00]

I live in a victorian terrace, so i'm goosed (or is that pigeoned?)- i'll think of you lot when im spitting feathers out me gob before i go to bed.

[buildersmate]

I found a bat in mine (dead).

[boxtops]

So do I Boo, but our water comes straight off the main into all the taps (including the bathroom in the attic.

[Graham-W]

In the days when water pipes were made of lead, because the upstairs taps were used less frequently than the downstairs ones, there could be a build-up of lead in the water to the upstairs taps. Lead is not good for you.
Now that copper pipes are the norm it shouldn't be a problem.

[ayabrea38]

I know this sounds incredibly stupid,but how do you know if you have one of those open upstairs tanks.I also live in a victorian house,but the water sems to come from the same place as downstairs noises when you put upstairs tap on as downstairs(technical stuff in out house)are the same.Just as cold in the summer too,so I am a bit puzzled?

[johnk]

Aya, turn your water stopcock off and if you still get a flow of water from the tap it is from a header tank

[anotheoldgit]

Surely it is only the Hot water that is fed from the tank.