On Fri, 05 May 2006 07:56:38 +0100, David P
wrote:

|I am in the UK. Is it generally safe to drink BOILED water from the
|hot tap?
|
|My hot water comes from a tank or cistern in the loft and this feeds
|into a hot water cylinder which is in the house. It doesn't look
|wonderful inside that tank in the loft but I reckon if I BOILED the
|water then presumably I will kill the germs.

Yes, but it is not a good idea, there are other forms of crud in your tank.
|Is there another reason why I should not drink boiled water from the
|hot tap? Maybe there are dangerous minerals and some other
|chemicals found in the hot water system which are unsafe?
|
|Is the caution about this overstated?

With newer houses the tank has a cover which is an advantage,

|BTW - my reasons for wanting to do this is detailed below.

|Why? I like to hand wash my dishes in very hot water. My hot tap
|does not give me water which is quite hot enough. So I fill the
|kettle from the hot tap and heat that water up.

|While the dishes soak, I usually think I should make myself a coffee!
|But I'm not sure if I can use the boiled water left in the kettle.
|Or do I need to ... *groan* throw it away, flush the kettle, fill it
|from the cold tap and then boil that.

You are IMO being over cautious. We kill 10 people per day on the roads,
I have never heard of anyone dieing from contaminated water in the UK
after WWII. The severity of all risks should be judged on past
death/illness rates.

In the UK the kitchen tap is fed directly from the rising main and so gets
the cleanest water available. It is best to get all drinking and cooking
water from the kitchen tap.

The hot water from a *combi* boiler has not been stored and so is good for
drinking. It sometimes looks milky, but this is only air and has no effect
on portability.


--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk Google Groups is IME the *worst*
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