When I was a little kid, my mother told me not to drink water from the hot tap. The logic being that while the cold water in the kitchen came directly from the mains the hot water had been sitting in the tank in airing cupboard and wasn’t exactly fresh. Good advice, especially to a kid who’s thinking this whole hot water through a tap thing bypasses the need for a kettle when preparing warm blackcurrant juice.
And like many of the things you’re told as a child, you never bother to question them until sometime in your adulthood. Regarding the hot water drinking thing this happened to me the other week. I was in a hurry and figured I’d clean my teeth while in the shower, something that had never occurred to me before. I remembered my mother’s stark warning about letting hot tap water anywhere near my throat but figured as long as I didn’t swallow or anything I’d be okay, plus we have a combi-boiler so the hot water is as fresh as the cold.
The thing is, when I did this I noticed my teeth were much cleaner than usual. Which makes sense when you think about it. Washing things in hot water is way more effective than in cold and with my tea and cig consumption rates I need as much cleaning power as I can get.
So the question is, does anyone else clean their teeth using the hot tap?
I find quite the opposite effect! In the tropics tap water is warm and it never gives that “tingling fresh” clean the toothpaste companies promise. Here in wintry England the cold tap offers nerve tingling freshness, so nerve tingling that it can also signal when to visit the dentist!
Hot water, even in a ‘combi’ boiler, probably comes from a storage tankl in the loft. This is stored water and is not considered fit for drinking. This also applies to the cold water tap in the washbasin. The only water cosidered fot for drinking is that which comes straight from the mains, this is usually the kitchen sink.
The current regulations require the loft tank to have a tight fitting lid. This prevents dust, dirt, bird shit, squirrel piss etc getting in to the tank. Older properties may have a tank that is lead lined, made of asbestos cement, or have a bit of old ply board for a lid…thus making the contents of the tank somewhat underirable as drinking water.
So brushing your teeth using hot water is unlikely to kill you or make you ill, just don’t swallow :)
From Dave C’s comment, can we assume that while it is not altogether safe now, it is much safer to put water from the hot tap into your mouth now than it was when your mother told you not to do it way back when?
Dave C’s explanation of British home plumbing is spot on but very different from that employed in the States where everything is operated at mains pressure. IMHO this is a much more desirable solution, not only to Pete’s question but also to the frustration of mixer taps (or non-mixer taps as they are in the UK). Our kitchen sink faucet/tap has two concentric pipes inside the U-shaped spout. The inner tube carries hot water. the outer anulus carries cold water. They mix on the way down to the sink. This is fine in a kitchen, but everyone knows what happens in the shower – someone turns on hot water elsewhere in the house and the temperature drops.
I understand that the UK rationale is based on siphoning risk if mains pressure should fall. Simple solution would be to put a non-return valve in the system. Well, that’s my two cents, as they say.
water through a combi boiler always come from the mains, hot and cold, there are no unhygenic storage tanks, so go ahead Pete and scrub away :))
Quite right, a combi ‘heats on demand’ so its direct from the mains. I’m getting my boiler types mixed up again :) With a combi you’ll have a small feed tank in the loft for the radiators but that will hardly ever be needed to top up the system.
Just to add that my combi doesn’t have a small feed tank for anything, the rads being on a sealed system.
To the question in hand, my dad always brushed his teeth with hot water. Sadly, he wasn’t a regular brusher, and I think most of them are false now. He’ll love me if he ever reads this, eh!
Stingey. Yeah, a great time-saving device. Almost as good as brushing your teeth and shaving in the shower.
“Warm blackcurrent juice”??
I’ve wondered the same thing for years, but recently I’ve been sorely tempted to try and make the kettle boil that little bit faster by using the hot water tap.
In my parents house, I wouldn’t have dreamed about it – because I think they still have a tank AND lead pipes, but my boiler takes it straight from the mains. I still have my qualms – probably from childhood memories of nasty tasting bath water.
On the subject of teeth cleaning though, my girlfriend’s father is a dentist, and when I showed her this post her first reaction was that her dad has always said you should use the hot water tap when brushing.
Yes, warm blackcurrent juice. I was like eight. You have a problem with that?
I’m wondering about the phenomena of it feeling cleaner when you brush using cold water. A drinking buddy reckons the relatively new Guinness Extra Cold is for people who don’t like Guinness but like the idea of Guinness because the cold numbs the taste buds. The same probably applies to teeth. If, after brushing with cold water, your buds are numbed you’re going to feel a lot fresher than with warm. Everything vanishes except that minty smell – nice. But it’s all an illusion.
Another set of variables could include what you are putting on your toothbrush. A two inch flab of ‘minty fresh’ is just hype, non?
Bicarb, salt, warm water, tea tree, none of these might seem likely to accomplish the requisite ‘wake-up’ zing thing. But do try. Especially as the average stuff-in-a-tube is of questionable merit and you are poor.
Come to think of it, being poor might give us more choices, not less. We can choose to do things that people with money wouldn’t ever think of. Give up toothpaste, for example. Yes!
My Great-Grandad was a train driver. My nan recalls that he used to clean his teeth using coal dust, worked wonders apparently.
Coal. That makes sense. Nice and gritty, like sand-blasting.
I wonder if brushing with that face exfoliation stuff would work?
yes, i’ve always done so – thinking running the brush under the hot water will kill any germs left from last time – and rinse my mouth with cold… thinking, lke you -if i don’t swallow – it can’t hurt. and it obviously doesn’t. i’ve done so for years and years and years and i’m still here.
God forbid! There’s just something so wrong about the idea of hot water and toothpase together, gives me the shudders. Eeeeee.
So what’s the conclusion to all this then? Any medical people in the house? Also, if yu are using hot water in a kettle, doesn’t boiling it kill off any bacteria anyway? I don’t like the idea of it possibly containg things that don’t go when you boil…and my tea DOES taste different when I use hot water rather than cold, maybe this is just psychological, I EXPECT it to taste differently.
This is interesting. I assume this is a UK site. I came upon it looking for info on providing drinking water for squirrels (it was the reference to “squirrel piss” in the hot water that brought me here). Here in the U.S., I image that hot water is as sanitary as cold water. Typically, in newer homes, the pipes are copper (maybe pvc in cheaper installations), or galvanized steel on older homes. The galvanized steel pipes are destined to be replaced with copper, because they eventually rust, clog with corrosion, leak, and break. A tap from the mains leads to an electric or gas heated sealed “glasslined” water heater tank (usually 30 to 50 gallons). The hot and cold either come from seperate taps, or are mixed together at the tap. BTW, I always used cold water to brush my teeth until the last severl years. I now prefer to use luke warm water for brushing and dental irrigation. I just find it more comfortable.
Interesting debate, I too was thinking about using water from the hot water tap, but I thought it would make much more sense to fill the kettle from the hot tap, which would save alot of energy when boiling the water! and as it will be boiled anyway this would help kill off any germs (hopefully)
If this is perfectly ok, then why don’t kettle manufacturers and all the energy saving groups recommend it, think of all the energy saved, especially if your boiler was already warm due to having the central heating on or washing dishes etc.
I recently got a new condensing combi, all new boilers should be high efficiency now, I got it from http://www.theboilerstore.co.uk , great prices and service by the way, and condensing boilers can be up to 98% efficient! this must be better than a kettle at heating water.
Actually the Coal thing is still being used in many parts of the world. I tried it. It does work however it doesn’t have a great taste. I guess it is a natural tooth-powder; even maybe more beneficial but I don�t expect big pharmaceutical to tell you that.
Also it is supposed to be good for the stomach acids; helps calm it down. It figures I guess. Apes (chimps) know this trick also. They must have learned it form us. :P
Shawn, I think cold water has less germs than warm water.
Guena, I think that you should use warm water on your teeth because warm water kills more dangerous germs than cold water does. Besides you don’t have too swallow it.