Can you drink the water from the bathroom tap in your hotel room?

MrBizzles · 16-10-2013 06:20PM #1

Hi

I travel around quite a bit between UK & Ireland. I always buy bottled water but I was told its safe to drink the water in the hotel bathroom tap. I always stay in good hotels since the job pays for but i always assumed you cant drink water from a bathroom tap?

Thanks

Atlantic Dawn · 16-10-2013 06:22PM

Plumber would probably know, it all depends on whether they have a storage tank exposed where vermin can enter it like in a normal residential house.

zagmund · 16-10-2013 06:48PM

You can drink mains water safely (normally). Water that has been stored in a tank is less likely to be safe as things fall into it and decay. You can pretty much bank on the fact that your hotel doesn't supply mains water to each & every room.

I wouldn't be over-concerned to the point of using bottled water to brush my teeth, but I certainly wouldn't fill up a big glass, sit back and have a long drink either.

z

MrBizzles · 16-10-2013 06:56PM

Id always use the tap to brush my teeth etc. sometimes i arrive at hotels late the bar or local shop is closed & be half tempted to have a glass from the tap. I was told that it was now EU law that hotels above a certain star rating had to provide drinking water in the room

coylemj · 16-10-2013 07:36PM

MrBizzles wrote: »

I was told that it was now EU law that hotels above a certain star rating had to provide drinking water in the room

Urban myth. Without an EU-wide regulated system of star ratings, that is not a practical proposition. Standards are different in the various countries and in many cases a hotel claiming to be four star in a certain country would be either inferior or superior to what someone from GB/Irl would expect from a 4* establishment.

Apart from being ridiculed in Tripadvisor, there's nothing to stop you opening a hotel of indifferent quality tomorrow and calling it a five star.

coylemj · 16-10-2013 07:43PM

zagmund wrote: »

You can pretty much bank on the fact that your hotel doesn't supply mains water to each & every room.

You can guarantee it because if mains was piped straight to the rooms, not much of it would get to the upper floors as long as even a few taps on the lower floors were running. If you were located at the top of the house, you'd be a long time waiting for water to brush your teeth at night!

Aside from that, the local building regulations would forbid it. That's why large establishments like UCD have their own water tower, storing a large quantity onsite means that they spread their draw on the mains across the day instead of big spikes in the mornings which would deprive their neighbours of any supply.

spurious · 16-10-2013 07:51PM

I've never stayed in a hotel (or B&B for that matter) in Ireland that had any issue with giving me a large glass of tap water from the mains at night.

MrBizzles · 16-10-2013 07:58PM

Il stick to buying the bottled water so and have a word with the guy who told me he has been drinking water from hotel taps, il have to inform him that hes poisoning himself!

scout353 · 16-10-2013 08:02PM

I have often filled the kettle and boiled it, let it cool and then use it for drinking!

Handy for those late night droughts ðŸ˜†ðŸ˜†ðŸ˜†ðŸ˜†

CreepingDeath · 16-10-2013 08:55PM

Climb up into your own attic with an empty glass.
Locate the water tank and decide whether you'd fill your glass from that for a drink. That should really answer your question.

Any domestic attic I've been in doesn't have a water tank cover, so all the dust and cobwebs etc can fall into it, never mind if there was any potential mouse/rat/pigeon/bird ingress into the attic.

Now an old hotel might have lead pipes or God knows what sort of water system on their roof, which in sunnier climes is ideal breeding ground for all sorts of nasty microbes.

For the sake of a couple of Euro, I'd drink bottled water but probably brush my teeth with the tap water.

keithclancy · 17-10-2013 08:18AM

Jesus Christ people.

The water from the Tap is fine, Ireland and most of Western Europe has very clean water.

The guy who though of selling people water in bottles is laughing his ass off all the way to the bank.

ardmacha · 17-10-2013 08:24AM

I have often filled the kettle and boiled it, let it cool and then use it for drinking!

This seems a wise strategy, although hotels in warmer climes often do not have kettles.

The water from the Tap is fine, Ireland and most of Western Europe has very clean water.

That isn't the point, the public water supply may be fine, but the path it took to your room is suspect, in many cases.

keithclancy · 17-10-2013 08:33AM

ardmacha wrote: »

That isn't the point, the public water supply may be fine, but the path it took to your room is suspect, in many cases.

Just ask in the Hotel if you are worried about it.

Tabnabs · 17-10-2013 09:34AM

Water in the bathroom taps is the same water that is used for flushing the toilet, the bidet and the cold water supply to the bath/shower. It;s stored in a very large tank onsite somewhere and can lie stagnant for a considerable time.

This story should be enough to make you think twice about gulping it down http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0221/368907-dead-body-found-in-water-tank-of-us-hotel/

keithclancy · 17-10-2013 11:08AM

Tabnabs wrote: »

Water in the bathroom taps is the same water that is used for flushing the toilet, the bidet and the cold water supply to the bath/shower. It;s stored in a very large tank onsite somewhere and can lie stagnant for a considerable time.

This story should be enough to make you think twice about gulping it down http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0221/368907-dead-body-found-in-water-tank-of-us-hotel/

No, It wouldn't make me think twice.

A story about someone getting stabbed in Dublin wouldn't stop me walking to the post office either.

As I said just ask in Reception, they will tell you if its safe or not.

Ireland/UK, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands I would have no problem drinking from the Tap.

ardmacha · 17-10-2013 11:20AM

Ireland/UK, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands I would have no problem drinking from the Tap.

Do you not accept that storage tanks pose a risk and that these are more likely in Ireland/UK than perhaps in Germany/NL?

irish_goat · 17-10-2013 11:23AM

I do it all the time and have lived to tell the tale.

Like someone else said, if you're worried, boil the kettle before you go out and it will be cool by the time you get back.

Keith186 · 17-10-2013 11:25AM

Bathroom water isn't meant for consumption, whilst it mightn't kill you its not ideal to be drinking it.

I'd avoid it and just drink water from the mains or a bottle.

keithclancy · 17-10-2013 11:57AM

ardmacha wrote: »

Do you not accept that storage tanks pose a risk and that these are more likely in Ireland/UK than perhaps in Germany/NL?

Doing anything is a risk, thats why I ask someone first if its ok to do so.

A quick 30 second call to reception is all thats required.

In Germany anywhere the answer is always "Of course it is ... why wouldn't it be" or "If it wasn't safe we wouldn't have it available in the room"

Just as someone who lived in various hotels for 2 years travelling for work thats my experience.

Indonesia / India for example the hotel staff always recommend you drink bottled water and even wash your teeth with bottled water.

ardmacha · 17-10-2013 12:10PM

Indonesia / India for example the hotel staff always recommend you drink bottled water and even wash your teeth with bottled water.

In third world countries the public supply is not safe. Often hotels are much safer as they have filtration plants of their own.
In Europe the public supply is safe, but tanks etc make feck it up.

syklops · 17-10-2013 12:20PM

i regularly drink form the tap in the bathroom in a hotel. Just to be safe though I regularly mix it with a decent drop of whiskey.

keithclancy · 17-10-2013 01:12PM

ardmacha wrote: »

In third world countries the public supply is not safe. Often hotels are much safer as they have filtration plants of their own.
In Europe the public supply is safe, but tanks etc make feck it up.

Yes, hence why you ask.

munchkin_utd · 17-10-2013 02:11PM

ardmacha wrote: »

In third world countries the public supply is not safe. Often hotels are much safer as they have filtration plants of their own.
In Europe the public supply is safe, but tanks etc make feck it up.

in germany the law states that any outlet that hasnt water of drinking quality must be marked as such, and implicity more or less requires taps in the bathroom to be connected directly to the drinking water supply.

heres the background, in german unfortunately but google will translate it for you if you really need to read it and it regulates the supply of drinking water from treatment through to distribution and general guidelines on the piping in your house.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinkwasserverordnung

you'd presume that just like Ireland copies the uk (and their stupid attic tanks) that many continental countries would take inspiration from the germans and do similar.

tricky D · 17-10-2013 03:44PM

Note that there are also issues for bottled water re phthalates and bisphenol-A, nevermind the list of contaminantsingredients on the side of your bottle and frequency of testing.

Davy · 17-10-2013 05:20PM

Hotels often state in the guide in the room whether the water is drinkable or not.

Sheldons Brain · 17-10-2013 09:31PM

you'd presume that just like Ireland copies the uk (and their stupid attic tanks) that many continental countries would take inspiration from the germans and do similar.

Continental water supplies are more often direct.

Those worried can get some of this stuff

ScottSF · 17-10-2013 09:43PM

Interesting and somewhat eye-opening discussion. To sum up what I'm hearing, it sounds like we are only talking about Ireland and the UK. Some of the replies seem to imply that the "don't drink the hotel bathroom water" advice is European wide. The tap water in most European countries is fine to drink, and I never thought to question it in Ireland and UK until now.

So the curious question is... why are there attic storage tanks supplying the bathroom pipes in Ireland and not in Germany for example? There must be a historical or practical reason. And how hard would it be to seal shut the storage tank so that nothing can fall in as talked about above so that there is no risk?

Can you drink the water from the bathroom tap in your hotel room?

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