is the tap water the same upstairs and downstairs or is the water upstairs dirtier or not filtered properly?

Question

i want to know i know you can drink both the water from your kitchen tap but want to know if the same water goes to your bathroom tap or is the water cleaner and more filtered downstairs?

Answer 1

upstairs, downstairs, all around the town:

cullinary water is good for drinking and cooking no matter where in your house it comes out, it's all the same!

Answer 2

In old houses the mains water inlet goes to the cold water tap downstairs only. The upstairs cold water come from a cold water storage tank in the loft.and the tank also tops up the hot water system. This tank is also often open to dirt and vermin that are often in the loft. I have mice in the winter.In newer houses all cold water taps are connected to the mains and the tank in loft , if you have one, is fed direct from the mains. To check the upstairs cold tap, run it for a while and listen to see if the tank starts to refill. If it does do not drink this water. Run the downstairs cold tap and turn on the upstairs. If the water flow reduces downstairs then the upstairs is coming from the mains.

Answer 3

Tap water in the kitchen is coming directly from the main pipe, the same water goes up the roof tank before conveyed to the bathrooms. So, technically, water in bathrooms are cleaner since the suspended particles have been settled for at least a night in the tank -even if you would have installed a water filter at the main pipe.

Answer 4

One answer is almost, but not quite, correct.

In most British houses, the water in the kitchen is supplied direct from the mains. The rest of the water in the house is supplied from the mains to a storage tank in the loft where it sits in order to supply water on demand to the header tank (that supplies water to the heating system), the toilets and the bathrooms. IT IS MOST CERTAINLY NOT SAFE TO DRINK.

Quite often insects and flies can get into the tank where they die and decompose. Very occasionally a rat or mouse will do the same. And, in some really old houses, it is common for pigeons and other birds to get into the loft and drown in the tank, where they remain rotting for months and months.

So for all of you who regularly drink bathroom water - now you know where those stomach upsets come from.

Newer houses have mains supplied to all cold taps. As mentioned elsewhere in these answers, amongst all the uninformed drivel, run a cold tap and see if the tank starts to fill. You will then get the definitive answer.

Given that all I have written is 100% tickety boo, difficult to imagine why some moron has given it the thumbs down.

It is VERY worrying to see that someone who describes himself as a plumber is unaware that in older houses all cold water taps except the kitchen are supplied from the storage tank and thus supply stale and potentially contaminated water. Perhaps we should know who he is so we don't use him!

And Americans (faucet???) - we are talking about British houses here.

Answer 5

Most newer houses have mains water supplied to all cold water outlets in a house some older properties have a cold tank feed for upstairs in the loft to check go into the loft and get someone to run an upstairs cold tap and check if a tank is being filled

Answer 6

1 water supply feeds the whole house, only if you have installed a water filter somewhere will the down-stair water be different from that elsewhere in the house, and normally only supply to a single tap, but this would have been installed by the householder and not by the water board when installing supply, or plumber when installing initial fittings and fixings.
Just for info, the water in the header tank in your attic is to supply the hot water system, and if two tanks then one for your central heating. If the cold water supply is a higher pressure than the hot water supply then it is fed from the mains. One way to check is let the system fill up, no water is entering the storage tank in the attic, run a cold tap for several minutes, if there is no water entering the storage tank then the cold water supply you have tried is being fed from mains, close the tap, open hot water tap and within a few minutes you will hear water entering the storage tank.

Answer 7

as far as i know, the downstairs water is drinking water, direct from the main. upstairs cold water comes from a tank and is from the supply that fills your hot water tank as well, and not direct from the mains. if you drink from the upstairs tap the water has been stored for a while - it never tastes the same either! if you ever have plumbing done the plumber turns off the two stop cocks, and drains the water from the upstairs tank.

Answer 8

Very pertinant question. The best way to determine what goes for what is to isolate your mains supply, then go around and see what does not work. There may be a little residual pressure, so give a minute or so...and water should stop, if it does no stop, its on the mains.
Those taps which do not stop are tank fed, be very aware that you shold NOT use these taps for drinking water, what nastys you got in your tank...who's to tell?????

Answer 9

water is taken from the reservoir into a treatment plant where it is cleaned and made safe to use.When the clean water leaves the treatment plant it travels through larges pipes called water mains,which are buried underground.the water main outside your house and the water in your taps comes through a pipe from that water main. a stop **** in the house usually under the sink in the kitchen can be opened or closed to turn on and off supply to your home.you can add filtration system to your home at point of entry of water this affects all water in the house.

Answer 10

The water in a home is only as clean as the lines that provide the water. Rust, corrosion, and hard water contaminants all play a part in the amount of debris in in the water in a home. The water in a bathroom is no differrent than the water in a kitchen faucet.

Answer 11

The cold tap in the bathroom is the same cold water as the kitchen. There is no filter in the pipework.