TL:RD: Flush mix tap for few seconds after not being used for hours. Count to three.

I would say that it is still advisable to flush out the stagnant water from pipes before drinking the water. Not a lot, until you feel the temperature to change. Reason is that while the warm water is now sanitary, it is still warm. Warm stagnant water goes bad pretty quickly, the pipes are NOT clean on the inside. If you have ever seen water mains pipes, you would probably boil your water, brit filter it and most likely perform an exorcision. It's bad, it is really really bad.. The main reason why the water stays drinkable is movement. Moving water is safe, the bacteria that lives on moving water is mostly harmless to us. But 15C to 22C is called "the death zone"; bacteria that thrives on moist conditions, between those temps is the most deadly we can find. E.Coli, Botulinum etc. all explode with those condition. So you take warm water to wash up that last tea, it stays in the pipes and you get a nice shot of bacteria first thing in the morning. Or you keep the tap on for ten seconds, flush out the main colony and then drink a fresh cold water; i'm sure this little trick will add years in to your life (just the fresh glass of water and the feeling we get from that should do the trick..)

But the days of flushing the whole length of pipe several times a day is unnecessary. Only important when it has sit for hours after running hot water thru that particular piece of pipe, maybe just few meters or few seconds. And even then most likely it's 100% safe but the gunk that sits in the pipes is DIRTY.. ffs, we got some wooden main lines still in use in the old town (built around circa 1600).. BTW, the water from those wooden pipes.. excellent, specially in the winter as it is just super cold, totally clear of all bacteria, it's like spring water. But that is mostly because they have been in use for hundreds of year, all the time with moving, cold, clean water running thru them. It's bacterial colonies work with us cleaning it.

Compare that to the other pipe system running thru our homes here: the main heating water that heats our homes, that water is so toxic that every cut you have while working with them, just a drop and you will get infected. It takes minutes and the cut will swell up. And the only really difference is that the heating system is on closed loop, with warm water and it sits for half a year stagnated.. It is still "clean" water, looks clean, doesn't smell. But that stuff is equal to biological warfare..

Why i know this? Well, i'm ex-junkie. Knowing what kind of water you inject to your veins is pretty fucking important if you wanna stay alive.

Interesting. My other half's Russian and despises the separate taps. I knew about not drinking from the storage tank, but what I hadn't considered is the backwash concept, where one household's unclean water could contaminate the mains.

*water

Adding video to channels (Water) - requested by ant.

Never heard of this before.
I was always told it's safe to drink from the hot water, but who drinks a glass of warm/hot water?

But then I live in Canada, and all water streams are piped directly in here.

Erm... I have 2 mixer taps in my house that were installed by the builders who built the house to NHBC standards and last time I looked I was still in Britain. And we have a tank in the loft...

"You don't cross the streams." -- Hehehehehehe

Here in BC our water is so ridiculously clean the companies that bottle water barely have to filter it, and if they do, it doesn't do much.

I think there's been studies done that find tap water is generally as good or better than bottled water. People are getting sold on a vision, as well as convenience and the coldness.

I'm British - got mixer taps on my bath and my kitchen sink. What you talking about BITCH???

Slightly more sensibly - my 66 year old dad has mixer taps on both floors of his house and my wife's 74 year old mum has mixers on both levels too.

Dunno where his getting this shite but mixer taps have never been uncommon whilst I was growing up.