Water from bathroom faucet tastes like mildew
 

The water from my bathroom faucet tastes like mildew. I have tried unscrewing the mesh screen filter from the end of the faucet and cleaning it. I have tried soaking the end of the faucet in cleanser. I have no idea how to get rid of the awful taste. Any suggestions? (Other than using a different sink to brush my teeth)

Does water elsewhere in the house taste ok, im assuming?

Yes, I should have mentioned that. Everywhere else in the house, the water tastes fine.

Turn off the water to that faucet and remove it. Flush it with bleach, then flush it with a LOT of water. Reinstall and see if that helps.

Thanks for the advice. I rent my house. I'm not sure whether it's worth it to remove the faucet. I may try it. Unfortunately, my landlord won't do it. He told me to use a different sink.

Stop by your landlord's place at 2 a.m. with an empty glass and tell him you're taking his advice. You've decided to use HIS sink.

Ratbastard.

Don't drink from the shower? That's a good clue.

Well if it tastes like mildew it probably is mildewed. So get a sample of the water from the faucet and take it to a lab for testing. When it comes back as having mildew, or whatever other toxic substance is causing the taste, show the results to your landlord and explain that until he fixes the problem to bring the residence up to code, you will not be paying rent.

Usually works pretty quickly.

Thank you for the suggestions. Renting a house, I didn't want to do it myself. I broke down and flushed it out with bleach and a bunch of water. No more mildew taste!

Ewww...

The water in your kitchen taps is usually from a different set of pipes than normal household (or "waste" water). The name should give you a clue.

Drinking water is usually filtered (at source) and sometimes has additives (like fluouride for dental care).

Househould water tends not to be filtered.

Don't drink it dude. If you want or need water in the bedroom, simply buy yourself a little water jug with an inbuilt filter. I filter all my drinking water. It makes my skin crawl to think of drinking household water from a bathroom tap. Yeuch...

Mr Mephisto

I have been drinking water from the bathroom tap since I was a little kid. I would even drink from the spigot on the side of the house. I've never heard of separate water for different faucets in the house anywhere that I have lived.

Let me clarify.

In a typical house or apartment block there is a cistern. This is a large tank that stores water locally for the building or home. In houses, these are usually in the attic. Think of it as a little "local resevoir."

The kitchen taps are fed directly off the mains, and are therefore filtered and sometimes have additives. This is a good thing, though I still filter this water. The rusting and broken pipes still let in bacteria, spores, mercury, contaminents etc. Filtering kitchen tap water is personal preference though.

Usually the hot & cold water taps, outside of the kitchen, are fed by the cistern. Now whilst the cistern tends to be fed off the same mains supply, it often is full of dirt itself. My mate once found a dead pidgeon in his cistern. You would not want to be drinking water from a pond with a dead animal floating in it, would you?

The fact that the original poster says the water "tastes mildewy" is a good enough reason to me to avoid drinking it!

Why on Earth would you? Just grab a bottle of water from the kitchen tap, or even better, a small jug with an inbuilt filter.

Just my 2c's worth...


Mr Mephisto

Dude, I don't know where or what time you're living in but in all the construction, New and remodel out here in california I've never run into one of these. All the water for the entre house comes in through the mains. The only time I've seen any sort of Cistern thing you're descibing in is at a farm with a water tower. This however was filled from the main, and it was sealed. This acted as the pressure source for the property. All the drains are piped to the central main, one pipe in one pipe out.

What time? The present.

What place? Guess what? There's a world outside of the United States.

Mr Mephisto

That's what I figured. I have never lived in a cistern-fed house in the United States. Different countries, different plumbing.

Don't drink the bloody well bathroom water then.

It is cleaned to a lesser degree than kitchen tap water because it's not meant to be drank, only cleaned with...

I guess we must be lucky in the US that a lot of tap water is considered suitable for drinking, although not always palatable, especially in older houses.

It's not that it is unsafe.

It's just that I wouldn't do it. But then again, I wouldn't drink unfiltered water from ANYWHERE if I could avoid it.

Mr Mephisto