Actually, for the vast majority of the people in the US it is unusual to live in a 100 year old house. Not surprising considering that 100 years ago there were only 85 million peopel in the US and now there are almost 300 million. We’d be mighty squished if we all tried to fit into the remaining 100 year old houses.
I’ve always been taught it was because the warm water lifted deposits of some sort from the tank/pipes. Never used it for anything but cleaning.
Soap may do the job in cold water, but it doesn’t dissolve as well and is probably more likely to leave soapy residue on the plates.
As to the OP, I always thought that the reason not to drink hot water was because it has been sitting in a hot water tank in the attic, into which all manner of dead animals may fall (rats, mice, birds, bats, insects etc.), with the attendant germ problems, whereas cold has come straight from the mains. However, I assume that if your hot water is heated by a boiler directly before coming out of the tap, and you have clean non-lead pipes, it’s OK to drink.
Would it have killed you to read the thread?
RE: hot water while washing
I thought you used hot water to melt the fats so that the detergent could emulsify them? How is detergent meant to emulsify giant balls of fat?
I don’t go out of my way to drink hot water, but I do cook with it.
My cool mist room humidifier has in its instructions to NEVER fill with hot or warm water.
How come?
I dunno.
I use both hot and cold to cook with–I dont’ like the taste of warm water, so that’s not an issue.
I have heard that you should let the water run for about 30 seconds, to let the line flush out, but other than that–never heard the bit in the OP.
And cold water just doesn’t clean the dishes, to my mind.
I avoid using water from the hot water tap for cooking for the same reason I use it for cleaning – stuff dissolves better in hot water. So if there is any nastiness in my pipes (140 year old New England house, at least 35 year old pipes, no idea about the age or material in the water mains in the street), I’d just as soon not have it served up piping hot with extra ppms.
I suspect it’s not a big deal, and certainly the occasional drink isn’t going to hurt anyone unless their pipes are straight from a Roman aqueduct but there’s not sense in going out of your way to increase the heavy metal burden in your system.
That’s it!
I’m sticking to beer.
Are you kidding? It’s ORANGE!!!
We have a Brita pitcher that I use for cooking, making coffee & tea, etc. Our fridge has a filter for the chilled drinking water.
I believe this is unrelated to any health concerns. Feeding hot water into the heating element chamber may trip the overheating sensor and cause the device to shut down. Or maybe the plastic tank just isn’t suited to hold steaming hot water.