Situations are different: sometimes the time is running out, sometimes the cold water was simply turned off. Is it possible in such cases to pour hot water from the tap into the kettle or cook vegetables on it – we understand the issue.
Water is the simplest thing in our kitchen. It’s even strange that there are so many controversies around her: which water is better to drink, and which one to cook. In particular, is it possible to boil hot tap water in a kettle and cook food on it. It would seem, why – after all, there is a cold one, about which there are no questions. But sometimes you don’t want to wait long for the water to boil, or because of an accident, the cold one was simply turned off, and there is no other way out. We decided to find out. How safe is it to cook with hot water from the tap.
A big difference
It seems that there should be no difference between hot and cold water other than temperature. But in reality it is. Before running cold water into the water supply system, it is demineralized to soften it. In different regions, this is done in different ways, because water everywhere differs in the composition of impurities. But they try to remove the heaviest, like iron salts, otherwise the pipes of the water supply system fail too quickly.
But with hot water, this procedure is not done. Therefore, there are much more salts and chlorides, sulfates, nitrates and other substances in it than in a cold one. If the water in the region is clean, then this is not a problem. But if it is tough, then much more foreign matter gets into the food. That is why, by the way, hot water is different in color from cold – usually it is more yellow.
Pipes are not rubber
It is one thing what goes into the water supply system at the entrance, and another thing – what we have at the exit. On the way to your apartment, hot water collects much more impurities from the walls of pipes than cold water – simply due to the fact that it is hot. And in a house where the pipes can be very old, the water is additionally “enriched” with scale, old deposits, which also affects its appearance and quality.
By the way, water can even get an unpleasant smell – it all depends on the condition of the water supply system in the house and the water supply system as a whole.
To drink or not to drink?
Strictly speaking, hot water is considered technical; it is not intended for drinking and cooking. Its quality is not monitored as reverently as the quality of cold. Therefore, we would not recommend pouring it into a kettle or a saucepan if you have any other choice. What do the experts think about this?
Quality expert NP Roskontrol
“In terms of quality and safety, hot water meets the requirements established for cold water in centralized drinking water supply systems. There is only one exception: anticorrosive and antiscale agents are added to hot water, which are permitted in accordance with the established procedure. Hot water is not intended for constant drinking and cooking, but in critical conditions and for a short time it can be used “, – explains the expert on the portal”».