HarveyMushman Googling seems to lead me to various water companies suggesting it’s chlorine reacting with plastic/rubber pipes. There appears to be braided hoses running to the taps which I’m assuming are rubber lined. Could it be these?
The water companies say it’s harmless and I’m hardly a hypochondriac but rubber chemicals don’t exactly sound nutritious when you’re drinking tap water all day long.
The water companies are the last people to believe in all of this. There’s a huge amount of plastic piping in the water supply system, not that they mention this, but somehow it’s your appliances, taps, washers kettles etc.. that are the problem. You really can’t trust anything the water companies say.
It’s a case of “Look, look here, don’t look over there”. The amount of chlorine in water can vary based on region, time of year and any particular issues the supplier has. Sometimes there’s a lot (more often now), sometimes not so much. It basically allows poorer quality water to still be “potable” and meet the legal requirements for the presence of bacteria. It also hides, but of course doesn’t eliminate the ditch water smell and taste
Research into leeching from rubbers or plastics is always done with an artificially high (very high) strength solution and other conditions to try and simulate what happens. However the behaviour in pipework of water at 15-20C in pipework and chlorine concentrations 100 or 1000 times lower is completely different.
I’ve seen comments from water companies…it could be a new kettle, but with all new kettles the water tastes smells funny for for a bit.
I use RO because it removes all the stuff I don’t want in my drinks, and leaves what I do want. The second reason is, if there is a water problem of some kind…trust me, you will be the last to know, the water companies won’t jump to tell you.