Using hot tap water for consumption (showerthoughts)

[LateraLex]

I've been brewing indoors as of late, and always start with 8 gallons of cold tap water. We were told since grade school to never use hot tap water as it picks up more lead in the pipes. Has anyone looked into this? Perhaps you could do a lead water test while cold, and another while hot to see if your system is affected - and if not, spare yourself a lot of time heating up mash water. My on-demand water heater puts out water at a toasty 130F.

I've got the idea in my head and can't shake it. Would probably get a few DIY home water testing kits (if those are considered reliable for lead testing?) to see this one through unless this is well worn territory...

 

[myntz]

Did this for MANY brews, up until we needed to put in a new hot water heater, due to the fact our old hot water heater output 175*F at the closest faucet. I cant speak to the negative effects or the lead quantity, but I always made sure to run the faucet for 1 min prior to filling up my mashtun to flush the lines. I can't imagine much lead getting picked up post boiler/watertank through the ~15' of piping to my brewing sink.

That being said, it was a HUGE timesaver not having to heat up the water. Fill up my mash tun straight from the hot water faucet, dump the grains in, and 9 times out of 10 I was bang-on at 154*F which is what I usually aimed for anyways.

 

[Stillraining]

Don't Know the answer but if I had the ability Id darn sure do it...we are going to die anyway. How old is your house? You might even have Pex

One of my favorite CW songs

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vpSLbYUHVY[/ame]

 

[IslandLizard]

Lead dissolves faster in hot water than in cold, hence the old school rule of thumb not to drink water from the hot tap.

If your on-demand heater is lead free, your piping following it is sweated with lead free solder, and any valves are lead free brass, there would be no point where lead can be picked up.

Not sure about old copper tubing, if they're alloyed and contain lead or other heavy metals. The old copper pipes in my previous home (dd. 1918) had a nice greenish coating built up on the inside....

Many breweries use on-demand hot water.

 

[Owly055]

I always use hot water........... There may be lead in a few bits of copper, but the rate that it dissolves is so minute as not to be a concern tome. If you are using hot water from copper lines where the water sits for extended periods of time, it might be enough of a concern that one might flush the lines before use, however if the water is sitting idly in lines it isn't going to be hot until you run it a bit anyway.............. It's just not an issue in the REAL world. Some folks are horrified by the build up inside a water heater, but that build up is mineral that is being removed from the water, not added to it.
I got my neighbor started home brewing, and after he had to install a new water heater, I modified it by clipping off a plastic stop so he could raise the temp well beyond the 130F stop. As he sets it, the water drawn from the water heater is exactly right for strike water. There are no children in the house, and when he has visitors he reduces the water temp for safety, cranking it up the night before brew day.......... One less procedure for brew day.

H.W.

 

[Dcpcooks]

The only concern I really see is if your hot water heater is old and you draw calcification into your liquor. That has the potential to alter your hardness levels. My buddy is a BJCP national judge and after he installed a new hot water heater he uses that as a heat source for the mash to cut down on his brew day and reduce his propane use. No noticeable issues to date.

Ssbrewtech advocates the use of instant on demand heaters for their pro line of brewing equipment as well. They don't even make a hlt for their systems. Again an old heater may have junk that has settled in the bottom of the unit or on the element, so I wouldn't necessarily want to use a 10 year old water heater that's never been flushed. You could flush an old tank. You could also send off a sample to ward labs of water pre heater and post heater to see if you have any issues.

 

[LateraLex]

Great stuff folks. My house is definitely old, built in 1910 but the water heater is new and we have pex tubing for the most part. Seems a lot of people are using hot water as a starting point, so I will definitely be trying this on my next batch. Hmm.. what to do with all the free time I have now stumbled upon...?

 

[timdillon36]

While 130 is nice out of a tankless you can usually open it up and either move a jumper or switch a din that allows the heater to get to 150 or 160.

I have a remote control panel that came with mine that i mounted by the kitchen sink.its usually set at 130 but after the hack i can crank up the temp and fill my MT with water straight from the tap. I then turn it back down during the mash and then sparge with stright tap water. I batch sparge but could fly sparge straight from the tap.

I also live in a house that was built in the 1910s but all of the plumbing and wireing has been replaced at east once. My best guess looking at it all would be that it was last updated in the late 80s or early 90s.

If you treat your water with salts or to remove clorine remember to work that into yourbrew day.

 

[mj1angier]

I have one of these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TXOJQ4/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I think I am going to use for my hot water for BIAB and for clean up. It has to be more efficient that my whole house water heater