Why does my tea taste like TCP???

puddy

We moved house in June. At the time, I had a kettle that I had used for many years, it was a phillips cube kettle, gorgeous, I loved that kettle.

anyway, a while after moving, I managed to break the kettle by trying to scrape bits of limescale from the inside. So reluctantly I bought a new kettle, seeing as the 'cube' was not available anymore I bought a red morphy richards kettle.

BUT my tea now tastes strange, like dettol or tcp,, urgh.

the funny thing is, it doesnt do it all the time, its only some of the time. theres no rhyme or reason to when it tastes strange, the water might be fresh, or it might have been in there for some time, ie over night, and it does it regardless.

strangely, it seems to do it more of an evening. but yet, whether the water has been in the kettle for a few hours or whether it is freshly drawn, doesnt make any difference.

why???? I love my tea....

ormus

we bought a new S/S kettle from asda last year. the tea tasted like cr ap.
we eventually took it back and got a refund. bought a cheapo plastic kettle.
hey presto, fantastic tea now.

puddy

its a taste i have noticed in some tea rooms sometimes, or cafes, is it the metal then? but my old kettle was metal too

Canucklehead

Good afternoon: we bought a plastic kettle to replace our old faithful...it is now in the garage...bought a Dualit metal rapid boil at Costco and always used filtered water from a Brita jug...no taste/smell probs now...tbh, the water in Thanet is carp;)

HTH

Canucklehead

andrew-b

Didn't think our water was that bad TBH though ours looks quite chalky when you run it initially which i think is to be expected from the boreholes in our area. If you look in the right place on the southernwater website they show the results of the water testing they carry out..i've looked before and it's actually pretty good quality. Incidentally if you ever try drinking distilled water in it's purest form it doesn't taste very nice - the minerals actually make it taste nicer!

Anyway we had this problem with a plastic kettle a that we bought in curry's. I took one mouthful of tea and spat it out! I boiled the kettle probably about 10 times to see if the chemical smell/taste would go away and it wouldn't so i took it back and got my money back and then we bought a hinari metal rapid boil kettle. For a while we did use a water filter jug but it's quite pricey in cartridges. Now we take our chances! I'd recommend before you buy a kettle you go have a look on amazon as most kettles seem to have a review there and i saw alot reported a chemical taste particularly with the plastic kettles. I'd always buy a metal or glass kettle now.

Andy

andrew-b

Incidentally in case you missed it us southern water customers will all be on water meters soon..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/content/articles/2009/09/03/sw_water_meters_feature.shtml

..it was inevitable i guess!

Canucklehead

andrew-b wrote: »

Didn't think our water was that bad TBH though ours looks quite chalky when you run it initially which i think is to be expected from the boreholes in our area. If you look in the right place on the southernwater website they show the results of the water testing they carry out..i've looked before and it's actually pretty good quality. Incidentally if you ever try drinking distilled water in it's purest form it doesn't taste very nice - the minerals actually make it taste nicer!

Anyway we had this problem with a plastic kettle a that we bought in curry's. I took one mouthful of tea and spat it out! I boiled the kettle probably about 10 times to see if the chemical smell/taste would go away and it wouldn't so i took it back and got my money back and then we bought a hinari metal rapid boil kettle. For a while we did use a water filter jug but it's quite pricey in cartridges. Now we take our chances! I'd recommend before you buy a kettle you go have a look on amazon as most kettles seem to have a review there and i saw alot reported a chemical taste particularly with the plastic kettles. I'd always buy a metal or glass kettle now.

Andy

Good evening: some things in life are worth paying £3 per month for tbh;) We bulk buy Brita cartridges when they are on offer at Costco among other things.

I've linked to the DWI in the past for excellent info on most things drinking water related.

Guess our neighbours will stop their jet-washing of drives and serial car/truck/caravan cleaning sooner than they thought, though the change has been in the offing for yonks now.

HTH

Canucklehead

puddy

i thought it was metal?? its this one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Morphy-Richards-Traditional-Kettle-Burgundy/dp/B000S5NQ30

puddy

ive left my own review. seems im not the only one. i gave it 2 stars, bit generous probably.

now i need a new one.

im pleased about the water meters, we pay well over the odds

Auntie-Dolly

I thought it was just me! The boiled water from my kettle tastes of TCP, but only if I fill it up from the cold tap. The stuff from the hot tap tastes fine. I have a plastic kettle, but I don't think it can be that.

andrew-b

Is it all metal? are there are any plastic parts in it or rubber seals, gauges etc that could be responsible? I've got a feeling it was a morphy richards plastic kettle it happened to us on.

£3 is more than we've got right now for filters ! It's got cheaper then since we used them about 4 or 5 years ago. Used to be at least double that so it's not as bad as i thought!

Water meters will be bad news for us. I knew it was coming as i'd seen their previous plans but i thought we had a couple more years before they would start to roll them out. Still it will take years to implement and i expect our water bills will go up to pay for it meter or not. I have usage figures from being on a meter at the flat that i can compare with (though i think our usage has gone up being a bigger property with more to clean, and a garden hose etc).

Andy