Shenzhen: Purr Water

China being China, you tend to have a barrel of water delivered to sit atop your water dispenser - which in itself is an awesome contraption because you never have to boil a kettle again due to there being a cold tap and hot tap. What is not awesome is when you find the water is going down in the barrel without you drinking it...

The first, and only other, instance of this we experienced a few months back was catastrophic - the tiny fizzing leak at the top of the barrel, which, we were assured by our 'water delivery person', was not a problem, emptied half of the 19 L barrel overnight. (This raises the question: Why are all cook books not made water proof?).

This, the second instance, was not so impressive. We lost a centimetre of water overnight - and since we had learned from the first time, only towels were dampened in the top drawer. No fizzing hole in the barrel but we thought it best to drain the barrel and take it off anyway. Upon returning home after work the towels were wet again - but there was no barrel of water attached - ?

Hence the investigation, completed by all mammals of the house. Verdict: a new water dispenser is needed - a small stop valve at the base is cracked.

(It appears a picture is worth a thousand words).