I don't use the drinking water hose for anything but drinking water! I usually always hook up a Y connector at the faucet, one side for drinking water hose, other side for general purpose hose. I took a 25 foot hose and cut it in half, put on new connectors, now I have a shorter hose that is easier to deal with and does probably 90% of what I need, very handy that way.
Not that I am paranoid but I also have a back flow preventer on the general purpose side of my Y connector, just to be safe.
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