Drinking from a lake: Sometimes you can do it, sometimes you can't

[ElDudorino]

I've found drinking from a lake to be very difficult.  I have to move around a lot to find the 'sweet spot' where the prompt to drink from it will appear.  Just now I spent about 3 minutes trying to drink from my local lake now that I have my fancy water filter helmet but I couldn't get it to work.  I moved around a bunch while standing, crouched, on the edge of the water, in the water, pointing up, pointing down, holding an item, holding nothing, wearing my helmet, wearing nothing- just couldn't get it to trigger.  I might be wearing out my E key.  I also punched the water a few times just in case, but no luck.

 

I should always be able to drink water from the ponds just by pointing at them and hitting E, right?

Shurenai on the Steam forums helped me out.  Turns out I have to stand still for 2 seconds before the prompt to drink will appear, and I'm too twitchy to have thought of that.

[Beelzybub]

Your hands should be empty. Look down at the water standing or crouching, but perfectly still.

Take 3 deep long breaths. After that the "Press E to drink" option should appear.

[SylenThunder]

I've noticed that it also doesn't trigger all the time if the water is really shallow. I just make sure I'm in at least ankle deep.