MPs also quizzed Hinton on why he did not speak to the media directly during the outage.
He said he did not give interviews because it would not give him the opportunity to deliver his key message.
Hinton suggested he would have been asked about “dividends, salary”, though he was “happy to take those [questions] any other time.”
Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin repeatedly called on the SEW chief to resign, blasting his leadership as a “total failure”.
The committee heard Martin received a call from Hinton asking how he “could sleep at night having politicised the issue”.
Hinton told the committee he could not recall the specifics of the conversation, but later said he was “not proud” of his response.
The water boss previously vowed to remain in his post, having said he felt customers’ pain.
Hinton told MPs: “I’m deeply sorry to the customers, it’s a terrible outcome, I’m just trying to explain the circumstances.
“We have got a number of learnings that we are absolutely committed to putting in place. It was a failure.”