What Thinking In The Shower Leads To

// March 6th, 2008 // Brain Dump

Imagine this, you’re in the shower, water running, the temperature is ideal, and there is a set of taps in front of you with the usual HOT/COLD labels.

Scenario 1: The water becomes too HOT, do you: a) turn down the hot, or b) turn up the cold to get the temperature back to a comfortable level? Why?

Scenario 2: The water becomes too COLD, do you: a) turn down the cold, or b) turn up the hot? Why?

I generally set the hot and adjust the cold to reach the desired temperature – but why?

I found myself asking the simple ‘why’ which lead into a more complex dimension of unknown, and well, more questions.. Ok, so I just use the cold knob to make adjustments – but what the heck do other people do? Sure, there are those who have showers with the single lever that you push/pull/turn/dial/rotate/whatever to a point somewhere between hot and cold, yet if faced with a dual tap system, what do they do? Do they use one tap for regulating too hot and the other for too cold? What about the opposite of what I do and just use the hot to make adjustments?

I have absolutely no idea why I set the hot and mess with the cold. Can’t explain it or even come up with a plausible explanation (which is really the odd part).

So, what do you do? And why?

Photo by Andreas Reinhold

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7 Responses to “What Thinking In The Shower Leads To”

unwesen says:

March 6, 2008 at 7:00 pm

Well, given the assumption that the hot water comes out hot and not lukewarm, I tend to mix in a bit more cold water than hot, so regulating the temperature with the cold water tap seems more fine grained. Might just be what the shower at the last flat was like, though, our current shower is just incapable of reaching a nice temperature.

unwesen’s last blog post..Died in a Philosophizing Accident
Robert Hruzek says:

March 7, 2008 at 10:26 am

Gee, when MY shower turns suddenly all hot or all cold, I usually scream like a girl and slap the shower head to the side. But maybe that’s just me.

But the control on our shower is one of those “single handle” jobbers…

T; you come up with the weirdest questions!

Robert Hruzek’s last blog post..All Right, Pardners! Only Two Days Left!
William Tully says:

March 7, 2008 at 4:24 pm

Jens, I see your assumption and raise you a non-flushing of toilet.
William Tully says:

March 7, 2008 at 4:29 pm

Bob, I think it’s just you… Ok, so you’ve got a single handle jobber – but what would you instinctively do when faced with dual controls? Which do you adjust? Why?

Sure, it’s an odd question, yet it’s one of those ones that likely doesn’t have an answer. It’s not like we were taught how to use taps. I doubt it’s genetic code. But why do some do one thing and others do another? It’s the things we do in our world, our way, and we’ve never really been challenged to justify it…
unwesen says:

March 7, 2008 at 4:35 pm

Non-flushing of toilet? I don’t tend to do that.

Incidentally, I challenge you to justify separate hot and cold water taps on a bathroom sink. We’ve just moved into a house that’s got them, and it’s the single most annoying thing I’ve had to live with. You can’t get decently temperated water however hard you try!

unwesen’s last blog post..Died in a Philosophizing Accident
William Tully says:

March 7, 2008 at 4:55 pm

Non-flushing of toilet – meaning that we’ll assume that someone doesn’t flush the toilet while you’re in the shower completely messing with the hot/cold ratio..

All our taps are separate hot/cold (old building) and they seem to work pretty well.. My sister’s house has a sing with two separate taps (hot/cold) yet separate spouts… Yeah, turn on the hot on the left and you get a stream of hot – turn on the cold, and you get a separate stream of cold on the right.. Downright stupid. If you want ‘warm’ you have to plug the drain and fill the sink.
unwesen says:

March 7, 2008 at 5:11 pm

Ah, your shower’s water supply is linked to the toilet’s… in our last place it was the shower and the tap.

Sorry, I meant separate spouts before. Language problem, I just call the whole shebang tap.

unwesen’s last blog post..Died in a Philosophizing Accident