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The mystery of the UK faucets

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Jude
Post subject: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Tue 09 Mar , 2010 3:16 pm
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So, I understand the principle behind having separate hot and cold water faucets: you're expected to fill the sink, and then immerse your hands to clean them. The North American method of rinsing them under the running water is faster, but I guess less thorough.

So, I have to ask: what is the point of having separate faucets in public facilities with no plug for the sink drain? Are you supposed to clean your hands by alternately scalding them and then freezing them? Inquiring minds want to know.

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vison
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Tue 09 Mar , 2010 3:27 pm
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Jude wrote:
So, I understand the principle behind having separate hot and cold water faucets: you're expected to fill the sink, and then immerse your hands to clean them. The North American method of rinsing them under the running water is faster, but I guess less thorough.

So, I have to ask: what is the point of having separate faucets in public facilities with no plug for the sink drain? Are you supposed to clean your hands by alternately scalding them and then freezing them? Inquiring minds want to know.
We have faucets like that here, too, and I've always wondered what the point is. Like you say, alternate scald/freeze?

The brand new hospital here has taps that you need to turn - not the lever kind that you can use with the back of your hand or whatever. The water does come out one place, but the idea of using those taps that you have to grab and turn instead of just using the lever is stupid.

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MariaHobbit
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Tue 09 Mar , 2010 3:30 pm
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Maybe the idea of a mixer valve is slow to catch on in some places?

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Tue 09 Mar , 2010 5:08 pm
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That sounds weird. :scratch:

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Jude
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Tue 09 Mar , 2010 5:56 pm
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I think so too :D

But I'd like to hear from our UK members...

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vison
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Tue 09 Mar , 2010 5:56 pm
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Our local school is old, and the faucets in the old building are like the ones Jude talks about. The drain plugs are long gone.

Until I got a new faucet, my bathroom sink was like that, too.

A friend of ours went to England a few years ago and they traded houses through one of those house-trading-for-vacation setups. Anyway, the house they stayed in was quite posh, but he noticed that the faucets did not have "mixer valves", you could look up inside and see that the hot water and the cold water, while coming out of the same pipe into the sink, were actually arriving separately.

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Pippin4242
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Wed 10 Mar , 2010 1:09 am
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MariaHobbit wrote:
Maybe the idea of a mixer valve is slow to catch on in some places?
I would run with that. It never really occured to me to think about it. It's just what sinks look like to me - unless they're in a kitchen... :scratch:

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Wed 10 Mar , 2010 1:09 pm
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If you don't have mixers, how do your showers work? And immersing your hands to rinse them sound unsanitary to me. I want those germs to wash down the drain.

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Jude
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Wed 10 Mar , 2010 1:13 pm
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It's only sinks that have separate faucets - showers have mixers.

Mind you, constructing a shower with separate hot and cold showerheads is such a spectacularly bad idea that I think we should give it a try :D

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Pippin4242
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Wed 10 Mar , 2010 1:47 pm
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I'm less practical than to run a sink full of warm water to wash my hands. I either scald or freeze them, and I tend not to think much of it... :scratch:

You notice it more in houses where the hot tap warms up very quickly.

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elfshadow
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Wed 10 Mar , 2010 1:51 pm
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I remember that vaguely from my brief visit to the UK. I suppose it makes sense for older buildings, which the UK probably has more of. But I've never encountered a double-faucet in the States regardless of the age of the building. I have to say I far prefer the North American sinks, but then again that's what I'm used to!


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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Wed 10 Mar , 2010 2:11 pm
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I'd have to say the same, but it might just be what I'm used to.

The only thing I encounter fairly often here is a sink where the hot water is turned off. So then you just freeze your hands off.

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Jude
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Wed 10 Mar , 2010 2:16 pm
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Well, I lived there for six years and I still think mixers are better.

So there you go. An unbiased viewpoint :P

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Pippin4242
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Wed 10 Mar , 2010 2:17 pm
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It's kind of moot to me, too - I can't really afford to heat the water, so my flatmate and I just let cold come out of both taps. I boil water in a kettle for washing-up, and the electric shower heats water seperately.

Annoying that I like this flat because it had a bath, but that I can't afford to use it - but there we go. :shrug:

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Dawnnamira
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Wed 10 Mar , 2010 2:33 pm
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I've come across separate faucets here in the States, in older buildings around where I grew up, but I don't think they make sense. ;)

Electric showers are something I just learned about this year. I must admit it's an interesting concept to me. I've never heard of them here.

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Ara-anna
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Wed 10 Mar , 2010 7:36 pm
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I've run across them too, in older buildings. :shrug: I have to agree with Lali, I would think rinsing under running water would be more sanitary than dunking in water, what rinses the water off (it's like dunking kool-aid in one bowl, the kool-aid is now all jumbled up in the bowl and didn't go anywhere).

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elfshadow
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Wed 10 Mar , 2010 9:59 pm
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I didn't know know an electric shower was a thing! I never knew it was possible to have a house/apartment where you didn't just have a hot water heater.


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Lord_Morningstar
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Wed 10 Mar , 2010 10:07 pm
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In cases where I've used sinks with seperate taps, I've just washed my hands with cold water. That said, I seem to recall individual hot/colds taps being far more common in bathtubs than over sinks.

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Berhael
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Wed 10 Mar , 2010 11:11 pm
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Oh, this is one of my bugbears. :bang:
The way I see people here deal with this is: they open both taps, and then scoop cold water, then hot, then cold... until they've rinsed. It is so spectacularly inefficient and annoying that, 12 years down the line, I still haven't got used to it. I want my mixer taps. *cries a little*

The explanation I've heard for not changing to mixer taps is that most hot water systems operate with a hot water tank, where bacteria may breed easily, and they don't want water with bacteria to contaminate the cold drinking water. Which sounds to me like a made-up, a posteriori excuse to justify stupid plumbing design, but there you go. ;)

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Ara-anna
Post subject: Re: The mystery of the UK faucets
Posted: Thu 11 Mar , 2010 1:04 am
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I would think the hot water heater should be hot enough to kill all germs, plus if the water is treated at a water treatment plant everything should be pretty clean regardless of if it's heated or not :shrug:

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