My shower has a thermostat and I can just set the temperature and go.
Are thermostatic shower mixers not a thing where you guys live?
This is a thermostatic shower mixer. This is what happens when they seize up with limescale. This is not normal operation. The cartridge needs to be replaced.
Are you sure about that? I don’t see any numeric temperature settings. Every thermostatic mixer I have ever seen as at least a 38°C/100°F setting.
And also people are talking about the temperature creeping up during the shower due to the pipes heating up… That doesn’t happen on a thermostatic mixer.
But I guess limescale could seize it up… I have just never experienced that, and the water is very hard where I live…
Just because it doesn’t have temperature markings doesn’t mean it can’t maintain a constant temperature (selectable from a wide band). These are mechanical devices without any electronics. They work by maintaining the pressure ratio you set between the hot and cold supplies. When they seize up they become “100% cold or 100% hot, no in between” devices. In other words, a cold/hot toggle switch.
My apartments hot water supply is really hot, so the band is still pretty narrow.
All hot is about 60° C, so you need comparatively little hot water, at least in relation to every other place I’ve showered…
ITT: people without infinite hot water either from a tankless heater or stadsverwarming
That’s not all. Once you get the temp just right, the plumbing starts to heat up and the temp changes gradually over the course of the shower, so you have to adjust it as you go.
Also the hot water layers in the hot water tank
Single, quick-turn handle shower/bath spigots work alright for places with giant hot water boilers, but not so much for single family residences. I want to control the flow of both temperatures separately and accurately.
I used to think I wanted that until I had to use separate knobs for hot and cold water and it was even more fiddly, you also have to get pressure correct. They ended up leaking and I figured it was just easier to replace with a turn handle fixture that uses cartridges than learning how to repair super old plumbing, the handle is actually way more forgiving in terms of getting it in the range of tolerable temperatures, and you don’t have to think about water pressure.
Just turn on the hot water first to desired pressure, then turn on the cold water to get temperature
Edit: because you really don’t need much cold water to cool it down.
Edit 2: then as the shower cools down over time, just turn down the cold water a little bit as needed
Edit 3: and because you’re able to control overall pressure, you can have exact temperature to a trickle or full power, allowing you to have as long or powerful of a shower as you want
And to make it worse is like you are playing over the most laggy connection ever.
The only thing with more latency is IPoAC
The sweet spot for my shower can be found by tapping the handle up or down with less force than a mouse click, like I think this moves it a micrometre.
Exactly how I do it. I start it running for a few second in the general middle spot, and tap it either way. It’s going to vary where that is summer or winter, but fortunately the handle isn’t too tight and I can get it with a few taps.
I had one shower in an apartment where the temp was set by twisting the round knob, but turned on by pulling out the whole thing. Perfection.
I’m an unsafe cracker
If this sweet spot is near the start of the handle range, the narrowness is likely due to the water heater being set too hot.
Try turning it down a bit for a day or so! More forgiving faucets + cheaper bills!
Of course no one has ever done this joke better than Suzy Izzard
Thank you for posting this so I didn’t have to. Genuinely every time I struggle to get a shower to the right temperature (so, you know, every time I shower) I hear this bit in my head.
Also, I didn’t realise she was going by Suzy now. Good for her!
of course we all realize, the fault is with landlords for buying the cheapest possible shower faucets. there are faucets that dont do this.
The shower at my apartment is like this, if I even so much as twist the knob more than half a millimeter, the temperature will swing wildly
I just burn the dirt from my skin
mygosh that 1-2 Switch image got me. i can hear the sounds from that game-
