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"Who among us hasn’t walked up to a drinking fountain, expecting a bubbling stream of life-giving water, only to experience the crushing disappointment of a mea
by weinzierl 3y ago
"Who among us hasn’t walked up to a drinking fountain, expecting a bubbling stream of life-giving water, only to experience the crushing disappointment of a measly trickle after smashing in that button?"
That'd be me. I traveled quite a bit all over the world and these seem to be a pretty American thing.
It's also a bit strange because for the countries that have them it is generally not recommended to drink tap water and for the few countries where tap water is considered safe to drink they are virtually non-existent.
- bombcar 3y agoFrom my travels the USA is way more concerned with water-saving devices, even in areas where there really is no water conservatory problems. Toilets in Europe will still seem to flush using the full power of Niagara Falls, which are quite rare in the US now.
- TeMPOraL 3y agoYou use more water flushing, or more water scrubbing your hands, after having to scrub your toilet due to insufficient flushing pressure.
- recursive 3y agoNot to mention, I often have to do 2 or 3 flushes after a more productive session, not to mention cleaning. Just like how I run the dryer twice on "hyper-giga-dry" if I actually want dry clothes.
- ssl-3 3y agoI just put the clothes in the dryer and tell it to dry them. It has a multitude of different modes, but "Normal" succeeds at this every single time -- regardless of the amount or dampness of what I put in there. Am I doing this wrong?
- recursive 3y agoYou are not wrong, and I'm jealous of your dryer. There are like 5 levels on mine ranging from soggy to slightly damp.
- dmckeon 3y agoHave you found and cleaned all the lint filters and exhaust air passages? A shop vac and/or an electric leaf blower may serve to improve throughput.
- ssl-3 3y agoIt's just a regular ass-dryer. It has a way to detect moisture (and therefore will run until clothes are dry, whatever that takes), but AFAIK that's pretty common and has been for a long number of decades. (I've never really had an issue with a clothes drier unless things had become broken or clogged -- they've all worked fine until they don't, and then they get fixed or replaced.) But you should be jealous of my toilet: The American Standard Champion 4. It just flushes shit. There's no long-winded swirling water display to make a spectacle of dancing turds. Instead, it is fast and to the point: Push lever, SPLASH, gurgle, and the shit has disappeared. Every single time, without fail. It scares children.
- recursive 3y agoI'm jealous of all your household appliances. My last dryer had the same problem. I bought it new.
- ssl-3 3y agoDang. This present dryer was free -- it's a Whirlpool Duet Sport (yes really) that is probably around 20 years old. The toilet...was not free. Changing out toilets is never fun, especially under duress. (But this one happened to be on sale the week that buying a new toilet became necessary, which was handy. I already know that it was the one I wanted, having once had an earlier version of that model, in an earlier version of my life.)
- Johnny555 3y agoSounds like you need a better designed toilet. Good low flow toilets do exist. We replaced the old 3.5 gallons per flush toilet in our house with a new Kohler 1.28gpf unit and it flushes and clears the bowl just fine - no worse than the previous toilet with about 1/3rd the water use.
- bombcar 3y agoOne of the best things you can do in a house is replace "early post-ban" toilets with modern ones, the very first low-flow toilets were absolutely ... shit.
- matwood 3y agoEU toilets are often of the 'poop shelf' design. Which end up requiring cleaning and multiple flushes after every bowel movement.
- CorrectHorseBat 3y agoIt depends very much on the country, for example The Netherlands is a poop shelf design country, but Belgium isn't. No idea what's the reason behind it.
- paulmd 3y agolower-calorie, higher-fiber european poops don't generally reach the size of american fast-food poops. but everyone loves the feeling of breaking the surface, so to promote a sense of social well-being some countries have artificially lifted the poop instead. (the above is false, but it is unironically there so that you can look at your poop. admire the shape, the volume, the coloration. and just wait until you learn there's an easy at-home diagnostic test for diabetes mellitus!)
- lukas099 3y agofiber bulks up your poop
- 3y ago
- DoughnutHole 3y agoPossibly an instance of the California effect? National manufacturers have to design toilets for western states where conservation is a huge issue - might just be cheaper to sell those toilets nationwide than to have a different product line for wetter states.
- throwup238 3y agoIt's due to the Energy Policy Act of 1992: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Policy_Act_of_1992#Impact https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Policy_Act_of_1992#Impa... It set a max volume for toilet flushes of 1.6 gallons and since it's a federal law, it covers everyone.
- mjevans 3y agoInvariably, I end up using _at least_ 3.2 gallons as it takes multiple flushes to finish the job.
- brewdad 3y agoIf that is your normal everyday experience you should consider changing your diet and or your toilet. Neither my wife nor I clog a toilet more than about once a year. The double flush might happen once every other month.
- gnicholas 3y agoI don't think GP is saying he clogs the toilet, but rather that a single flush does not clear it. We have very low-flow toilets, and sometimes my little kids have to double-flush. It's not about diet or anything — the toilets are just very low-flow (assuming you only have to flush once).
- djhn 3y agoI’d argue that clogging a toilet with any kind of regularity is still a failure of either engineering or diet.
- 3y ago
- Johnny555 3y agoeven in areas where there really is no water conservatory problems Is there really an area that never faces water conservation measures? Even normally wet Washington State is facing a drought due warm weather resulting in lower than normal snowpack, which is where much of the drinking water comes from. https://m.kuow.org/stories/washington-state-drought-emergency-april-2024 https://m.kuow.org/stories/washington-state-drought-emergenc...
- anikom15 3y agoCanada and the Great Lakes states have a virtually unlimited supply of fresh water.
- bombcar 3y agoMany areas that mainly use rain/snow water via ground water aquifers haven't had many if any water conservatory issues. Usually the problem around here is sewage capacity - but perhaps it's a population density thing, and as long as you're below a certain density and it rains enough, nothing really is needed.
- radlad 3y agoLiving in/near Michigan all my life and water conservation has never really been a concern, except when it comes to uproars over things like Nestle sourcing water from the Great Lakes.
- rmason 3y agoLive in Michigan as well. I think we are making a huge mistake conserving water as if is scarce. We act as if water is short and about to run out. We should instead celebrate our advantage over other areas where it is in short supply.
- lukas099 3y agoSomething to be said for not risking messing up a good thing.
- mynameisnoone 3y agoThe style of toilet matters in the US. The problem is that the cheapest toilets tend to also meet all sorts of greenwashing (no pun intended) certifications while being unreliable, smaller, and not very good. Tankless ones are far more expensive initially, but are more reliable, flush with greater force, and use little water.
- HeatrayEnjoyer 3y agoEurope doesn't have the water scarcity issues of the US. When my brother in law from Germany visited a few summers ago he was shocked by the amount of drought news and water conservation instructions broadcast daily on TV.
- softsound 3y agoThat's ironic because I remember a few summers ago hearing about droughts in Europe. Looks like they may have had issues too but maybe not as public. https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-updates/variable-drought-conditions-keep-affecting-large-parts-europe-2023-07-14_en https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-upda...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- rjmunro 3y agoEurope != Germany. Plenty of parts of Europe have drought issues and water saving laws. I expect plenty of parts of the US have loads of water and no droughts as well.
- bombcar 3y agoThey do. But most of the water conservancy laws affect sale federally. So even if you’re in a water flush area you can’t really get high consumption toilets unless you go quite used.
- lores 3y agoMost toilets in Western Europe, at least new ones, have two buttons for low and high flow. Low flow is not an unalloyed good, though, it leads to sewer lines getting clogged, which can be a pretty expensive thing to fix depending on where the sewer access is.
- kurthr 3y agoOh man, don't forget the ones that spray 8 feet into the air! At least you can usually tell, if the ground is wet around it... that it's going to take your head off, if you put your mouth over it before turning the knob. p.s. europeans just have fountains, and you drink the water out them with your shoe like it's champagne!
- daviesYC 3y agoHa, I was just about to mention the 8' spray and surrounding puddle of evidence. What a waste... too bad I don't live in Europe, I would enjoy drinking shoe champagne.
- Angostura 3y agoGot them in the UK. Together with their new cousins, designed specifically for refilling water bottle to cut down on plastic waste.
- luxuryballs 3y agoperhaps where nobody is drinking the water there’s also no rationing of pressure or incentive to minimize flow for cost savings
- icambron 3y agoI'm not quite following; are you saying it's not recommended that you drink American tap water? Or that there are bunch of other countries with sketchier water full of drinking fountains?
- weinzierl 3y agoI would not drink American tap water, at least not in the cities that I travelled. It always smelt like chlorine and from what I googled apparently up to 4 milligrams per liter are regularly allowed in the US. This is definitely not a thing in western Europe. We don't need to talk about the things that you cannot taste or smell and what happened in Flint.
- icambron 3y agoI just read this whole thread, and it's all very silly. You've laundered "I don't like the water" into "it is not recommended that you drink the water" which are really different things. The latter implies that there is a consensus understanding about this, the way there is for, say, Guatemala. 200+ million Americans drink their tap water, and most visitors do too. There are many parts of the US where water could be improved, especially in lower-density places and especially for recently-discovered contaminants, but the idea that travelers need to be careful about it as a matter of safety just isn't true. Flint is a huge news story precisely because it is so aberrant in a country with otherwise good water.
- radlad 3y ago> It always smells like chlorine and from what I googled apparently up to 4 milligrams per liter are regularly allowed in the US. Why is this a problem? Flavor? This is certainly different than places like Mexico, where the tap water isn't potable. > We don't need to talk about the things that you cannot taste or smell and what happened in Flint. If we're talking about unknown unknowns, this is true of anywhere in the world.
- weinzierl 3y ago> "Why is this a problem? Flavor?" Yes, if it already smells after chlorine, how can I know what else is in there. If it was from a clean source, it would not need chlorine in the first place. > "If we're talking about unknown unknowns, this is true of anywhere in the world." No, water supply in Germany is closely monitored at the source, at the water works and even close to the user in apartment buildings and rental properties. Also, our water supply is not privatized, like in the US. A disaster like Flint could not happen here.
- the__alchemist 3y agoInteresting! USA seems to be the only country I've visited that drinks tap water, let alone has water fountains.
- WheatMillington 3y agoI'm not super well travelled, but of the ~9 of the ~10 countries I've been to, including where I live (New Zealand) it's normal to drink tap water. Thailand was the exception for me. Water fountains are somewhat normal in New Zealand and Australia.
- lukas099 3y agoIt definitely wasn't normal in Spain. I think they called it "water from the lake" or something dirty sounding like that. And don't bother asking for ice cubes in some parts of Europe, they might have to chisel it off of a big hunk of ice for you (happened to my mother in law)
- CivBase 3y agoSince when was it "generally not recommended" to drink tap water in America? Most places I've been in America the water looks, smells, and tastes just like the stuff they sell in bottles.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]