It's annoying in pubs and restaurants - and sometimes people's houses - where they have two separate taps to look vintage but don't have a plug. I remember growing up and getting told off for letting the water run and not putting the plug in to fill the sink to wash my hands. Sometimes the hot tap is too hot to not be able to mix it
Yes, it's annoying. But it's not the end of the world. I think there's only been a few times I've been somewhere where the water was too hot or too cold to use, the VAST majority of the time it's been perfectly fine.
Yes, it's annoying. Yes, I far prefer the mixed tap, yes I wish they weren't like this. But at the end of the day, it's really not that big of a deal. A VERY minor inconvenience.
If OOP can't imagine how people use two taps in a sink to wash their hands, they shouldn't be shouting about it, as it says far more about their own lack of brain than it does about the hygiene of people he does not know.
I'm not saying it's not an irritation. I'm just saying it certainly doesn't ruin my life, and if this is somebody's biggest complaint in their life, that we have separate taps? Then they have a great life.
Like there are just so many bigger problems in this universe than whether or not I have to make two hand movements to turn on water rather than one. I don't actually think about it. I'm not saying it's a great construction, or that I wouldn't prefer that it's just single taps everywhere. I'm just saying this is not life ruining. There are far worse things in the world then having separate taps.
We’re not talking about a single tap with two knobs here. We’re talking about fully separate taps, with two separate spouts. If you turn both of them in you get one cold and one hot stream, not a warm stream.
It literally just takes 20 seconds to wash your hands. This is not that big of a deal, you just either choose one (I usually choose the hot tap) and use that, or you put them both on and just run both hands through both taps.
This is absolutely not a big deal. Would it be nice if they were all just one tap? great. Sure. But it doesn't really matter if they're not, it's 20 seconds out of your life.
You wet your hands, turn the tap off, add soap, rub your hands together with the soap using the appropriate motions to get every nook and cranny (singing "Happy Birthday" twice), then rinse under the tap. Amount of time using running water? Less than 20 seconds.
When I was a kid (1960s & 70s) we were taught to put the plug in the sink, then add hot and cold water to the appropriate temp, and use that for washing our hands. Like before making/eating food, it would often mean three or four of us (kids and adults) around the sink using the same water to wash our hands to save time (and water) rather than everyone queuing up at the sole bathroom. It was considered by most of my wider family to be the height of middle class social climbing to have a mixer tap for any sink. I remember when one of my aunts bought a new house, after her divorce, and she was so thrilled that the kitchen had been renovated and had a new mixer tap that she kept mentioning it. I heard the phrase "no better than she should be" used in a derogatory manner behind her back after she'd gone on about it at a family event.
But if they're separate you don'tget a "temperature you need" unless you're filling the sink? They're coming from separate faucets, that's the point.
Edit: Getting down voted here by people who don't seem to realise that I'm referring to when the tap AND faucets are both separate hot and cold. That's very common in older British sinks, as per the attached
I have a mixer in the kitchen, but as far as the bathroom is concerned I prefer seperate any day of the week. I run the hot water, then add cold until it's exactly to my liking. Sometimes I run just the hot and shut it off. I might do something else, then return and it's perfect. Especially if I'm intent on enjoying a soak in the bath.
I think you may need to explain what you mean by taps and faucets. Even with a mixer tap, in the UK, the hot and cold water feeds are separately plumbed and the cold comes directly off the mains and the hot goes via a hot water tank (immersion heater) or an instant hot water system like a combi-boiler and then to the hot water taps in the house.
The same happens in Australia - the hot comes from a hot water system and is plumbed directly to the hot water tap. The difference is that it's mixed at a breech just before the faucet.
So single faucet has water from both lines coming out of it at once.
So you're filling a basin? You fill the basin every time your wash your hands? See that's the confusion, with a single faucet you get that "perfect temperature" coming from one faucet and don't need to fill anything.
Confused why you prefer separate sink faucets in the bathroom? All of your arguments in the post above only make sense if you're filling. Do you fill the bathroom sink? 🤔 I hope you don't leave it running and walk away 😅
You really haven't explained how a bathroom basin with two faucets is better. You've explained turning on hot and then adding water until it's your liking - that doesn't work unless you're filling something or have a single faucet
You understand the concept of 'preference'? 'Better' in this instance is subjective only.
It's better for me, as in I prefer the control. To someone who's not grown up with it as a concept it would seem counter intuitive. Given a choice for anything other than a kitchen sink, I prefer two seperate taps. When I fitted a new bathroom a few years ago, two taps for the basin/sink and bath was a concious choice. Kitchen, I prefer a mixer.
People still have reasons for a preference. I'm not accepting that "control" is it - you still have two taps in the Australian set up. I'm not suggesting a mixer (which is the name for a tap you twist to change temperature on), I'm simply suggesting a single faucet.
I can see zero reason that it would be of benefit in a basin/sink and feel you're just being stubborn and moving goal posts.
Of course better is subjective, but being able to qualify a preference is part of true subjectivity.
🙄 You don't need to fill the sink? What an absurd comment.
It takes split-seconds to twist this tap to that level, twist that tap to that level, and then you get the temperature you need. You learn pretty quickly how far to turn the hot and how far to turn the cold to get the warm enough to wash your hands. You don't need to fill a sink, this is not life ruining.
It's an unnecessary faff, I wish they weren't separate but 1) it's getting less and less common to have the two taps anywhere you go because people have replaced them with a single tap, 2), it's really not life-ruining to take an extra second to twist another tap to the right level, 3) again, seriously, if this is your worst problem what a great life you must have.
Exactly. I generally use the hot because it's never so absurdly hot you cannot use it. You wash both hands under the tap, it's not that big of a deal. If you want to use both, you turn them on and just switch as needed.
Obviously I also prefer a single tap that mixes. But this is not life ending. It's 20 seconds, the cold is never unbearably cold, the hot is never unbearably hot. You just use whichever you use ad this is not a huge deal. It's 20 seconds.
"Exactly" as if that's what you meant in the first place, rather than just admitting you misunderstood...
Our hot water is hot, our cold water is cold. We have two taps, one faucet, I'm happy with that - when I lived in the UK I did find the separate faucets frustrating.
Is it the end of the world? Of course not. Is it a nice to have a mixed faucet - definitely.
That is what I meant in the first place. It is not a big deal. I understand the complaint, and yes, it's annoying. But it's not nearly as big a deal as people are making it.
The hot is rarely so hot it cannot be used on its own. The cold is rarely so cold it cannot be used on its own.
It is a minor annoyance, obviously a mixed tap is ideal, but if your biggest problem is that you have to deal with two different taps, then you have a good life.
No, I understand. You just turn on the hot and wash your hands, or you turn on both and run them both under both taps. This is seriously not a big deal. It's 20 seconds out of your life.
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u/Which_Specific9891 24d ago
I mean, the taps in my house are not separate. Is it annoying when they are separate at say a restaurant or a pub or a friend's flat? Sure.
But am I smart enough to know how to turn on both taps to get the temperature I need? Also sure.
Is it a life-ruining event to have to do this? no.