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[-] fulcrummed@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

In seriousness, it’s often about water pressure and how your hot water is fed. If you have very high water pressure normally but a solar hot water system where gravity and input pressure play a role, you’ll naturally have an imbalance on hot and cold. When you turn the handle on the shower you’re lining up two holes in the shower cartridge (in the handle) with the two hot and cold water pipes, the resulting mix comes out a third hole which feeds the shower head. As you turn the handle, one hole opening gets smaller and the other bigger- thereby changing the ratio of hot : cold. When you already have a huge pressure of cold water pumping in, the degree of rotation needed to go from warm/almost just right to PURE HOT WATER is minuscule. Usually the cold will stay pretty cold for about half of the handle range of motion too.

If water input pressure being high is a problem you can put a reducing valve on your system overall or you can buy Venturi style pumps which add pressure into your hot water system.

You’ll normally find when it’s pressure imbalance that it’s easier to balance the temp when the tap isn’t open full bore. But who wants a weak-ass shower stream!!

[-] addie@feddit.uk 2 points 2 weeks ago

This, exactly. When we redid our bathroom, we went from "immersion tank" hot water with about three metres of pressure behind it, to central heating in a closed system, where both hot and cold have the exact same pressure, about thirty metres head. Went from being basically impossible to have a shower, to being an absolute pleasure where nearly the entire range of the tap gives a useful temperature, and it's got a right blast of pressure behind it too.

Another alternative would be an electric shower - since you're just heating up cold water, the pressure is "always the same". They tend to be a bit pathetic and crap, tho.

[-] Angry_Autist@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

Because it is hard to make a cheap valve that has a wide mixing 'sweet spot'.

Rich people showers don't have this problem

[-] JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

Turn down the temperature of your water heater.

[-] Jolteon@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 weeks ago

But that reduces the maximum length of your shower.

[-] ne0phyte@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago

And saves both energy and water.

[-] db2@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

What kind of fucked shower knob turns counterclockwise

[-] lapping6596@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Australian, just like their toilets spinning water the other way.

[-] TheTetrapod@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

USA checking in with one almost exactly like the picture

Lefty loosey, righty tighty

[-] db2@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

You know lefthand threading is a thing, right?

[-] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 weeks ago

IDK which way threads go on your country, but in the US at least you turn counterclockwise to loosen something.

[-] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

The cartridge is likely bad. They get clogged up with lime scale over time and start to perform worse and worse. Either replace the cartridge or the whole faucet itself.

[-] Shardikprime@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Okay I'm gonna be real. I didn't understand the meme at first and thought you were showing a melted door handle and the guy in the meme was trying to melt another door handle with his mind

I was fully prepared to read a bunch of comments about how are door handles so sensitive to heat due to their metallic composition and how you absolutely cannot melt things with your mind that the actual comments tripped me

[-] Squirrelanna@lemmynsfw.com 5 points 2 weeks ago

Warm 👏 thoughts 👏 can't 👏 melt 👏 steel 👏 knobs 👏

[-] Tja@programming.dev 3 points 2 weeks ago

You need at least the heat of your hand to melt metals. Or at least at least the heat of a cold but not cold wave winter day.

[-] synapse1278@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Observe while I shower comfortably with:

[-] slippyferret@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 weeks ago

When I first moved to Japan over twenty years ago they were already about a hundred years ahead of typical US toilet/bath technology. For me, using one of these faucets where you can just set the temperature by number was like Liko getting beamed from her hut directly onto the damn Enterprise.

[-] spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 weeks ago

Interesting, so it adjusts the flow of hot/cold in the fly to keep a consistent temp? That's amazing, thought I imagine it would have the same issue I have at the end of the shower where it's on 100% hot just to eke out a bit more time

[-] synapse1278@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Growing up in rural France, we had these at home for as far as I can remember. They may not have been the norm 30 years ago, but at least common.

[-] Decq@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

I really don't understand how this is still not the standard everywhere.. The cheapest ones aren't even that expensive and already way better than the alternative.. Don't think I've not showered with one of these in the last 25 years, except for in some kind of social housing projects homes.

[-] hoefnix@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Yes, but that is not a fair comparison, these are European.

[-] zqps@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Except British homes which have two separate showerheads, one fully hot and the other fully cold.

The trick is to spin.

[-] hoefnix@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Ah wel… the British have always been a bit particular to be honest.

[-] synapse1278@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

British when straight into inventing the radar and completely skipped over the invention of warm water.

[-] synapse1278@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

This technology is only possible with degree Celsius. It is impossible to adapt to degree Fahrenheit.

[-] hoefnix@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

You might have a point there

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[-] drhodl@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

You should just move to a more tropical area. Where I live, I only ever use the "Cold" tap and sometimes, even that is too warm.

[-] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

That's how it is for me in the summer, and Jersey ain't exactly tropical. But it's kinda nice being able to just turn on the shower and get in. The cold water is likecold in the summers, and it's usually humid, so a shower with no hot water ends up very refreshing.

[-] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

They're so sensitive because the person who installed them didn't care enough to adjust the regulator. If this bothers you, you can take the handle off yourself with an allen wrench and adjust the valve so that when you turn it on, it's the perfect temperature for you every time.

[-] Paraneoptera@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 weeks ago

This is a great idea if you are the only one using your shower. If you have 4 family members, each of whom likes a different shower temperature, it is less ideal. I think controls that allow separate on/off and hot/cold dimensions are best for most scenarios.

[-] kandoh@reddthat.com 1 points 2 weeks ago

From my understanding when I fixed mine, when you adjust it it just makes for a more gradual heat change

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i saw a comment on a meme like this that said some water mixing thing was broken

[-] glitchdx@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

There are several possible causes to this problem, but that one is the most common.

[-] 2piradians@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

So there are lots of good answers, but there's one I haven't seen: The type of shower control in the photo is probably low quality, cheap, meaning the internal parts do a poor job of mixing the hot/cold water.

Adjusting the water heater may help, but you might also consider upgrading the shower faucet.

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 weeks ago

I could've sworn there was a Seinfeld bit about the shower temperatures being sensitive when you adjust the tap but I can't find it now

[-] myrrh@ttrpg.network 1 points 2 weeks ago

...yes, that used to be a thing before thermostatic valves were commonplace...

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah I really thought the bit would come up easily. I can hear his voice saying something like "a million degrees" or "hotter than the surface of the sun". It probably also started with the classic "what's the deal with..." that he used.

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this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
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