The barbarism of low-flow showerheads

[UltraBudgie]

I was just reading the Washington Post, which coincidentally often makes me feel like a need a shower, when I ran across an op-ed about low-flow shower heads, and the horror of 2.5 gallon/per minute flow rates.

This is where I confess to having lived as a U.S. regulatory renegade since 1992, when the Energy Policy Act imposed a federal mandate restricting showerheads to a flow rate of 2.5 gallons per minute...

Oh, I tried to comply. Taking dismal showers, pawing shampoo across my hanging head, under a spray that felt like 2.5 gallons per annum. Down the drain swirled my hopes and dreams, with a hint of sandalwood and eucalyptus.

Then one day, damp and desperate, I furiously unscrewed the showerhead, found a sharp object and extracted the flow-choking gasket-and-screen device. I swear I wouldn’t have done it if I lived in the parched Southwest, but an invigorating blast from the Catskill/Delaware watersheds was irresistible. Little did I know then that I was speaking truth to shower.

From WaPo: https://archive.ph/6k8yc

Swapping a feeble dribble for a powerful blast might seem like an environmental indulgence when it comes to taking a shower, but researchers say it might actually save water.

Water consumption has become a key area of environmental concern given shortages of the resource, as well as the carbon footprint associated with its collection, treatment, supply and – in the case of most showers – heating.

Now experts say they have discovered that showers with a higher pressure are associated with a lower consumption of water, while a timer in the shower could also help.

From the Guardian: https://archive.ph/B7NRK

I can attest this is true. I recently found there's a black market for these (a 15gpm one similar to this, not this exact one):



Hoo-boy let me tell you, gone are the days of vaguely trying to rinse off! I took a shower in like 5 minutes instead of 10. I also got a nice lever-valve that lets me regulate the flow/pressure to whatever I want easily rather than fiddling with knobs.

So Trump has promised to revamp the 2.5gpm travesty that is American bathing, which is totally on-brand for him. He could even make a "blast away the filth" campaign about it or something. I also think it's a good point when nothing is done about the millions of gallons that are used to cool huge computer data warehouses, we can surely spend a bit of water on being more civilized.

[UltraBudgie]

There's probably a conspiracy angle here, about Big Plumbing or aerosolized fluoride or something, but really I just wanted to share about my awesome new showerhead. Get one!

[guyfriday]

There's probably a conspiracy angle here, about Big Plumbing or aerosolized fluoride or something, but really I just wanted to share about my awesome new showerhead. Get one!

You might be on to something here. Atomized water molecules being breathed in during a typical shower can't be good for the lungs. Could this drive for these "low flow shower heads" be more about creating breathing issue to push new meds on the market?

[quintessentone]

You might be on to something here. Atomized water molecules being breathed in during a typical shower can't be good for the lungs. Could this drive for these "low flow shower heads" be more about creating breathing issue to push new meds on the market?

It seems anything not needed by the body and which is breathed into the lungs, including water molecules, is metabolized and sent to the kidneys to be excreted.

Our showerhead delivers a hearty massaging blast of water, not sure of the gpm, but we are on a well, so we actually shower for very much longer periods, just because it feels so good.

Aren't some areas/regions within the US having water availability issues?

[UltraBudgie]

Aren't some areas/regions within the US having water availability issues?

I think this is a side-effect of capitalism operating normally. It's cheaper to irrigate crops grown in dead soil with fertilizer-laden water, even though it uses up to 10x as much water to grow them compared with healthy living soil. Higher crop yield. Sure, the crops are non-nutritious and perhaps somewhat toxic, but hey, they can still be sold. People still buy them.

So yeah, if infrastructure isn't close to being overburdened, and if water tables aren't close to crisis levels, then price pressure isn't put on consumers and we wouldn't want that. After all, water is necessary for life, and thus makes for great social engineering leverage. So water prices for crops, data centre cooling, industrial uses, etc., are kept at just the right level to keep everything on edge. That's most efficient and desirable, from a capitalist point-of-view.

Water literally falls from the sky.

[quintessentone]

I think this is a side-effect of capitalism operating normally. It's cheaper to irrigate crops grown in dead soil with fertilizer-laden water, even though it uses up to 10x as much water to grow them compared with healthy living soil. Higher crop yield. Sure, the crops are non-nutritious and perhaps somewhat toxic, but hey, they can still be sold. People still buy them.

So yeah, if infrastructure isn't close to being overburdened, and if water tables aren't close to crisis levels, then price pressure isn't put on consumers and we wouldn't want that. After all, water is necessary for life, and thus makes for great social engineering leverage. So water prices for crops, data centre cooling, industrial uses, etc., are kept at just the right level to keep everything on edge. That's most efficient and desirable, from a capitalist point-of-view.

Water literally falls from the sky.

Isn't rain capture illegal in some states/jurisdictions?

[ntech]

I found a waterpik model I liked so much I went on Ebay and found another one. (It's discontinued now).  The restrictor is a piece pushed into the end of the shower head and easily removed. 

The reason I got it was the shower head has a simple hole in the center which gives a nice high powered blast that's great for waterpicking the teeth in the morning. 

But I get the feeling it was discontinued because of that high powered water blast. 

Oh, and I took a quick look and found one on Ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/356204158343?_s...R6qAz8irZQ

[UltraBudgie]

Removing the water-flow restrictors is key, for unmodified showerheads. Just use a wood screw to screw in to the middle of the thing, then a pair of vice grips to yank it out. High flow almost doesn't matter, except for rinsing, but high pressure -- ah, that's where it's at.

A couple of days after Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife moved into the White House, the 36th US president called a meeting with chief usher J.B. West. He wanted to talk plumbing.

According to former Bloomberg White House correspondent Kate Brower in her new book, "The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House," Johnson wanted to talk specifically about the shower.

"Mr. West, if you can't get that shower of mine fixed, I'm going to have to move back to the Elms," Johnson reportedly said in a raised voice (the Elms being Johnson's former private residence in DC).

His preferred shower in his Elms mansion had several nozzles that shot out water with "needle-like intensity" and had water pressure "the equivalent of a fire hose."

One nozzle was positioned to shoot up the president's rear while another was aimed directly at his penis — he nicknamed that showerhead sprayer "Jumbo."

Along with aggressive showerheads, Johnson requested the installation of a light switch that he could flip for either hot or cold water. (He did not want to have any warm water in his shower.)

Brower writes:

The Kennedys never complained about the shower, so the engineers were at a loss. A team was sent to the Elms to study the plumbing ... When he found out that a new shower for the president would require laying new pipe and putting in a new pump, Johnson demanded that the military pay for it. The project, which cost tens of thousands of dollars, was paid for with classified funds that were supposed to be earmarked for security.

When the plumbers ran into setbacks, Johnson reportedly yelled, "If I can move 10,000 troops in a day, you can certainly fix the bathroom any way I want it."

After five years, five replacement showers, a special water tank with a pump, and six body-spray nozzles, the "shower crisis" was still an issue. According to Brower, the pumps sprayed hundreds of gallons of water per minute, more than a firehose, and that still wasn't good enough.

When Johnson left the White House, Richard Nixon reportedly "took one look at the elaborate setup and said, 'Get rid of this stuff.'"

https://www.businessinsider.com/lbjs-whi...015-4?op=1

Final form (for now) for mine seems to be a front Speakman showerhead on a double ball-joint pivot at a height of 6'10" (I hate stooping to wash my hair), and a rear high-pressure showerhead at a height of 5'10", with a selectable diverter to a handheld rinse wand on a 6' flexible hose. No restrictors, and each is valve selectable. Oh yeah.