Your water heater is set too hot or you don't have a mixing valve after your water heater
this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
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i adjusted my heaters max temp to what i like and just turn shower/faucet to the hottest setting in winter or lower in the summer.
This may have consequences not killing things that like thriving in warm water.
Could be an issue in some cases, but mine only heats while water is flowing through. Otherwise it cools down. Also the input water in my region is clean and drinkable, so it hasn't enough food for germs.
Inline heating is pretty safe to do that, aye. I'd worry about listeria in a tepid storage tank.
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!!
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.
Weird.
I saw "melts tungsten" and my brain decided this was in German.
Speaking as a Dane, I too had to recalibrate from "heavyrock" to "tungsten the element" 😁
Same lmfao
I think it's so late here that I assume Lemmy is sprechening Deutsch by default
Lower flow temperature makes it easier to adjust.
Come to Japan (and, so I've heard, several European countries) where we have a temperature setting on the tap. Mine caps at 40 by default, but you can press a little button and make it hotter if desired (up to however hot your water heater puts out).
Most of these types of faucets have a regulator in them as well in the US, you have to take off the handle to set it and most people never bother to do so.
Nah, Brougham.
All the way to the left, then back off 1/16".
Burn me, baby.
My kitchen faucet is like this. It's one of those with single little stalk to regulate both temperature and pressure. Not only do you need to get it precisely right for the correction temperature, you also need to get it right for the pressure. Not far enough up and you get a little drizzle, too far and it splashes everywhere. And the stalk is kind of sticky as well, as you push it there is no movement until suddenly it moves. So making small adjustments is really hard
Set your water heater lower. Like: make sure it's above 120 at all times (130+ preferably) to prevent legionnaire's, but 140 is PLENTY for most home uses. And it means you get a bigger range to move your mixer taps to.
That's Fahrenheit right? Or are you suggesting 100+ Celsius?
Your water heaters don't have a "Steam Blast" setting? How do your bidets even work? Do they just dribble cool water on your anus? How weird.
Last i checked, that would no longer make it hot water, but I use the dumb numbers where 212 is boiling
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Celsius of course. Only babies shower in 140 Fahrenheit!
Came to say the same thing. Not sure why people want boiling water on tap. If I need to boil water I use my kettle, and save money by not heating a tank of water to near boil all day.
Observe while I shower comfortably with:
Same man, it's been a dream since installing this.
These things existe for at least 30 years, I don't understand why anyone would want to use anything else for a shower or bathtub.
Do they hold for 30 years?
Definitely not :) I had to get it replaced at my flat this year. There is a filter inside that can get block if you have hard water or debris.
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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.
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.
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Something something pid control.
There are set screws behind the cover that will let you adjust the balance. Open up the cold a bit more.
This. So many comments in this thread make it pretty clear that most people don't know there's a regulator built into the faucet.
i can just turn the hot on and use that only. the water heater is so far away (have a walk-up, and it is in the basement) that the water is usually just about right when it gets all the way up here.
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.
I tried that and it still ends up either freezing or burning, unless I turn the handle all the way on, then half way, then creep it up.
Is that what a bad mixing valve looks like?
If you live in the US, then you probably have a standard mixing valve
If you live elsewhere, it's probably a thermostatic one
For US:
You want to turn your handle all the way hot to clear your hot water lines fast, it's room temperature in the hot water lines. Once the water is hot, then you start mixing in cold water.
The first cold water is from the lines in your house. It is heated or cooled by your home, basically room temperature water.
So say I turn the valve on full hot. Pure hot water is pouring out. Now you add some of that "room temperature cold water" to get to your perfect temperature.
Now, once you run out of "room temperature cold water," it will start pulling water from the street.
I'm guessing you live in a cooler climate area?
120°F + 70°F = perfect temperature
But if the outside water becomes, say 50°F after you use all your water stored in your cold water lines
120°F + 50°F = colder water
So you have to add less 50°F water, which means slowly creeping your valve up until you have steady temperature water going to the valve.
Things like the type of water heater matters. If you use a tank then as you use water it adds water. If you keep your tank at 120° and you're adding 70° cold water or 50° water to the tank matters. You also have "room temperature water" in your cold lines going to your tank at first, then colder water. So that creates another "lag" in temperature
US standard mixing valves aren't as nice as a thermostatic valve. They are just cheap and standard and work well enough in most places.
Thermostatic valves allow you to select, say 100°F water, and the knob just controls the water flow rate. No matter what, the water that comes out of your shower will be 100°F. As the water coming into your house gets colder it will automatically adjust. As the water from your tank gets colder, it will automatically adjust.
Sounds like your valve is working as intended though
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Yeah, you need a new cartridge for yours.
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What kind of fucked shower knob turns counterclockwise
Its on the southern hemisphere.
Australian, just like their toilets spinning water the other way.
If I remember correctly Mythbusters disproved that. It depends entirely on the way you pull the plug.
Well, essentially, it's that the coriolis effect, while a real thing, is much weaker than most other factors in play. If everything else is neutralised or near to it, the coriolis would indeed be the remaining decider, but that's very unlikely in practice.
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So australian toilets have defective plugs, got it!
USA checking in with one almost exactly like the picture
IDK which way threads go on your country, but in the US at least you turn counterclockwise to loosen something.
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