Posted on 01/08/2017 9:18:48 PM PST by Lorianne
It’s a pretty astonishing fact, if you think about it. The government ruined our showers by truncating our personal rights to have a great shower even when we are willing to pay for one. Sure, you can hack your showerhead but each year this gets more difficult to do. Today it requires drills and hammers, whereas it used to just require a screwdriver.
The water pressure in our homes and apartments has been gradually getting worse for two decades. I had to laugh when Donald Trump made mention of this during the campaign. He was challenged to name an EPA regulation he didn’t like. And recall that he is in the hospitality business and knows a thing or two about this stuff.
“You have showers where I can’t wash my hair properly,” he said. “It’s a disaster. It’s true. They have restrictors put in. The problem is you stay under the shower for five times as long."
The pundit class made fun of him, but he was exactly right! This is a huge quality of life issue that affects every American, every day.
It’s not just about the showerhead. The water pressure in our homes and apartments has been gradually getting worse for two decades, thanks to EPA mandates on state and local governments. This has meant that even with a good showerhead, the shower is not as good as it might be. It also means that less water is running through our pipes, causing lines to clog and homes to stink just slightly like the sewer. This problem is much more difficult to fix, especially because plumbers are forbidden by law from hacking your water pressure.
As for the heat of the water, the obsession over “safety” has led to regulations that the top temperature is preset on most water heaters, at 120 degrees Fahrenheit, which is only slightly hotter than the ideal temperature for growing yeast. Most are shipped at 110 degrees in order to stay safe with regulators. This is not going to get anything really clean; just the opposite. Water temperatures need to be 140 degrees to clean things. (Looking at the industry standard, 120 is the lowest-possible setting for cleaning but 170 degrees gives you the sure thing.)
The combination of poor pressure and lukewarm temperatures profoundly affects how well your dishwasher and washing machine work. Plus, these two machines have been severely regulated in how much energy they can consume and how much water they can use. Top-loading washing machines are a thing of the past, while dishwashers that grind up food and send it away are a relic. We are lucky now to pull out a glass without soap scum on it. As for clothing, what you are wearing is not clean by your grandmother’s standards. But I haven’t even mentioned what might be the biggest factor in why our clothes aren’t clean and our dishes are dirty. The government forced soap manufacturers to remove from soap the thing that makes them work for these purposes: phosphates. Phosphates, used in soap from the middle ages until the 1980s, break down the soap after it has done its work and allow the water to wash it away along with the dirt and oil it scrubbed out of the clothes.
Now, soaps lack this crucial ingredient. In order to add it back in, you have to go to the paint section of the hardware store and buy it in a box (TSP, the real stuff, not the artificial kind). Add a quarter cup to your wash. You would be amazed at the difference it makes. Things actually get more-or-less clean.
SNIP
Your belief needs to go back to chemistry class.
TSP stands for Tri-Sodium-Phosphate. There is no chlorine in it.
We just replaced a burner in our 1956 stove—the only repair so far. The downside, we broke the glass frontpiece. :(
'Bet I can find a replacement on eBay! :)
BFLR
Bookmark.
Once I had occasion to use an old Soviet toilet. After I finished my business, I hit the handle. People, I am not exaggerating, something like 300 gallons of the Dneiper river shot though it in something like 4 seconds.
It went off with a roar.
It felt like I had torched off a Martin-Baker rocket ejection seat. For a horrifying second, I wondered if it could suck my butt downwards.
I don’t know if some engineer was threatened with the gulags if anyone ever had to flush twice or what. But that was the most astounding flush toilet I’ve ever used.
You’re right. My mistake comes from comparing Oxi-Clean versus Oxyclean, not TSP. Oxyclean is a chlorinated cleaner and is not the one I’m recommending. Both TSP and Oxi-Clean have no chlorine. I haven’t taken chemistry classes in decades. The old mind is rusty.
“Phosphates were taken out because of algal blooms and resulting dead zones.”
Bullcrap. Its nothing but feel good crap. They ban it in dishwashers, but 99% of it comes from commercially used fertilizers that still use it. Every so called “dead zone” is downstream from massive farming areas.
This is just more “in your face” crap.
Yes these things do matter but are necessarily the major contributors to water pressure.
The main impact on water pressure for most urban dwellers is the height of the water tank that supplies your area, the distance your house is from the tank and how many users there are between your home and the water tank.
Many older neighborhoods have seen water pressure drop as more homes have been built in the neighborhood. More people drawing from a main that was sized to service far fewer homes lowers water pressure.
FWIW
The skid marks are pain free now.
bfl
In Ca,you can’t find a dryer which can dry cloth.
I don’t remember the brand name of the horrible washer, but it was some company that makes cell phones and TV’s.
Washers should be made by companies that make tanks or cement mixers.
Speed Queen has the added advantage of being USA built. They primarily make commercial and institutional machines, but their consumer models are just as strong.
If you can find a “real one”, go to the local Hardware Store and ask for help. Most have been solving the government induced problems for 30+ years.
They however cannot sell you a simple Edison (incadescent) Light bulb. You’ll have to buy a quartz one at 4X the price in order to be able to read by it.
ComDem Insanity.
Druggies were using TSP in a formula for some street drug.
So they outlawed TSP. The substitute really sucks. That is why the old reliable dishwasher detergent quit working.
ComDem Insanity.
LMAO you made my day.
Thanks.
Still have one central AC that was installed in 1964.
As a mechanical engineer, it seems that equipment built before ~1970 was made to last forever with a few repairs. I still often find buildings with all-original systems from those years.
Average quality has slowly declined since then. Since the 90s, absolutely everything is throwaway junk. It falls apart just after the warranty ends.
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