Posted on 12/17/2020 7:31:04 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
The Trump administration has relaxed a regulation restricting water flow from showerheads, a pet peeve of President Donald Trump, who complained that he wanted more water to make his hair “perfect.”
Since 1992, federal law has dictated that showerheads shouldn’t spew more than 2.5 gallons (9.5 liters) of water a minute. As newer shower fixtures came out with multiple nozzles, the Obama administration updated the ruling, stating that 2.5 gallons was still the limit regardless of how many nozzles were running. The new ruling, issued on Tuesday, now says each showerhead can emit 2.5 gallons a minute.
“So showerheads - you take a shower, the water doesn’t come out,” Trump said last summer. “You want to wash your hands? The water doesn’t come out. So what do you do? You just stand there longer or you take a shower longer? Because my hair - I don’t know about you, but it has to be perfect. Perfect.”
Also this week, the Energy Department issued a ruling that sets no limits on energy or water use for new washers and dryers with short cycle times in their “normal” setting. The rule sets up separate product classifications for residential clothes washers and dryers with cycle times of fewer than 30 minutes and 45 minutes for front-loading washers.
The Energy Department said the rule on washers and dryers lets manufacturers offer new products that meet consumer demand for products with shorter cycle times. Environmental advocates had a different response.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I put a branching “Y” in the plumbing, and removed the washer that restricts flow.
I can take a blazing hot shower in about 1 minute.
My city (California) gave me nice fat rebate checks for energy efficient washer, dryer, fridge and new HVAC system.
I draw the line at low flush toilets and low-water emission shower heads. You’ll get the old high flow shower-head out of my cold dead hands - most likely my old “regular flush” toilet too.
Now put the phosphates back into dishwasher soap. Been doing that manually with TSP. Almost always a way around the EPA when you know how stuff works— and thanks, Google! Won’t bring up what I’ve done with A/C systems... F the environazis.
#1 I would not mind at all having to take a longer shower with her..... : )
The shower heads are easy to correct. Get rid of those low flow toilets that accomplish nothing. How does it help to reduce the water flow by 50% if one has to flush two or three times?
Dam! I wish that you’d posted this last week.
I’ve been having just this problem for years.
Last week I just got fed up, said to hell with it and sold all my circus elephants.
Surprised nobody’s brought up the Seinfeld episode about low-flow shower heads
California limits me to 1.5 gallons/minute. I can’t even buy a 2.0 gpm shower head off Amazon. They can’t ship it to me.
I hate California soooooooo much!
I’m pretty sure most of the low flow shower heads have lost the flow restrictor plate from the attachment hose/fitting.
As to low flow toilets. how much water do they save if it takes 3 flushes to clear solid waste from the bowl?
Save yer money and get some of these Kool Spouts:
The only thing I don’t like is the little caps fall off too easily...
Unfortunately the regulators know about this and are making it more difficult to fix the situation in new construction. In one of our bathrooms I made the mistake of installing a new style Tub and Shower Faucet set. The flow limitation is built into the faucet not the shower head. Because it uses "cartridges" to control the water it is very difficult to modify. I had to pay a lot more, but on the next bathroom that I remodeled I made sure that I purchased a faucet that was an older design. The same situation happened with our utility sink faucet downstairs... it is impressive looking but it takes a long time to fill up a mop bucket or the sink.
Possibly the most maddening situation is with new dish washers. We have an old dishwasher from 25 years ago, it gets the dishes very clean after filling the little cup with cheap detergent. The new one takes over three hours, you have to buy special detergent and a bottle of expensive chemicals to put in a separate tank that aid in drying and keeping water spots off of everything. You can skip the little blue bottle, but the results are less than satisfactory because for the entire 3+ hours the dish washer keeps using basically the same water over and over. I don't know how it works but it is all about saving a couple of gallons of water and wasting a ton of your time.
And the situation with clothes washers is crazy as well. You used to be able to fix them after 20 or so years with a few cheap replacement parts. New ones are basically disposable.
Places like Big R and Murdochs farm supply have these types of jugs for about $20. I use them in white for gas and blue for water.
A few months ago I was in a walmart parking lot and two older ladies approached me.
They said they ran out of gas, walked to the gas station and bought a government approved three handed gas can and came back.
They couldn’t figure it out.
I could barely figure it out. I managed to get about half a gallon into the car and gave up. My ice cream was melting. It got them to the gas station.
I’ve pulled out the restrictor in hotel showers. I also “fool” the washer by throwing in a wet towel. The washer thinks it’s a bigger load and adds more water.
A few years ago I bought a turkey fryer. The regulator had a battery powered 10 minute timer, probably due to some government safety Nazi.
We were on a campout and the battery died. At that point is when I discovered the battery.
We found a way to bypass the timer and actually get to use the fryer for the intended purpose.
Sounds like you find the “ work around”. Drilling out the fixed restrictor in a remodel I finished recently, did improve the flow. I didn’t know about the cartridges I’ll have to look into that. And you’re right about the dishwasher I was wondering why my new one took so long to wash dishes LOL
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