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Your Shower Is Lame, Your Dishwasher Doesn’t Work, and Your Clothes are Dirty
Foundation for Economic Education ^ | 29 December 2016 | Jeffrey Tucker

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government
KEYWORDS:
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To: vannrox

How many songle story houses are there in the USA?


81 posted on 01/09/2017 5:34:32 AM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: MrShoop
My clothes washer and dryer and dish washer are over 20 years old. I have a friend who is a genius at appliance repair. He's replaced the pump in my dishwasher, replaced the transmission and timer in my clothes washer, diagnosed and replaced the circuit board in my wall oven, and fixed my refrigerator.

If he can, he'll use recycled parts he may have on hand and if not, he'll use new ones.......and he only charges a fraction of what an advertised repairman would charge.

82 posted on 01/09/2017 5:35:59 AM PST by Hot Tabasco
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To: Lorianne
Use this in your dishwasher and add this to your laundry, and everything will magically start to work again. I've been extremely happy ever since I switched back to the "classic" detergents. :)
83 posted on 01/09/2017 5:36:02 AM PST by detsaoT
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To: campaignPete R-CT

That is not the best form of phosphate to use in your dishwasher and washing machine.
This is where I order the kind of phosphate that is designed specifically for those purposes. I have been using for years.
https://www.soapgoods.com/Sodium-Tripolyphosphate-Light-Density-STPP-p-1267.html.


84 posted on 01/09/2017 5:40:20 AM PST by ChildOfThe60s ("If you can remember the 60s........you weren't really there")
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To: A CA Guy

You must be talking about the washers made since Maytag was bought by Whirlpool. I have one of the last REAL Maytags. It washes just fine-—Top loader—can adjust the amunt of water infinately. Most current detergents work better in cool or cold water than the older detergents. However, the lack of phosphates is evident.

I won’t own a front loader washer. Neighbors bought a new set-—washer uses so little water, I couldn’t see it when the washer was running. Their clothes gets mannered, being tumbled over & over to ‘get washed’. The other problem these new washers have is that they spin so long & hard that clothes come out with wrinkles that don’t always disappear in the dryer.

By over spinning the washer, then ‘you use less inergy drying ‘ your clothes. Add to that the CCR’s that many areas have where actual outside clotheslines are forbidden!!!

I will stay living rural, thank you.


85 posted on 01/09/2017 5:40:57 AM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: campaignPete R-CT

TSP is phosphate free.
Really.


86 posted on 01/09/2017 5:48:28 AM PST by BBB333 (The power of TRUMP compels you!)
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To: GreyHoundSailor

You missed?
“Males, do not flush while sitting!”


87 posted on 01/09/2017 5:50:20 AM PST by GOYAKLA (" The Russians made me vote, for Donald J. Trump"! NOT!)
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To: CurlyDave

And there are, now, NO phosphates in TSP...


88 posted on 01/09/2017 5:52:18 AM PST by BBB333 (The power of TRUMP compels you!)
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To: BobL

2) Cascade Commercial DW Detergent was removed from the market...

It has been replaced with Cascade Fryer Boil-Out - It is the EXACT same formula (the original was intended to clean fryers) just renamed to remove the ‘dishwasher’ label.

It’s great stuff and cleans dishes well.


89 posted on 01/09/2017 5:58:43 AM PST by BBB333 (The power of TRUMP compels you!)
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To: BobL

2) Cascade Commercial DW Detergent was removed from the market...

It has been replaced with Cascade Fryer Boil-Out - It is the EXACT same formula (the original was intended to clean fryers) just renamed to remove the ‘dishwasher’ label.

It’s great stuff and cleans dishes well.


90 posted on 01/09/2017 5:59:40 AM PST by BBB333 (The power of TRUMP compels you!)
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To: minnesota_bound

Make sure you get the real TSP, red box. They sell fake noTSP also ....
Last time I bought some at Lowe’s the real stuff was way up on the top shelf, requiring a clerk to get it down. I bought 15 pounds, all 3 boxes they had way up there.


91 posted on 01/09/2017 6:02:08 AM PST by RightField
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To: BBB333

Thanks, I read that on an Amazon review too.


92 posted on 01/09/2017 6:32:21 AM PST by BobL (In Honor of the NeverTrumpers, I declare myself as FR's first 'Imitation NeverTrumper')
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To: BuffaloJack
Unfortunately, you can’t even get TSP at the local hardware store anymore.

Try any decent sized paint store (S-W, etc), as TSP is commonly used by paint pros to de-gloss painted surfaces before repainting.

93 posted on 01/09/2017 6:39:05 AM PST by tomkat
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To: Lorianne
 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.

 

Yep. BUT NOT A QUARTER CUP!!! USE VERY SPARINGLY. 1/4 of a teaspoon in washer or dishwasher.

Image result for tsp

 

94 posted on 01/09/2017 6:43:03 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
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To: tumblindice

Tri-sodium Phosphate is really good stuff. I keep a couple boxes in the dry-store.


95 posted on 01/09/2017 6:49:18 AM PST by Dr.Deth
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To: BobL

I just took out the flow restrictor in my wife’s kitchen faucet and she says she feels like she could wash elephants at the zoo. I drilled out my shower heads over 15 years ago and guests always are amazed at my “water pressure.” I have instructed many comrades on how to fix the problem with the Algore shower heads. Don’t get me started on the Algore toilets and the number of times I have had to plunge them...


96 posted on 01/09/2017 6:56:52 AM PST by crusty old prospector
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To: 9YearLurker

Yes. Anyone that has time for these click bait sites and more time to post these semi-stories has too much time on their hands.


97 posted on 01/09/2017 7:16:15 AM PST by TexasGator
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To: TexasGator

Not necessarily any more time than it took you to check out the post, size it up and respond.


98 posted on 01/09/2017 7:27:15 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: Lorianne

Bookmark


99 posted on 01/09/2017 7:33:12 AM PST by Irish Eyes
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To: A CA Guy

We found a top loader with an agitator. But the preset water levels ate a joke. We don’t use any of the factory recommended settings. Ditto for our new dryer. And don’t get me started in our new fridge....


100 posted on 01/09/2017 7:37:06 AM PST by mewzilla (I'll vote for the first guy who promises to mail in his SOTU addresses.)
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