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Comment by ldkdmsksk | Hacker News Reader

you know you can install tankless heaters at the shower in the US if you want instant hot water?

sinks too, theyre even easier. you can find kits at Home Depot.

Tankless water heaters have a downside in that there's a minimum amount of flow before the heater turns on. I stayed at an Airbnb in Italy where I had to continuously run the sink in order to take a warm shower that wasn't scalding hot or cold. I also had to run the bathroom sink to get hot water at all in the kitchen because the kitchen faucet alone wasn't enough to trigger the heater!

Normally that starts to happen when the rubber diaphragms and o-rings in the pressure differential valves get old and break down.

The last three places I've lived in the United States all had tankless systems.

Like most comments on HN, "American System" is a gross oversimplification of a nation of almost 400 million people and experiences.

I can't count the number of time Americans (from all over the States) have explained to me how diverse America actually is. Ironically it's only Americans who've done this.

Well it's usually when someone from outside America says "Americans do it this way" based on their vacations or even single trips to a single point in America, having stayed in an AirBNB or hotel or something.

To actual American citizens you might as well be characterizing France from your experience in Germany just because they're both in the EU.

Germany and France are pretty similar TBH. Though, like Americans, Europeans also get mad when you point out they are not as diverse as they imagine.

It's really hard to talk about things when you can't generalize a bit.

"100 million American homes have things set up this way" - oh no, let's divert the discussion to worry about the one guy who has a fully custom setup!

As an American, most places that I've lived in across the country had a delay before the hot water kicked in. Of course anyone can modify their home to do whatever they want, but we're discussing the average system in place in most residences.

It's not a "gross oversimplification" if it's the typical result.

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