Ask HN: Why are bathtubs in the US undersized for adults? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why are bathtubs in the US undersized for adults?

44 pointsapapapa56 comments

(most of them, at least)

In America, generally baths are for kids. Adults normally shower.

I don't know why this is. I love baths, but I'm 6'3 and don't fit in any of them, so no bath for me.

We live in America. We have an old house (>100 yrs). One bathroom had a tub. We renovated the bathroom to incorporate a shower head. Turns out we couldn't purchase a new tub that fit the old dimensions, as new tubs are smaller, reportedly to meet new efficiency standards. So we had to frame in a smaller recess to fit the new, smaller tub. Wah wah, I guess the answer is, old tubs used to be more adult sized, and new ones aren't because of efficiency / climate change trends? As others have pointed out, you can still get big tubs but they're more like jacuzzi or whirlpool types that take up more space.

Our new home came with a pre-installed freestanding bathtub in the master bathroom. Fits an adult easily. But I don’t think you can fit one through the door - it would have to be taken apart for sure. It’ll be a big reno project.

My house built in 2017 is the same. I still don't really use the tub. I asked my wife why she never uses it, and she said "it takes forever to fill."

Japan has the solution to this. Tubs are connected to a smart system and you can start your bath from, say, the living room via a panel. You can specify what time you want it filled up at and at what temp and it does the rest.

Some tubs even support re-heating the existing water, so you can re-use the same bathwater the next day or later in the evening for other family members. (in Japan it's assumed you're going to shower and clean your body throughly before entering the bath, like in a hot spring/public pool, so the water doesn't get so gross)

Measure the height. They often just barely fit if coming in sideways.

But the large “one piece” bathtub/shower combos you see at the hardware stores definitely are installed early and won’t fit in the door. They are more leakproof but they sell remodel versions that come in multiple parts.

FWIW, my spouse works in rehab hospital settings and says tub accessibility is a big problem with lots of the much older and more modern freestanding tubs. Relatively thin, high sides are an injury risk for a lot of people. It's one reason many tubs are shorter and have wide flat sides.

The struggle is real. I hope to one day own a bath tub I can fit into comfortably. Half of me is always popping out.

FYI hot-tubs are basically bathtubs but better.

Of course. It's obvious why....

The bath tubs are too small.

I got laughed at by a north american once for letting her know I was taking a bath (instead of a shower). apparently "bubble baths" are only for kids there. In austria either are common though. Modern bathtubs are usually a bit slimmer to save on water.

One of the apartments I lived in was designed for folks with physical disabilities (despite me lacking said disabilities, the leasing office insisted I was totally eligible to move into it, so I did). Among the myriad quirks with it (wider doors, slightly-lower countertops) was the bathtub: twice as wide as usual, with lots of handles.

I miss that bathtub. Even a stereotypically-American obese tub of lard like myself could fit comfortably in it.

A lot of accommodations made for disabilities are great for people who don't need them as well. It'd be weird if someone was kept out of an apartment because it had some accessibility upgrades, so long as it's not impacting someone who can't live in other apartments.

Handles/railings would probably be a decent addition to showers anyway with how often people slip in there and get injured.

> so long as it's not impacting someone who can't live in other apartments

That was my exact concern. The leasing office guy giving me the tour insisted it wasn't an issue, so I'd guess most/all of their ground-floor units were handicap-accessible, but it was still one of those things that made me constantly wonder "am I supposed to be in this apartment?".

But yeah, the curb-cut effect is absolutely real and I agree that a lot of accessibility features should just be standard practice/design.

The thing that can feel bad is nobody with disabilities needed it when you moved in - but how would you ever know if someone was looking once you’re renting?

Which is why for things like that we’re better off just building everything to better standards rather than designating some of them to be so.

But the ground-floor might be the key. Some apartments are not required to have elevators so the “upper units” are de-facto non-disabled units because they’re assumed wheelchair inaccessible. The trade off is to make all ground units fully accessible.

In older units and even single family rentals, some areas provide funding to update for disabled access. So you can have someone renting a house and a tenant wants to add ramps and an accessible bathtub. The government pays for (or contributes to) the remodel, the tenant gets guarantees about availability, the landlord gets a “free” upgrade that doesn’t hamper future rentals.

I totally solved the bathtub size issue. The shape was wrong and Japanese had it right. I am 72 kg and 177cm. Very economical too, with 20 liters I can totally submerge. https://photos.app.goo.gl/HDwDf1s4PD3KoW3c8

I don't know how much of a joke this is, but it does seem like a pretty good solution. I wonder how easy it is to get in and out of it though.

It is flexible, so the width of the bucket is not critical. Of course it is essential you are from some nordic-asiatic squatting culture, and can squat comfortably for hours. Youtube-videos seem to prove that that you cannot become squatter later in life.

Anyways one should check the barrel at the junkyard. If you can get in, it is easier get out because the water is lifting you.

> Youtube-videos seem to prove that that you cannot become squatter later in life.

Wait, really?

Squatting is like playing piano. If you don't start at the age of 5 then you will never be good at it.

That's not true though. I learned Piano at 18, and fine I may never become a virtuoso, but I'm good enough play what I want to play.

I learned to squat at 30. Hes full of it.

https://youtu.be/P_4CL4VS3Ug?si=qq9ic12gkyLuHpjc

He says that you can definitely learn it later in life, it's a muscle building exercise like any other

Its a bath... Youre gonna float which takes load off the squat. Its not hard and as someone who acquired squatting posture later in life youtube is wrong. Also why do you need to be able to squat for hours? How long are you bathing???

The problem is getting in and out. You have to basically enter it before it is filled (accessible version allow this).

In general:

The typical 60” bathtub is 60” because 60” is a common width for bathrooms.

60” is common because a reasonable size of door can swing past a reasonable size of sink cabinet when door jambs are reasonably sized.

Sure bathrooms could be larger, and on-suite bathrooms often are when the bedroom is large.

But mostly, larger tubs are not something typical homebuyers will pay premium for. Bathrooms are small for the same reasons garages are small and second and third bedrooms are small…they are unprofitable square footage.

This is the main reason for so many things about American houses. They’re designed to be sold and to match the legal requirements.

Write down all the things you’d look for in a house, and then be honest about which ones are actually non-negotiable. Bathtub size will be quite far down on the list.

Older, quieter areas where builders are building huge amounts of nearly identical houses will have more variety - simply because if you’re hiring someone to build for you you’ll make changes to fit you.

Or buy a house that has “unfinished” areas such as a basement - if it’s mostly empty but plumbed for a bath, you can later add a bathroom of any size. Just be aware that anything that deviates from “normal” around you affects resale - but in my opinion if you’re not selling in five years you should ignore resale and do what you want. It’s very hard to hurt resale, so make what you want. Adjust the countertop height to be right for your family when remodeling!

“Designed to be bought” is enharmonic to “designed to be sold.”

For most people an empty belly, not cake, is bread’s alternative.

And so, right now most people in the US can have a brand new tub that will fit where the old one is. Today. For a few hundred bucks (installation not included). Because Home Depot will have the cheap one’s in stock.

if you’re hiring someone to build for you

You are not most people even if that’s what most people you know can do.

Why is my showerhead only like 5 feet up the wall?

Landlord knew someone would pay despite that.

You proved them right.

Or your place is so old it made sense for the size of people a hundred years ago.

Often the older head was just a small jet at the height the pipe came out of the wall.

Later it got replaced with a bigger head that comes down somewhat.

It’s relatively painless to remove the head and add a pipe that moves it back up.

Because Mario and Luigi are very short.

Because the detachable sprayer is like a foot higher.

This seems especially common in hotels. Two things that are guaranteed to make me switch rooms of switch hotels are shower heads that only make it to my chest, and anywhere with a shower curtain.

Guess: The "standard" size was spec'ed a century or so ago, when people were generally smaller, and plentiful warm or hot water (the bigger the tub, the more you need) was generally far less available. And houses & bathrooms were generally smaller, too.

Old tubs are bigger though

When a bathtub involved soaking, it would have been longer so you could way back and soak.

Now it’s more considered a sit-up or for children only, and so the expense isn’t paid.

A newish trend is "soaking tubs", which are deeper than standard. Look into it if you're remodeling.

Maybe it's the other way around

What is great is that water births have gained in popularity in the US.

What is embarrassingly sad is many hospitals/birth centers just have a whirlpool-style tub which is not large enough for a woman in labor to maneuver to a (as most as it can be) comfortable position.

The best we encountered so far was just a very large basin, perhaps four feet by three feet. Everything else had weird bumps and such jutting into the water that is obviously designed to reduce water usage for a whirlpool bath.

The best would be the dedicated large round tubs that are just small pools: then there is no difficulty getting to the position you need.

Japanese tubs are bigger partly because they are meant to have more than one person.

But in addition they are typically unit bathrooms - like prefab that are installed in a unit in like a day or two. This makes them way cheaper than USA bathrooms. In USA you need contractor, carpenter, plumber, electrician all at diff times and that makes the bathroom really expensive to install.

I assume that if bathrooms were cheaper in the USA we would have bigger/nicer ones. That could be with a bigger bath.

What do you mean with undersized?

My standard European bathtub is roughly 140x52 cm on the inside.

That is too short. So either the knees, or the upper body stick out of the water.

Not sure about the width though. What is the average width of an American? Being wider than half a meter seems unusual.

When I was a teenager I dreamed of having a huge bathtub. Now I own a tiny apartment (EU) with a bathroom that is too small for even a tiny bathtub. Ironically my working-class parents' apartment has a much bigger shower.

Single Bathroom dimensions are typically standard in housing.

Unless you're not in the typical single-family home design, which is basically the GI Bill '40s Military Base housing DNA.

And because of this - billions of tubs could be manufactured at standard rates and allow the US to expand after WWII with a standard of hygiene as a part of our culture as we 1st-worlded.

So now, large tubs are a matter of being a spender and you paying top dollar for anything non-standard in the US.

WHen I was a kid, we had a house in tahoe and it had a two huge tubs - an internal hot-tub that was a giant 6' diameter half wine-stave-style tub, and a large 5'x5' shower/tub that had two shower heads.

It was built by an awesome hippy guy in Tahoe. Ever since then, I love nice tubs.

Americans are oversized for tubs. Americans are majority very fat.

Tubs usually aren't too narrow. Tubs are usually too short.

I'm American, 6'2", 150lbs, and I agree tubs are too small.

My solution was to get a stool so I can sit in the shower.

I'll defend my right to relax in hot water and I'll fight to the death naked anyone that challenges me is my stance.

Onsen/Sento culture needs to find its way to the West

150 lbs at 6'2"? You must be rail-thin.

I'm thin, but according to BMI charts I'm a healthy weight.

5’3 120 lbs here and even I feel like tubs are too small to be an enjoyable experience

I'm only 3.7 nm tall and I think tubs are too incomprehensibly vast to be enjoyable. On the other hand, so is water itself, so no bath for me.

Can't they be both? I'm a 6'4" Swedish guy and I feel like Donkey Kong in Mario Kart in a bath tub.

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