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Comment by tomp | Hacker News Reader

How about the ancient technology of the separate cold/boiling hot water pipes? I'm not an american, but that's the most odd thing I find about the UK.

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However, we get to laugh at your wildly under engineered electrical plugs.

[And yes, I know that we have crazy plugs because of our strange ways of wiring up houses. However, of all the places I've been the US has by far the worst plugs.]

Two notes about this:

1) It's not that common any more except in older buildings.

2) Historically, this was because only cold water was deemed potable because it came directly from the mains supply, whereas hot water would be lying around heating tanks etc. and might be contaminated. So by keeping them separate, you always knew the cold water tap was safe to drink from.

How do Americans do that? If you want to get both hot and cold water to somewhere?

I think he is talking about the separate water taps/faucets for hot and cold water instead of separate pipes

That seems to be more a Britain vs everywhere else thing. All my European friends always have a go at me about that.

I second this. Living in Germany I am blessed with the best of German water heating technology, which includes mixer taps (faucets). Whenever I go back to the UK to visit family, I end up scolding myself on the hot tap. My theory is that Brits either don't wash their hands, or if they do, they have a limited amount of time before the hot tap becomes too hot!

The trick is to move your hands to and fro between the two to keep the temperature ambient.

Aaah, gotcha.

Thanks!

Ah, la douche écossaise. Good for the circulation, says wikipedia.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douche_%C3%A9cossaise

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