Americans React: British vs American Bathrooms! CRAZY DIFFERENCES! FIRST TIME REACTION!
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- Опубликовано: 24 янв 2024
- Americans React: British vs American Bathrooms! CRAZY DIFFERENCES! FIRST TIME REACTION! Last Guest Star Friday for a while but ending it with a previous Guest, Debbie's Sister Lisa! Together we all sit down & take a "load" off to learn about the differences, which is better, and the similarities of the UK Bathrooms, or Loo, Cloakroom, Toilet, etc, Vs American Bathrooms/Restrooms! There are TONS of differences here and this is such a well put together video! Thanks to our friend Dara at Magenta Otter Travels for suggesting this to us and of course making it! Have a seat on the porcelain throne and get comfortable. Let's laugh & learn together what makes something so common, so different! Thank you SO much for watching! If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our channel, it is the BEST way to support our channel and it's FREE! Also, please click the Like button. Thank you for your support! *More Links below...
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Last Guest Star Friday for a while but ending it with a previous Guest, Debbie's Sister Lisa! Together we all sit down & take a "load" off to learn about the differences, which is better, and the similarities of the UK Bathrooms, or Loo, Cloakroom, Toilet, etc, Vs American Bathrooms/Restrooms! There are TONS of differences here and this is such a well put together video! Thanks to our friend Dara at Magenta Otter Travels for suggesting this to us and of course making it! Have a seat on the porcelain throne and get comfortable. Let's laugh & learn together what makes something so common, so different! Thank you SO much for watching! If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our channel, it is the BEST way to support our channel and it's FREE! Also, please click the Like button. Thank you for your support!
would recommend her Northumberland castle video
Once again I have subscribed because I keep getting unsubscribed when I look! RUclips doesn’t seem to want you to reach your goal. Please tell others to check.
In one of the recent Videos on The Mathews Fam Channel, it showed a Video about some State in America which takes all the Sewage from Toilets and turns it into the Drinking Water in your house.
No one sticks the plug in the sink and fills it up to wash your hands.
Enjoy the videos, like the commonsense approach to different cultures and history! Respectful of many traditions, willing to learn!
I'm almost 60 and I've Never heard anyone in the UK call a bathroom a cloakroom. That's nonsense.
A cloakroom is where you put coats in a club
Many houses in UK have two toilets - one in the bathroom upstairs and one downstairs in the cloakroom - where you may have pegs to hang up your coats (hence being called cloakroom).
@@mariacurtis9247 Okey doke, it doesn't ring a bell for us though! Maybe back in the Victorian era?!
@@murielscott9958never hung my coat up in a bathroom and I was born and raised in council houses., I have also lived in old and new houses. The only cloakroom I have used was in a club to hand in my coat, lol. it’s either the bathroom, the toilet, the loo, the bog, the little girls / boys room etc Iv also heard water closet or WC or the privy.
Yes the cloakroom or downstairs loo is often positioned near the front door. Often doubles as a place for coats as well as having a lavatory (loo) and sink
Im a builder (not a plumber) but some new builds will have an access panel in the form of a tile that has been mastic sealed closed (instead of grouted). The toilet is also fixed on a giberit frame and that toilet flush panel on the back can be removed for access to the cistern which is right underneath.
As a Brit my comments to the video are:
Our sinks aren’t that small, I’ve never seen small ones other than those shown that are in the back of the toilets.
I’ve never ever nor have I ever heard another Brit refer to a toilet as a cloakroom. A cloakroom is where you hang your coat.
Shower curtains are gross in my opinion, they end up trying to eat you whilst you shower, they get mouldy and they are just plain ugly and old-fashioned.
We do have sockets in our bathrooms but they are only shaving sockets which are also compatible with electric toothbrush charging too.
Also nobody in the UK uses the plug to mix the hot and cold water together unless you’re going to wash your body with it. The hot tap water is never instantly hot so if you turn it on you can wash your hands quickly before it turns hot.
I totally agree with your shower curtain comment, and yes it's so easy to wash your hands under the hot tap before it gets too hot, you just have to do it a bit lively and not linger too long.
We have a wet floor shower room, as my husband is in a wheelchair, but it was adapted from an existing en-suite shower room, so not bespoke. We have to have a shower curtain, as a door simply wouldn't fit in the available space and allow for the shower chair to be manoeuvred in. Having said that, we have mould resistant shower curtains with lead weights in the bottom hem to stop it moving around. They are washable and are changed every 10 days or so and that way, they never do get mouldy. In addition, there is enough room between the occupant and the shower curtain for it not to touch.
I find the small sinks are usually in the understairs toilets where space is more constrained. Other than that there normally aren't.
Wrong about nobody uses the plug to mix the hot and cold water, I used to do it all the time when I used to have to be clean shaved for a job I had years ago.
@@irenepaulton3392 Shower curtains are only gross, if your shower area isn't large enough. With a spacious area within the shower, the shower curtain never infringes on the area occupied by your body, and therefore never becomes 'gross', being automatically rinsed as you use the shower.
If there's still a problem, then rinse down the shower curtain with clean water from the shower head!
Why do people these days, expect everything to be done for them without making a reasonable effort themselves?
Dara is completely off about shower door. I’m not sure where she’s been but loads of people use shower curtains. I don’t like them as the coanda effect of the water drags the curtain into your. Most people in know have separate shower cubicles. I don’t like showers over the bath tubs. That hand held shower tub thing is only found in places where they are trying to be trendy. Don’t forget Dara is basing here experience on hotels rather than peoples homes. She’s very wrong about most of this - like electric showers. She stays in a lot of bed and breakfast places where they are often converted and bathrooms have been squeezed in. Please take all this with a pinch of salt
Exactly as I thought her experience is mostly of hotels
Most of these comparison videos aren't generally accurate.
Exactly! Our electric shower is very good! Also we have a shower curtain as it’s a wet room! People who don’t rinse the sink after cleaning their teeth are disgusting! Also we have a light pull in our bathroom! It has a weighted drop on it & we use that to pull down so we don’t touch the string! It’s easily replaced!
Same for the bricking up of the toilet tanks too. Out of all the homes I've gone to id say a good 2/3 or 3/4 DONT brick up their toilet tank as they know how annoying it will be to work in a tight space or might have to break in if something goes wrong.
@chrisaris8756 ... Shower curtains were much more common in the 1970s and 1980s. Personally I don't know anyone that uses them anymore. Last time we had one was back in the 1980s.
A cloakroom is somewhere to hang your coat. NOT a toilet 😂
In Scotland we sometimes call the toilet 'the cludgie'.
Aussie here- the toilet with the sink above to wash your hands. They are becoming more popular as an eco friendly option. The water that runs into the sink is clean. You wash your hands with it. As it drains from the sink it fills the toilet cistern and then that grey water is what is used to flush the toilet. It’s a great concept as instead of using fresh drinkable water to flush away sewerage is being used 1st.
That idea comes from Japan.
That sounds a great idea, though only in separate toilet rooms, as the sink is quite small. I can quite imagine it's a Japanese idea. 🙌😃
Mixer taps are common in the UK now. Brits find euphemisms like 'restroom' quite funny. We tend to call 'bathrooms' without baths 'toilets' or 'the loo'. Another word she did not mention is lavatory (from French 'lave', meaning to wash). The word 'toilet' is also a euphemism (from French 'toilette', meaning washing, dressing and attending to one's appearance).
I remember as a child reading an old-ish book that referred to a character "making a hasty toilet". I worked out it meant having a quick wash and brush-up.
You have neglected to mention 'The Crapper' named after Thomas Crapper, who developed the flushing water closet with the water trap to stop the smells. Going to 'The Crapper' is much more honest.
Maybe this video annoyed me more than it should but it can be frustrating when things are presented and documented as facts and maybe not everyone's experiences are the same. So maybe some hotels, b&bs and small buildings will have small sinks and no shower curtains and maybe the shower curtains are seen as old fashioned and not particularly pleasant now but that is not the case everywhere, if you want a shower curtain in your home you can buy one, mixer taps are common as are the 2 taps in older homes, i have mixer taps with my sinks in both the kitchen and bathroom which are larger normal sized sinks. There are free toilets everywhere, in shopping centres, supermarkets, pubs and restaurants, a few where i live have been upgraded to have a no touch flush toilet system where you just hover your hand over the top and it automatically flushes, and the same with the taps, i have heard the term cloakroom used for a room to store coats in homes and nightclubs and for small downstairs toilets but in my family it normally gets called the down stairs toilet lol.
TOTALLY agree. So much variation around the UK. This is a limited experience video, even if it took two years to compile. 😊
Girls. Shower curtains are common in the UK. Electric showers are also common, but you have to learn how to set the water pressure, because the mains pressure is usually very high. Where do Americans get the hot shower water from if not from a heat flow system. In the UK instant gas heated water is also quite common. The old hot storage tanks are no longer much used, as the water soon runs cold & takes a long time to reheat. Switch pull strings can be made to any length required.
The hot water is never scolding immediately, nor is the cold freezing. Not using the plug wastes water. Keep the sink clean then there's no problem. Use hairdryers in a room with power outlets, like the bedroom.The separate taps are to stop good cold water, which must be drinkable, being contaminated by warm water which might contain bacteria. The high voltage means things work faster & more powerful, so kettles, hair dryers, drills, etc are more effective & faster.
We usually have large water heaters that are able to provide enough for even a fairly long shower.
Technology Connections has a video about the dual heating element setup they have so that if you do use the hot water faster than it can heat it, there’s still extra time once all the water it started with is gone as it switches to heating the half warmed water at the top up to temperature. So big tank, four or five feet tall, that can basically supply at least one and a half tanks of hot water no matter how fast you’re using it.
How water storage tanks are used in a lot of UK newbuilds - either to work with solar installations as the default load (in the UK we have nearly 1.5 million homes with those), or where systems are being installed that heat up overnight on a low tariff.
Hot water cylinders are still very common and still extensively spec'd on the better jobs. The instantaneous hot water from the combi boiler is at main pressure, typically not more than 3Bar (45psi) but the problem revolves around how much water can be heated instantaneously to serve all the outlets and it is not uncommon to see cold water from the shower due to too many outlets being open at once. Stored hot water in modern cylinders is actually a cheaper solution for most family dwellings and they can be mains fed (unvented) or tank fed (vented) The old tank fed water supply is ideal when you have power showers (we have two) and when the water supply is cut. It is unfortunately not uncommon for the water supply to fail in winter and with a combi boiler fed off the mains you will lose drinking water, washing H&C water and heating, whereas with tank water you still have heating and at least a day's supply of water that can be used for washing or boiled for drinking. The ONLY reason that combi boilers are popular (with builders and plumbers) is that they are easy to install and don't require a HW cylinder airing cupboard. A properly sized cylinder and tank storage should never run cold.
@@JustMe-dc6ksWE have 210ltrs of stored hot water that has never run out even though we have at one time used two power showers 3 times together with a bath, plus the domestic use. That system is heated by a central heating solid fuel cooker in winter and by night time immersion heater in summer.
@@clivewilliams3661 I'm a 61 year old Englishman, I've lived through power cuts but never a failure with the water supply.
The 2 taps thing is a hold over from the days when the hot water and the cold water came from separate supplies (hot water tank, cold water tank) - generally the cold water tank water was not meant to be for drinking. These days here I'm sure newer bathrooms have the single spigot mixer taps. My bathroom was new 40 years ago, it still has separate taps but I've never found it a problem, I just keep the sink clean.
You mean the hot water tank wasn't for drinking not the cold.
@@kwlkid85 I was always told to not drink from either, the cold water tank would be the obvious one to drink from but the cold water tank was not readily accessible so you couldn't check it was clean and nothing was in there. The kitchen usually was mains fed so the water flushed the pipes all the time. My flat now has the bathroom has main feed.
@@kwlkid85 . Sorry, no; cold water storage tanks were and still are quite common in older properties. There is the risk of standing stagnant water and possible rodent contamination, if the lid gets loose. So spitting out after brushing teeth would be essential.
Never seen or had a tiny sink here. Shower curtains are everywhere, but not liked, most showers have full doors
I have had a shower and mixer taps in my house for over twenty years. I have a shower/bath which has a curved end and a swing out shower screen, so that it encloses the showering area.
We had an electric shower years ago and it is ok if it is hooked up to mains pressure water, but not from a tank.
Most of the public toilets are also either mixer taps, hands free, or an all-in-one washer/dryer. The British toilet is our castle! I can't remember the last time I actually got in a bath tub. Only 140 year old house, that's almost new!
How do you clean your US toilets without a brush?
UK bathrooms may have a two pin socket that is high up (normally on a cabinet or mirror) and can be used for toothbrush charger or electric razors.
I am not a plumber, but concealed cisterns have to have an access panel built into the wall. If done well they look like part of the wall.
Electric showers usually have a minimum pressure requirement of 1bar, which for all practical purposes means that the tank supply must be in the attic of a 3 storey house with the electric shower on the ground floor to satisfy that requirement.
I was surprised when she said you always have to pay to use public toilets in UK, I only know one this applies to, it's by a beach and has no other means to pay for upkeep. I do quite a bit of travelling and never need to pay.
Yes I thought that weird also, I will admit that most toilets at the seaside you do pay a charge for, but not in other places, we have public toilets in our local town that are free, and all the public toilets in the nearest city to me are also free to use.
Public toilets in my town in Leicestershire are not free . However there are loads of pubs and cafes so we tend to nip into one of them if we're desperate
Train stations like Waterloo you have to pay as well
Try Bus stations, Train Stations and hundreds of others, Usually 20p
@@sharonlock6452 get on to your Council about not having free toilets - if you need to go then you shouldn't have to pay - it's a basic human necessity!! I have teenage daughters and if they need to use a public toilet I want them to be able to have free facilities to keep clean and relief themselves.
I'm in a post-2000 build flat in London, and I have mixer taps on both my bath and bathroom sink. So, the historical reason for separate taps is because the hot water used to come from a hot water tank in the house's attic (that I guess people thought could grow nasties), that your house's boiler had spent hours preparing (cue comment about not using all the hot water in the morning before last person to get-up has had their shower), but since I'm in a modern flat where the boiler creates the hot water as it is needed, there's no need for separate taps, since there isn't a hot water storage tank.
Hot water NOT "from a hot water tank in the house's attic", but FED FROM a tank in the house's attic, so the cold water fed into the hot water boiler, hence the hot water supply, could not be guaranteed as pure.
I’m in the UK we dry our hair in the bedroom, most bedrooms will have dressing tables. The shower doors have a seal on the bottom that prevents water going anywhere but back in the bath. Small sinks are normally for cloakrooms they are very popular in downstairs toilets plenty big enough just to wash your hands.
Yes we have shower curtains (gross imo) yes we have glass panels, yes we have mixer taps, yes we have separate taps, yes we have electric showers yes we have normal showers, yes we have large and smaller houses. Those tiny sinks are not the norm they may be fitted in small spaces like in a down stairs toilet or tiny new builds but not in your average house bathroom or kitchen. You don't have to pay in every public toilet in fact i can't remember the last time i paid using a toilet, plus most restaurants, supermarkets, fast food chains will have free toilets. This video seemed to suggest that everywhere is same with not much choice but there is!
Good response !
We almost always have mixer taps, if we need to use a sink for water we make sure it is well rinsed and then give a final rinse after draining the dirty water. In modern public bathrooms, we have automatic taps which switch on when you put your hands below. So you don't have the need to touch the taps, which are usually not regularly rinsed, as is the sink.
The reason for separate taps was for safety again, hot water is stored in a tank which can become infected due to natural bacteria, as those Americans guys found out in 1976 when Legionnaires disease caused illness and deaths. To quote Wikipedia:- "Legionnaires' disease acquired its name in July 1976, when an outbreak of pneumonia occurred among people attending a convention of the American Legion at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. Of the 182 reported cases, mostly men, 29 died." We now make sure that hot water is heated to a level where any bacteria are killed, so mixer taps are now safe. Previously if infected hot water came through a mixer tap it could leave bacteria which would infect any cold water used, say, for human consumption and cause illness.
Unfortunately, we do not make sure that the water is heated to a safe level i.e. 65+degC and the Govt constantly remind us to turn the temperature down to save energy. The Legionella outbreak was due to the cooling water in the air conditioning that was open to the atmosphere and had nothing to do with hot taps and the bacteria was growing in 40-45degC water . The original Water Council advice was to have taps that could not cross contaminate because many cold water storage tanks were open topped and those tanks fed the hot water cylinders. I have known open top tanks in the attics of some buildings to have dead pigeons floating in them that would clearly generate bacteria. The Water Council were paranoid about the mains supply being contaminated as the cold tap in a bathroom wash basin should have mains drinking (potable) water. With mixer taps it is quite possible to accidentally add a small amount of hot water into water that is drunk or used for cleaning teeth.
@@clivewilliams3661 HSE recommend a temperature of 60°C as sufficient to control Legionella, with a temperature at the tap of 50°C, and modern installations will generally fulfil that requirement. When my heat pump was installed, the installer insisted, quite rightly, that an immersion heater be installed in the hot water tank controlled by the system itself to ensure the minimum temperature was achieved. I agree about open cold water tanks as I was a heating engineer at one time (now retired), I came across many older tanks, in one school I worked at the cold water supply tank not only had dead pigeons, but it was discovered that it was being used as a urinal by a couple of pupils who had gained access. The whole system was drained and then disinfected, with improved security to prevent it happening again.
@@TerryD15 I appreciate the limit of 60degC but that is the lower limit, not the temperature that the system should be set to IMO. A 65degC setting accounts for the vagaries of the immersion switching and temperature stratification in the cylinder as well as the accuracy of the thermostats. Our immersion is set to 70degC for safety as the dial on the 'stat is very small and setting an accurate 65degC is suspect and 60degC questionable. We have a central heating cooker that has a completely variable output, occasionally up to boiling point! so that we use the immersion as our safety monitor for the lower limit.
I used to work on many schools and at one that had been built on the site of a early 19thC mansion, where the mansion housed a few classrooms and the admin. The roofs had a valley gutter that discharged through one of the roofs to the far side gutter via an open channel, this allowed all sorts of animals to use the roof space and of course this was where the lead open topped cold water tank was, with the invariable dead pigeon in it. Over all the years that the site was a primary school no-one thought to question the installation (because it hadn't failed) until I raised it formally with all the parties involved (stakeholders in education parlance). We also had an issue with the Cistermisers in the male staff toilets, where the urinals weren't flushing and smelling very badly as a result, simply because the male teaching staff didn't wash their hands after going to the toilet. The delicate diplomatic conversation I had to have with the Head was at another level as she was in total denial and blamed the system design/construction. We swapped the Cistermisers out for a standard auto flush contrary to Council standing orders.
I think it's about understanding how diverse homes can be here, from 14th century to Victorian terraces to modern apartments and the various differences you'd require.
Literally everyone has already highlighted to you that yes we have mixer taps, yes we have shower curtains (yuk) and we require some innovative space saving and green solutions to our bathroom and cloakrooms.
Loo brushes are a useful tool that somehow those who really should use them fail to bother leaving it for those who come after but in the main our loos flush well and they tend to be used only for your normal bathroom cleaning rather than cleaning skid marks.
Those cord lights are brilliant, you can also add some personality to your bathroom by what you put up on the end of the pull.
Fundamentally the differences are subtle excepting the awful doors in US public loos.
I’ve seen plenty of shower curtains in Britain, I’ve got one myself. A half glass partition is also very common though.
I dislike glass partitions which swing to one side for cleaning. . I hate that niggly leak that no matter how hard you try to seal the bottom of the glass the water always finds a way to dribble through. Also if you turn up the pressure the spray shoots way past the end of the glass. I replaced mine with a shower curtain.
@@valeriejackson7659 absolutely agree. It’s funny that the glass ones are seen as higher end but they’re much less practical in every way.
Glass ones are about as useful as a chocolate teapot, I’ve got a shower curtain inside my glass partition, lol
@@utterlee my son permanently sealed a new one because of the leak problem, now his wife hates the new one even more because she has to climb into the bath to clean it. I'm so glad I opted for a shower cubicle.
@@valeriejackson7659 Yep, I hate those glass ones when they swing about and get whatever everywhere mid shower. Definitely prefer curtain or just a proper sealed stand up shower seperate the bath.
One bathroom related thing that always intrigues me is the US expression "go potty". For me a potty is a small receptacle used to train a small child to pee or poo in before they are old enough to use an adult toilet. Americans seem to use the phrase even if it is their DOG that needs to pee or poop!
I don't know anyone who quickly moves their hands from one tap to the next. We are British. We are use to the cold! We don't need to warm our hands that quickly! Also, the plug in the sink thing...if you are a clean person, it shouldn't matter. Your sink would be clean enough all the time to do that. But everyone i know doesn't put the plug in anyway.
Most public toilets nowadays have automatic taps, where you wave you hands under the tap to get it going or push a button. I cannot remember how long its been that I came across a public toilet where you have to pay so I am unsure where this lady got this idea from. Remember the reason for the no plug rule is because our electricity voltage is a lot stronger than yours. Most women I know just dry their hair in the bedroom with no problems.
OK now I feel old, my Nan had a 'vintage' toilet.
Every electric shower I've used has had great pressure no idea what she is on about unless the showerhead was corroded with limescale.
Shower curtains are very common on bath/showers again not sure what she is on about.
Maybe some 'Modern' bathrooms have super tiny sinks can't say I've ever seen one.
Showers used to be handheld years ago maybe you would encounter one in a place that was going for a 'vintage style' unlikely to find one nowadays otherwise.
And with our high voltage I'd much rather have a pull switch in the bathroom it may not look it but it really doesn't get any dirtier than a toggle switch.
I know the two tap issue seems odd it was a throw back that is now going out of fashion. But FYI it is actually more effective to wash your hands in cold water when trying to remove bacteria/germs. It's the soap that removes them, you couldn't wash your hands with water hot enough to kill them without burning your skin off. All you are doing by using hot water is warming up your hands to make a good breeding ground for them.
Electric showers have great pressure but crap flow and are generally very low grade IMO. We have two power showers, one with 35ltrs;min flow and the other 28ltrs/min flow and its a wonderful experiencing in a hot drenching shower. To put this n perspective, the output of one shower exceeds the incoming flow of the mains water, which would supply an electric shower but the flow is throttled back to allow the instantaneous heater element to heat the incoming water.
(19.48) That's not a towel rail on the wall over the bath - it's a Grab or Grip rail for anyone who needs a bit of extra support while getting in and out of the bath.
If I see one more American video about separate taps being boiling hot or freezing cold I’ll screeeeeeeeaaaaam, you’re not showering or bathing your washing your hands.
In 99.9% of homes the boiler will be 20 feet away maybe more so when you turn the tap on you will get a gallon of water out which is still left in the pipe before you can feel any heat, more than enough to wash your hands.
Nobody would fill the hand basin up to wash their face in a public toilet for goodness sake as for your own home if you clean your own hand basin you should be able to eat your dinner in there never mind wash your face.
We do have outlets in our bathrooms, but they are low power, i.e. 5 amps, these are for toothbrushes and electric razors. Remember, not only is our Voltage double your normal 110V, but our power ratings are substantially higher. We also have electrical 'trips' we call RCDs (Residual Current Detectors) but we prefer the safer option and towel dry our hair in the bathroom and use the electrical dryer in the bedroom, and don't rely on fallible electrical safety devices. In a damp atmosphere, a light switch can become conductive, we prefer the safer option (I was once an electrician). Small sinks are not common, especially in the home, except occasionally as a 'convenience' sink in very small toilet cubicles or where room is restricted as a secondary appliance, our sinks generally are the same size or similar to the one she showed in her US home. We have glass doors on our showers, one section is fixed, the other folds and opens, I have seen many American movies and shows where there are shower curtains, the classic is of course Psycho. The electric shower is convenient with instant hop water, they can be boosted as what we call a 'power shower'. i haven't had a light string break in 50 years and it doesn';t get dirty as we use the Stainless steel handle. The hidden tanks are rare. Our water level is much higher than th eone she shows.
That was a great video but we do have mixer taps and I definitely don’t fill the sink to wash my hands. I don’t have a toilet brush as they are disgusting and my cistern is not hidden. Also have a shower curtain in my wet room and my electric shower works really well. However I realise thats not the case for everyone. It was certainly interesting as were all the comments. Love ya both, next video i’ll be back in Scotland ❤️❤️
If you don't have a toilet brush, how do you get rid of "skid-marks"? Toilet brush designs have improved vastly in recent years. I have two different ones (one a slimline flattish head with short studs on it and one with spiral flared "blades"). They are both made of silicone with a lotus-effect dirt- and water-repellent surface coating. They never have any visible residues on them and I park them in brush containers filled with a disinfectant solution that gets changed every couple of days. These brushes are very efficient at cleaning the toilet pan, and since they repel water, there is no problem with drips either.
@@alicemilne1444 disposable cleaners and rubber gloves Alice
Agree with you, I hate toilet brushes ! 🤢
When you wash your hands after the toilet use running water most public bathrooms have automatic water to wash your hands no taps The brushes are used for cleaning if you don’t have brushes how do you clean the toilet Never lived in a house or seen a shower without a curtain or shower glass By the way girls the Royals & aristocracy say lavatory not toilet lots of love from your 89 year young uk fan 💕🇬🇧
We have toilet brushes. We don’t usually clean toilets other than our own.
we also CLEAN our sinks after brushing our teeth so start with a clean sink. we also clean the sink after washing.
I don't recall ever seeing a plug in the sink in a public lavatory in the UK.
Hi Natasha, Debbie and Lisa,
I hope I can clear up a few misconceptions from this video.
Electric showers - These are fairly uncommon, usually people have whats known as a combi boiler which is a gas powered heater that delivers high pressure instant hot water. Some older houses may have water tanks too.
Pull-Cord Light Switch - I believe that these are as you mention to prevent touching a high voltage switch with wet hands. I would say they are no more common than having a switch on the outside, its also possible to have water resistant switches on the inside too. To mitigate the issue of a dirty cord most people buy weighted handles for the end of the cord which can be easily cleaned.
Shower Curtain - I've always had a shower curtain and 90% of everyones house I visit has a curtain, the glass walls are a more modern design and you typically see them on new bathrooms, I admit some of them are poorly designed and do not keep the water in the tub.
Embedded Toilet Cistern - This is a fairly new concept found on modern bathrooms and is usually done to save space, there will be an access point to reach the cistern for sure. In the bathroom featured in the video I would guess the top tiles of the shelf would be on a removable panel.
Toilet water levels - A debate to last the ages, as far as I know the high water level is exclusively an American thing. There are pros and cons of both, I have personally experienced a splash when using toilets in America which grossed me out, but maybe you guys have a special technique to prevent that which is only learnt growing up in the State? :)
Seperate Taps - This is way less common than you would think, I would guess that 90% of homes have a mixer tap these days but people with old houses may still have seperate taps and people sometimes install them for that classic style but I personally cant stand them. They are most common in old homes and hotels (which is why tourists think they are so common) You will almost never find them in public bathrooms so dont worry.
All the homes I have lived in in in 60 odd years always had electric showers.
Yes we have a combi boiler, we also have an hot water tank as well. Which came in handy when our boiler broke down as we could still heat the hot water in the tank. On your tap comment, I think 90% is a bit exaggerated as thousands and thousands of houses in the UK still have two taps. Even up till the mid 1990s it was still standard to fit two taps into new UK homes.
Separate taps are usually seen in public restrooms... I visit an ENORMOUS number of historic homes in Britain and I see separate taps all the time. I also have seen people install separate taps in brand new bathroom remodels in their homes because they look twee.
@@MagentaOtterTravels Not in public toilets near me or pubs /restaurants toilets some have the automatic water taps that you don't need to touch, my family all have mixer taps including myself i live in a 200 year house that was renovated. i can imagine in some historical houses you would find separate taps if thats the style they want.
Wait until gas boilers are banned. Then I guess we'll either have to use those ghastly electric showers, or go back to having a hot water tank.
The handheld shower taps on a bath are for washing/rinsing your hair so you don’t have to dip your head/hair into the dirty bath water.
Pull cords are for safety, wet hands on a light switch could create an electric shock.
@eddavid1 i have that in my shower
That's why you wash your hair first if you're having a bath surely.
@@lottie2525 just options, for instance if you just want to wash your hair without having a shower or bath.
@@cddavid1 Or rinse the bath after cleaning it, or wash your pet.
@@AmethystDew yes, they’re perfect for washing the bath cleaner away or as you say washing pets.
I've followed Dara and her perpetual young husband Ian for ages, but sometimes she gets a little bogged down in the subject. Many houses have one fewcet,we also have a tap that gives instant boiling water, cold water and sparkling. Our bathrooms have separate showers two with baths. Our shower has enough room for three,not that we've tried it. All cafés and larger restaurants are obliged by law to provide toilet facilities free. The public toilets are charged to maintain them ,although that is questionable,public toilets are not as easy to find now due to drug users , planting bombs and used by some for other things. Small sinks hands only ,the sink on top of the cistern may also be used to recycle water into the toilet. If you have a small sink at home with two fawcetts it's up to you to change them. Cloakroom room a throw back to the passed for the over sensitive Victorians . Debbie my mother who was 5' 6" all her son's were 6" + . We would call her little mom and she would say in reply," God never made diamonds as big as house bricks, did he" ?
'bogged down in the subject.' I see what you did there. 🤣
I suppose the towel rail is more common the UK because we much more often have hot water based central heating. The towel rail is often part of the central heating system carrying hot water that gets piped around all the rooms in the home and then reheated in the boiler.
US homes are more likely to have forced air central heating instead of water based.
The towel rail is just a strangely-shaped radiator. It's very easy to get someone to replace the radiator in the bathroom with a towel rail.
Lots of misconceptions in this video. We have a full length shower door and electric shower. We also have mixer taps in the bathroom, kitchen and downstairs toilet. We don't need to dry our hair in the bathroom, I dry my hair in the bedroom. Our voltage is 240 not 110 which can be more dangerous. I've lived in American style houses in the Middle East and apart from the voltage there's not much difference.
Good grief! Talk about tarring everyone in UK with the same (toilet) brush. I personally set my hot water temperature to the correct temperature, so as not to scald even grandchildren's hands. If you need to cool the hot water down, then you are wasting money and resources (we do have water shortages in UK sometimes, even though some ignorant foreigners think that it rains all day, everyday here in England etc...) Soap kills germs on your hands and also therefore in the washbasin. I know some people consider having a bath equates to wallowing in your own muck, but again, the germ killing purpose of using soap, keeps things fairly safe. Seeing as humans have been bathing for many thousands of years, I think you will be safe. As far as shower curtains are concerned, we have been using them for about as many years as USA is old. These days many showers are actual enclosed cubicles, which stop any flooding in the room which this American seems to be able to do. Again, as has already been mentioned, hotel and public places of lavatorial facilities are very different to private households. So many of these RUclips videos are hosted by USA folk which are down right wrong in so many cases, even though in this particular case, the lady has got thirty years or so experience. The ones that are newbies have got no chance. The blind leading the blind, once again, springs to mind.
It rains nearly every day here in England.Raining now and it's forecast for the next three days. However, the water companies neglect repairing underground leaks so we have water shortages. Annoying when our garden is often under water in heavy rain. Even in wet summers.
Fully agree, minus the concept of soap killing germs/bacteria; it holds on to them & washes them away, but, unless it's a specific antibacterial formula, then that's how it keeps us clean.
Shower curtains are so naff. They just wrap themselves around you, and you freeze to death.
Not to mention the mildew which eventually builds up on the plastic!
Shower curtains are washable so there shouldn't be an issue with mildew
Electric showers are the norm, I will say that the pressure issues she mentioned is variable from shower to shower and house to house. I’ve lived in homes that have terrible pressure issues and some that have none
strange, electric showers operate on mains water pressure which is pretty much the same throughout the UK, problem was most likely a blocked shower head.
Poor water pressure from an electric shower is often due to underpowered showers. You really need 10KW or more for a high-power shower. Also the shower head can make a big difference, the cheaper ones often have tiny holes that impede the water flow.
But even then it will never compete with a pumped mains water shower like they often have in the US.
@@alangauld6079 ... The problem is easily solved with a shower pump, brings the water pressure up lovely giving you a powerful shower.
@@martinwebb1681 Yes, that's what I meant by a pumped mains shower, but I've never seen one of those that works with an electric shower, they usually have to use the house water supply. And they are often limited by mains pressure - I can't get one fitted because the mains pressure is too high.
I have an electric shower with an auxiliary pump. Using the pump AND the heater costs a fortune in electricity for a long, hot, powerful shower (which practically knocks you over!) as it's running at some massive kilowattage, about 15kw I think. It's a beautiful thing, very easy to adjust with many different settings from a warm soft drizzle to a hard, hot thunderstorm!
I don't normally use the 'high pressure' option, the ordinary one is plenty hot and powerful enough for me. I didn't have it put in - it's a housing association retirement flat, which was tenanted for a few weeks by a gentleman whose family had the place professionally revamped _entirely_ - new carpets, new bathroom, new kitchen, freshly painted, laminated flooring, patio decking, etc etc - then he decided he 'didn't like it' and went to live with his daughter in law. I was offered it and jumped at the opportunity!
I'm not actually going to watch this. Judging by the thumbnail, it saying we use single taps for hot and cold. Well, we do, in the 1950s. Judging by some of these comments, it sounds like they are well off. I've been to the states a lot, lived in Vegas for a while (don't judge me) and i can safely say there is really not a lot of difference at all.
No disrespect to the lady narrator but this assessment is very misleading.
Firstly, the string pull system is very common, and the string is so easily replaced if it gets dirty. A lower light switch here in the bathroom is usually a no no for safety reasons.
Secondly, shower curtains are extremely common, at least 50% of bathrooms, still because if used properly are more water proof than solid glass screens where the seals are ineffective.
Thirdly, electric showers are incredibly common too, and despite what she says, the pressure is fine if fitted properly or appropriately depending on the area.
Fourthly, I'm in my sixties. No-one here apart from perhaps a hotel would call a bathroom a cloakroom. Some of these hotels have sections where a coat is put, near to the toilets,
Fifthly, for 99% of the time, one does not pay to use a public convenience in the UK. Admittedly it is more difficult to find them these days with the cut backs in public services.
I could go on......for example in all my days, I've never heard of toilet tank concealed behind a wall. No doubt a new fangled idea to look neat and to hide things. A recipe for trouble in my opinion.
Btw the lid on a loo is there for a purpose - it prevents aerosols created whilst flushing from escaping and contaminating the air and surfaces. Those who hover or who don't shut the lid before flushing and who don't clean the loo afterwards ready for the next user are simply disgusting!! The bath was typically in a separate room to the loo to prevent aerosols from contaminating the bath. Also - bathing without having first showered is disgusting - who would wallow in water containing dead skin and dirt and soap or other chemicals if they actually knew how repulsive that is ? A bath should be used *after* you have cleaned yourself and ensured the bath is clean. Shower curtains are nasty - much better to have a separate show cubicle with full door. Finally - is it really true that American public toilet cubicle doors don't automatically show whether the cubicle is vacant or not ? In the UK the act of latching the door from the inside automatically shows that the cubicle is occupied, and unlatching sets the status to vacant. No need for gaps. To leave perve gaps around the cubicle doors is perverse !
No one puts a plug into a public sink. That is not what you do. Most public toilets have mixer taps or automatic water dispensers.
I think most people I know call it the loo. I have lived in my house for nearly 30 years & we have a string pull light, I have never given it a thought, the string has never broke or got dirty as you have a ceramic or plastic pull 🤷🏻♀️. I have also never seen anybody filling up a sink in a public loo we just use the hot .
There is a very good reason for having separate taps on older houses. The hot water comes from a header tank and not direct from the mains supply, the two taps are to prevent possibly contaminated hot water from entering the cold water mains. That is the reason why you do not drink the water from bathroom taps. More recent systems do not require two taps.
When I clean my teeth and spit in the sink, I wash it away before using the sink for any other purpose.
Yes indeed ,so those big water towers you see out there are basically really the same thing but not in your house ,I saw a true crime doc when a body was dumped in one ..no ta .i brush my teeth with bottled water when I go over there
Yes, talking of being grossed out, imagine spitting your teeth cleaning residue out and not rinsing itaway! Barf. I like two taps - happy to wash my hands under the cold anyway. And two taps look nicer than the cycloptic effect of having one. You can get them in all kinds of beautiful styles and designs. And I can't see a need to wash my face in a public basin, and if you did, there would likely be more germs on the towel!
@@catgladwell5684 ... I'm with you, two taps every time for me.
@@richardcook9794 There are no water towers used for potable water now. Water is pumped from reservoirs, usually underground. The UK's water is clean and safe to drink from the tap or, if it isn't, the provider is legally obliged to make that clear to users.
Mixer taps forever. Separate or unitary controls according to taste.
Small basins are called cloakroom basins, so they can fit into small cloakrooms (informal: downstairs loo). A tiny cloakroom minimum width is 80cm (31.5 inches) so the cloakroom basin is usually wide but shallow in depth so you can get past it to use the loo in such a small space.
UK staircases are commonly 80cm wide and many cloakrooms have been retro fitted under the stairs on the ground floor (US first floor) in UK houses.
No need for separate taps anymore. I believe this was a safety issue and a hangover from when the hot water came from a hot water cylinder which was unsafe to drink from and the cold came from the mains (the road) and was safe to drink. Now the mixer tap valve properly shuts off the hot water and you can safely drink the cold water from a mixer tap (if it is in fact mains water and not from a cold water tank where birds and creepy crawlies can inhabit).
Toilets with concealed cisterns are liked because they look visually simple and modern and are easier to clean. There are two types of toilet pan :
- back-to-wall which physically sit on the ground
- wall hung which are supported by concealed bolts to a hidden metal frame.
The wall hung are easiest to clean because you can get a floor mop under them. They also give tiny UK bathrooms a larger feeling of space since they don’t go to the ground.
Cicterns are accessed via the large dual flush plate or the top shelf is often removable.
One solution is to integrate invisible removable panels above the wc pan with magnetic catches to access the wc pan soil pipe and water flush pipe.
You can still get the old fashioned wcs like in the US, called close-coupled wcs. The cistern can be directly touching the top of the wc pan or high above your head in a very old fashioned arrangement (usually Victorian or Art Deco style).
UK building regs require a fan to operate with the light switch and a 15 minute overrun even if there is an opening window. There are different air change requirements for cloakrooms, bathrooms, utility rooms and kitchens. It’s all to do with preventing mould growth in areas of high moisture in the home. Old bathrooms wouldn’t have this, but is a good idea to retrofit a fan if mould becomes a problem.
Yeah electric showers aren’t great but are better than nothing.
The best bath and shower design is to always also have a handheld shower. This is to rinse yourself or children down if you’re taking a bath or to rinse the bath or shower enclosure after cleaning. You can also have a shower without getting your head/hair wet or just wash your feet or child or person in the shower if you need to wash someone else, even your pooch!
An electric underfloor heating mat is also a nice thing to have under your bathroom / shower room tiled floor in cold UK bathrooms.
It’s handy having a socket for hair tools in a UK bathroom if it’s in a cupboard. Sometimes washer dryers are also in UK bathrooms in cupboards, especially handy on floors where the bedrooms are for ease of doing the laundry.
As a 'now retired' property maintenance operative, 'built in', or 'boxed in' toilet cisterns were a nightmare. When they inevitably had problems either through leaks, or the fill or flush valves failing, getting to them always required complete disassembly of the the tiling and the underlying woodwork to access them... which would then need re-building afterwards. The best way is the European solution... an exposed cistern, (easy access to the flush and fill valves) with a flexible, wire sheathed hose that incorporates a shut off valve supplying the water. When you're desperate for a wee or a poo, I don't think you're going to be too worried if the toilet looks pretty or not...
Why dry your hair in the bathroom? Most British homes have a dressing table in the bedroom with a large mirror where a woman sits and dries her hair and puts on her make-up (these go hand in hand, surely...).
Apart from train stations, I’ve never seen any public toilets that you pay to use.
Harrods had one some years ago. They had others that were free but also had this extra special one.
I've never had to pay in a train station but there are lots of public/council run, toilets where you have to pay. The most expensive one was 50p!! It was the norm back in the day, hence the phase " I'm just going/ need to spend a penny"
You see,we Brits are very private people.We would NOT tolerate the US toilet doors!LOL
She didn't mention that we also use the word Lavatory for a toilet.
I apologise,but not ALL toilets in the UK charge for use!This unfortunate idea is fast disappearing now.
I am 76,and have never understood WHY we have "pull cords" in our bathrooms.it is said that it is to stop people with wet hands being electrocuted.Yet,there is no "pull cord" in UK kitchens,where the likelihood of electrocution(due to steam etc) is more likely.Nobody can explain it!
The toilets with a "High Cistern" provide a much better flush that the "Low Level Cistern" as gravity causes the water to flush with more force.
Those tiny sinks are NOT usual in UK Domestic bathrooms.
Practically ALL UK home bathrooms HAVE shower curtains wrong idea there.
They don't shower sitting down, the bath illustrated has a shower attachment,primarily for washing your hair!
This woman is starting to annoy me!The water pressure in all parts of the UK varies,We live in the country and have good water pressure!
Electric showers provide hot water more quickly,and because of the thermostat more safely.
We have lived in our house for 24 years,and have never had a broken "pull cord"
I am getting more and more exasperated by this woman.I have never seen a cistern"buried" in a UK domestic bathroom wall.In a hotel yes,in a home no!
In the UK(and most of Europe),you rinse the basin with cold water first, and then place the plug in,and then mix the hot and cold together.
As a British plumber I can tell you that you get sinks in kitchens 😅😅and wash basins in bathrooms.
The light pull cord has a ceramic attachment to keep the cord clean.
If you have a problem with flushing it means it has not been adjusted properly. we have mixer taps here, the twin taps are a from the days when the cold water came from the main supply at high pressure while the hot came from a supply tank in the roof space at low pressure so they would not mix together. Also the roof tank could in extreme conditions become unsafe to drink hence all drinking water is taken from the cold water only.
Just another difference... I've been surprised at how annoyed Britons get when I call a basin in a bathroom a "sink". If you told an American to go find "the basin in the toilet"... they would be very confused! haha
Automatic fans are a building regulation requirement in the UK, every new build MUST have a fan installed in the bathroom.
It's a great idea because of the pervasive problem of damp! Rising damp is something we don't have in the US, but we do get mold in bathrooms. We should have mandatory fans as well.
@@MagentaOtterTravels every country has rising damp, the idea of the fan is to remove odours and steam as they will remain on for approx 5 minutes after the light is switched off.
@@georgebarnes8163 yes… Australian bathrooms have exhaust fans because of rising damp and I live in an extremely hot and dry state.
Dara is completely miss informed, perhaps 30 plus years we has single taps, the only time you see them is if it’s a period house
It's not the electric shower unit that is the reason she has problems washing her hair, it's because the house/flat has low water pressure. We have a cord in the bathroom for the light and a full glass screen for the shower, not many people use shower curtains. If you have a large bathroom then you will find a standard size hand basin, if you have a toilet downstairs (where guest use) then you will find small basins after all you are only washing your hand not having a strip wash lol. DON'T you clean your basin after you have spat into it, why the hell is this woman washing her face in a public wash basin.
I grew up in the 70's a lot of the things the lady in the video pointed out existed back then but many of them dont anymore. The separate taps, we just put the plug in and ran the water then shut the taps off and wash, then pull the plug. We had continuous towels as well when I was a kid. One towel in this machine that just rotated to the next clean bit. They were a really great way to catch any random disease. What I hate now is the sci fi taps in various places where you need a PhD to figure out how to turn them on or they complement you on your figure or something while you wash...On the toilet water level, we had a loo in our old house that had this but the water was really hard so it kept getting a ton of limescale on it. Many places in the UK had or have hard water and a lower water level reduces this.
She's being a bit misleading in the last part, the tiny sinks are what we have in the much smaller downstairs toilet WC not in the bathroom. And I'm a large 6ft 4 man and have the bath tub with a curved glass door, I don't splash water around the room, so I don't know what she's doing in there 😂😂. The enclosed toilet tank usually has an access panel, ours is where the flush button is
When I was a child in the 1950's we didn't have a bathroom. We lived on a mainline railway route into London in a Victorian mid terraced house that had not been changed since it was built in the 1850's. We had an outside toilet with a pull chain cistern with a half door so you could watch the steam trains go by which was magnificent at night. We didn't have manufactured toilet paper we had torn up newspaper on a nail. We didn't have a bath inside the house, we had a tin bath hanging on a nail on an outside wall that was brought in once a week put in front of the coal fire and boiled water from numerous kettle's boiled in a primitive kitchen. The bath was shared with my 5 sisters and two brothers (a good Catholic family) so if you were the last in you probably came out dirtier than when you got in. It was only in the mid 1960's we enclosed the outside toilet whilst building a small extension on the back of the house to gain a bathroom off the kitchen. Terrible by modern standards I know but that was how many working class family's all over the U.K. lived with probably many more in slums throughout Britain in even worse conditions after the second world war. We were the lucky ones.
Tiny sinks are only used in a second toilet, usually put in what would have been a very small area.
You can change the water pressure
Hi ladies. I am not a plumber but I installed our main bathroom and our downstairs restroom. I put our toilet water tanks buried in the wall in both rooms but it is a false wall from the floor up to around 4 ft. with a shelf above the tank. The shelf is tiled and looks like it is part of the wall but it lifts off for easy access to the plumbing and tank.
The hot/cold tap thing is quite a thing. We are used to it but I have installed mixer taps everywhere because they are better.
The thing about washing your face in a dirty, unhygienic sink is not really an issue because we are always cleaning up and using antibacterial spray after every use. It only takes seconds to clean and spray.
Elderly and disabled people often sit to shower. My own bathroom was converted last year into what we call a wet room, whereby the walls are covered with surfaces that can be splashed endlessly and simply wiped clean, while a non-slip floor that slopes very gradually into a central drain is also installed, with a shower enclosed within a simple modesty curtain. I have an extra-wide, free-standing stool to sit upon during my shower, plus a medium-sized wash basin alongside; and a wash-dry type toilet that cleans you with warm water, without any need to use paper... It also caters for female bodies - and I offer no further explanation as those who need such facilities will surely know how to use them! In both cases, there is also a blow-dry facility, that can be adjusted in terms of direction, velocity and temperature - all achieved by remaining seated for the whole programme, and using a remote control handset, if required. 🙂
My friend has a loo with the basin in the top in her guest loo. It's very eco friendly as the water from the basin fills the cistern, as well as being space saving in a very small space.
This is the first time in my 40 years on the planet (99% of it in the UK) that I have ever heard of anyone flushing the loo with their feet. That seems simultaneously weird and skillful. I would probably just lose balance and fall over.
Let me explain... in the US, most public toilets have a horizontal lever about 18 inches off the ground that you use to flush the toilet. It is very convenient to push down on that with your foot. Then there's no hands being put on dirty knobs/levers. I'm not sure I've seen that in the UK.
Who knows, it might be convenient for them because maybe that's already the position where they conduct their business.
You really don't have to pay to use public toilets over here, maybe the odd one or two in major cities like London for example, but on the whole it really isn't a thing.
The reason for lack of electric showers in the USA is your voltage, here in the UK a typical 3Kw electric shower would pull over 12 amps, you would need to supply almost 30 amps for the same heat output.
Why wouldn't you run the taps and rinse the sink before filling it up? Kinda makes sense!? Plus most homes that are newish or have been renovated have mixer taps. The water tank in the attic / loft has been stopped and removed in homes for years. The toilet tank is usually behind a removable panel above the toilet
Kia ora - 67 yo kiwi here -I was today years old when I met the concept of flushing with feet!
Toilet originally referred to the process of washing and grooming. Hence the toilet water as an old name for perfume. But it’s come to mean the actual lavatory.
Yes, as I understand stand it, the word toilet is actually a French word meaning, To wash and is pronounced 'Twa-let' with an even emphasis across the word.
@@kennym5898 Based on my basic secondary school education in French, modern French seems to have become similar to English because "les toilettes" = the toilets = place where you pee. Nowadays, if you were talking about washing the body, the verb "se laver" (to wash) appears to be typical. A fun bit of cultural and etymological convergence I guess?
Indeed, I'd be surprised if Natasha and Debbie don't have a bottle of "Eau de toilette" in their house.
Maybe. It’s an old fashioned term though so maybe not.
Yes the word toilet means to clean. I worked in operating theatre and we would have patients who came in for toilet and suturing of a wound
Shower screen the water is designed to pour straight down so theres not too much splashing out. Public toilets usually have 1 tap, i have a mixer tap on my bathroom sink but grew up with separate. We used cold water to wash hands. Hot water with plug in for your little wash with a flannel (wash cloth) and you rinse the bowl afterwards so its clean for the next person. Light switch is a pull cord attached to a ceiling switch, modern houses often have a normal light switch outside the room, but thats homes built within the last 20yrs. The water level, we never had a problem (only occasionally needed to brush) but the tpilet we have now is a special compact design and it is a major issue.
On electric showers. They are often installed incorrectly in the UK. Each one has a max and minimum operating pressure stated by the manufacturer. You are supposed to measure the water pressure and then buy a suitable shower. They then work with correct pressure. If you don't have the correct mains pressure then install a booster pump. Easy but most people don't like the additional cost. All back to wall toilets must have access points and an isolation valve, for obvious reasons.
Hmm some of this isn't typical in every house or hotel etc, so i think this is a bit misleading. I have mixer taps on all my sinks in my house and are more popular in more modern builds say in the last 30 years, these separate taps may still be around in some older homes & hotels in the UK as i remember my nans house having them but i think they are becoming much less these days as older houses get updated. Most public toilets i have used also have mixer taps and some where you don't even have to touch it the water automatically pours out, i have never seen the really small sinks so not very common either. I have a pull cord in my bathroom its for safety against water or condensation getting in as the voltage is higher in the UK.
@Ava-Marie4 Yes I agree and the fact that the so called experienced lady in this mis-leading video, reckons that short people might not be able to reach a string pull light switch, just about sums up how ridiculous most of the video is. The string lasts for a long time and if you coat the bottom part with clear nail varnish, it makes the used part wipe clean.
@@stevepage5813 Yes exactly, that was ridiculous! and i agree i have never needed to replace the string, i just have a ceramic end piece which gets wiped clean. I didn't like the way this was presented.
HI GIRLS
DEBBIE HERE FROM SOUTH WALES UK
I have not had to pay to use a public toilet anywhere including in shops and pubs and proper public conveniences since the 1960s. They are all free to use.
As for styling and drying my hair I find it a lot easier to sit by my mirrored dressing table to blow dry it etc as it is a lot more comfier that standing in the bathroom for extended periods drying it than curling/straightening it.
Hand wash basins come with a plug, plug it in fill basin with water to temp and depth you like wash hands, pull out the basin plug and then dry your hands.
Shower curtains are very common here in the UK as you can buy a lot of them with very quirky prints on them. I find s lot of plastic/glass shower doors are in bed and breakfasts and hotels as it is easier and more hygenic for them to keep clean whereas in your own home you can change the shower curtian regularly and quickly.
If a home is fitted with a separate shower unit independent from being over the bath and it a separate stand alone unit thrn it will have either glass or plastic surrounding it on three sides, and you can sometines have these sized up for tour own convenience to the size and width you require.
Here in the UK we can buy power showers which shoot water at a very great power and a lot of UK showers are electric with instant hot water, no hanging around waiting for the water to heat up.
The light pull string can be long or as short as required. My father was an electrician and he would never countenance a light switch in the bathroom as they are illegal because of the danger of electric shock with either wet or damp hands. It is either a pull chord (I have never known one to break in 60 odd years) or a swith on the wall outside the bathroom by the door.
The teeny-tiny handbasins are usually found in downstairs toilets as I think, but I might be wrong, you have to have a hand washing ability whereever there is a toilet for hygeine reasons.
Shower curtains in terrace houses are very common here in Northern Ireland, especially council housing. A lot of people who own their house have invested in a modern bathroom have a glass door on the bath to turn it into a shower. My own house is a bungalow so quite open space and have a bath and a shower which you would see in bigger houses have a shower downstairs and the bathroom upstairs.
I am not a plumber. The taps thing is down to a couple of things. If the house has a modern central heating system with direct hot water then its either laziness or lack of funds to update the sink to a mixer. if the hot water is stored in a tank, then separate taps are regarded as safer in order to avoid consuming bacteria that may be in the hot tank.
The toilets in the wall should be constructed in such a way that a false wall panel can be removed to allow maintenance.
The old kind of high toilet cistern was to give the water more flushing force as it drops the 5+ foot to the toilet 🇬🇧🇬🇧👍👍
I ‘believe’ this is when the term ‘thunderbox’ comes from by the sound created rather than the noises from bodily functions 🤢
It's physics... really is a good idea to use gravity! But if you have to fix the tank, I guess you need a ladder ;-)
Instant electric showers are common in UK, especially in older/refurbished bathrooms. We can do it because 230V electrics and high 8-11kW supply.
One advantage to the old high cisterns is that gravety gives a higher pressure without extra water. The disadvantage though is they are a bugger to repair
Nearly everyone here has shower curtains or rigid plastic splashbacks.
Also the standalone bath as seen at 22:20 will very rarely be seen in people's homes!
The tanks are almost never inside the wall, they are behind an easily-removed panel...
Loo derives from (lots of explanations of but this is the most logical) ‘guardez l'eau’ French for watch out for the water, coming from 17th century times when people used to empty their chamber pots from their bedroom windows into the street before drains and sewers. The word l’eau was chewed up with accents and mispronounced to ‘loo’. The throwing would be accompanied by the warning. 😬
I've heard another explanation which sounds very plausible. When a relatively modern toilets was installed the houses of the rich, (an idea which appalled many people) there wasn't a proper name for it so it was called Room 100 which could read as loo.
Elizabethan times I think it was referred to as Ajax. Hence the name of the cleaning product.
Ladies, get some loo roll in your hand and flush the toilet using the paper then drop it in the loo as it flush. Privvy comes from the privvy council which is the monarchs closet private council, because they use to be want near the monarch the best job was the person who wiped their backside after going to the loo, because you were alone with the king at a personal intimate moment they would want someone he could trust, that job was something of the stool, I can't remember the term, minister, keeper or something like that. And they used that time to push their agenda because they hold the kings ear without anyone interrupting and it's in private. Oh and her bathroom is her bathroom not everyone's bathroom i have a shower curtain.
I love the fact that the lady thinks that she's bilingual because she's able to differentiate UK and US nuances. In the UK and continental Europe, we are bilingual speaking another language. I learnt French at school, Spanish when i was stationed in Gibraltar for two years, and German from my wife. So, i can cuss in three languages 😂😂
The water pressure is only low on poorly installed electric showers and also in very old designs were the heater is so low speck it cant deliver hot water quick enough. Modern ones are more powerful and good to use
The reason for two taps is hygiene. The hot water is stored in a static tank, and drawn off as needed. Complete with legionella or other possibly microbial diseases. The cold water comes directly from the mains.
the cold water can also come from a static storage tank
That's why the hot water should be kept at 60 °C
U can have a normal plug in the bathroom, but this must be at least 3meters (10ft) from any water sources.
Seeing as most uk bathrooms are fairly small this can’t be done, and rather a shaver-socket, will be installed.
Most homes in UK are gradually changing to mixer taps, but there are old (very old) historical reasons for separate taps.
Mine is old fashioned according to your buried cisterns. It allows me to use rainwater to flush rather than treated expensive water.
The tiny sinks/basins are mainly in hotels or very new homes half baths, the industry standard in 90% uk homes is the 2 gal /10 lt capacity basin. The shower screen v shower curtain probably runs at 50/50, some with a shower over bath have a screen half way from shower to mid bath and a curtain the rest of the way for privacy as most uk home only have 1 family bathroom. as for power in the bathroom, many have no switch shaver poins by a mirror over a sink (these can be used for 2 pin hair dryers or electric toothbrushes). there realy is no need for ordinary power points, most bathroom light switching is either pull cord into sealed unit inside or wall switch outside the room to remove or lessen the chances of operating the light with wet hands or condensation shorting leading to electricution as all power in uk homes is 240 volts DC . pressing a flush with your hand !! well once your finished, you wash your hands right ! power showers are common, this woman having one that spat means hers was faulty. only commercial(90%) have in wall tanks. most public toilest have one mixer tap, homes have two taps.
Ladies, there are bygone era bathrooms that have been converted into actual cafes here.
Ah yes, like Attendant in London. I don't think Natasha would want to "spend a penny" or spend a penny there ;-)
Thats the exact place I was thinking about.@@MagentaOtterTravels
We are seeing more and more automatic taps now in the UK, you just place your hands under the tap automatically turns on, remove your hands and the water turns off, no taps to touch. 🇬🇧
If you have a hand held shower attachment here in the UK, it's usually to wash your hair while having a bath. I agree about water pressure on electric showers - but there is such a thing as a "power shower" which has a strong pump to move water through the shower fast. I agree that mixer taps are far superior (I have them in my home), but in a home sink there is no hygeine problem in filling the bowl with water and washing your hands in that water in a clean sink.
If you don’t have a brush next to the toilet, what are you going to clean your teeth with?
Is Dara sure she has lived in the UK? Most of this stuff is rubbish 😂
I live in a 1930s house and I have a pull chain cistern in my downstairs loo. It's original and works perfectly, though they use a lot of water with each flush. Some of the houses near me don't have toilets upstairs so it's a pain that you need to go downstairs during the night with children.
The rail the shower in the hotel is not for towels, it’s for safety so that you are able to hold onto it to prevent slipping
Fun fact - I’ve just come back from the US and the hall where my friend’s birthday party was held in MA had separate hot and cold taps! It is rather old fashioned here now I’d say and not one tap in my house or my parents is now a separate one in that style.
The very old ones actually still do here but very rare
@@TheNatashaDebbieShow Obviously you don't shave your faces, but it would work on aby area. Hot water softens the hair (my beard's like a brillo pad), making it easier to shave, the cold causes the follicles to retract and close, meaning you get a smoother end result without having to use lotions and potions to do it artificially.
@@TheNatashaDebbieShow 2 single taps/faucets are becoming less popular over, but a pair of taps can be cheaper then a mono mixer tap (fits through a single hole in the basin) just looking at screwfix a pair of contract (trade) taps are £16.48 and the mono contract tap is £36.99. Also the bits you turn on the taps are called tap heads
@@TheNatashaDebbieShow we had our bathroom refitted a few years ago.....Traditional by choice.....hot and cold taps, toilet cistern. Plumbed in shower with traditional fittings. Had to have a glass panel tho to save splashing. Not everyone wants sleek, characterless. All a mater of taste.
What is gross about mixing clean water in a sink to the right temperature yo wash your hands. Gross to me is wasting water whilst you regulate the temperature you want in a mixer tap. Plus, I don't brush my teeth anywhere other than in my home but I do wash my hands several times a day whilst out and about. Two taps or just one. Neither is gross.
You are entitled to your opinion. As are we
@TheNatashaDebbieShow
I've obviously offended you. That wasn't my intention and, yes, we are both entitled to our own opinion. I just disagree with your over thd top reaction and the way you described two taps as gross. Different, yes, but not gross.
@@maggieellison1017 offended, no. That's quite an impossible task to offend us. We simply said that we have an opinion that you don't like. If our opinion is that something is gross to us, that's our opinion. You can't decide that it isn't. Thanks for watching!
Nobody puts the plug in, we just use the hot tap before it heats up to boiling. If it is too hot you use the cold tap.
20:02 The towel rail is actually a grab rail to help those with restricted mobility escape from the bath.
23:40 Running around under an electric shower trying to get wet is the only regular exercise for some Brits...
28:15 It is possible to rinse the sink after you've splattered it with spit and toothpaste... just sayin'
You are right there was a grab rail in the bath. But there was also a towel rail on the wall... I only mentioned that because it was how you could tell it was a British bathroom. Virtually NO bathrooms in the USA have heated towel rails. Unfortunately!
Your comment about the electric shower made me smile. Cheers for that! Dara
Most of the differences can be explained simply by the fact that in the UK and Europe we work on a risk reduction system. Every home that is built every road that is built, in fact most things we do are done in a way to reduce risk. By reducing risk, you reduce the amount of accidents and illness in society. When you have a public health system like the UK and Europe that picks up the bill when things go wrong, it is much more economic to stop them going wrong in the first place. Hot water systems are not the healthiest systems for drinking water. So mixing hot water with cold water for drinking is not a good idea, You may say we don't mix hot water with cold water to drink. But the bacteria that frequent your tap don't know which part of it is hot and which part of it is cold. So they frequent the whole tap. Therefore, when you get a stomach infection, it's the public health service that picks up the bill. Best not to let it happen in the first place. Wasing hands under a running tap is very wasteful of water. Yes it rains a lot in the UK but wasting water is just that, wasting. Water has to be treated, the more we waste, the more the treatment costs, therefore the more we pay. Just save water, it's cheaper. The same with electric showers, the amount of water an electric shower uses is minimal compared to an ordinary shower where you have to wait for it to get warm, all that waiting is wasting water. Most things we do in the UK and Europe are done with a consideration on the environmental and health implications, profit comes after those not before.
It's really interesting that Americans use "bathroom" as a euphemism for "toilet", because in around 1865 the word "toilet" (originally meaning a table cloth on a dressing table) was used as a specifically American euphemism for "lavatory". It's euphemisms upon euphemisms, each one becoming soiled from association, and thus needing a new euphemism to avoid the previous.
Shower curtains are common in the UK - less so in hotels, I guess, but fairly standard for where the shower is over the bath.
Yes we do have shower curtains but be honest if you only do comparisons with hotels and old castles then yeah she is spot on lol 🌟