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The drinking fountain button

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Re: The drinking fountain button

#111

Post by walthamstow »

plutoh28 wrote: post #101
walthamstow wrote: post #6

I miss water fountains that you can drink directly from, as opposed to those that can only fill up a bottle. There's one outside Blackhorse Road tube that only does the latter, you have to contort yourself to drink directly from it and people will look at you like you're mad.

Consider getting a water bottle?

Why do you think it's a good thing that I must have a bottle with me in order to drink from a public water fountain?

To be clear, I think fountains should do both direct drink and bottle fill-up.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#112

Post by anikom15 »

Johnny555 wrote: post #105
bombcar wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my travels the USA is way more concerned with water-saving devices, even in areas where there really is no water conservatory problems. Toilets in Europe will still seem to flush using the full power of Niagara Falls, which are quite rare in the US now.

even in areas where there really is no water conservatory problems Is there really an area that never faces water conservation measures? Even normally wet Washington State is facing a drought due warm weather resulting in lower than normal snowpack, which is where much of the drinking water comes from. https://m.kuow.org/stories/washington-state-drought-emergenc...

Canada and the Great Lakes states have a virtually unlimited supply of fresh water.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#113

Post by daviesYC »

kurthr wrote: post #79
weinzierl wrote: post #32

"Who among us hasn’t walked up to a drinking fountain, expecting a bubbling stream of life-giving water, only to experience the crushing disappointment of a measly trickle after smashing in that button?" That'd be me. I traveled quite a bit all over the world and these seem to be a pretty American thing. It's also a bit strange because for the countries that have them it is generally not recommended to drink tap wate…

Oh man, don't forget the ones that spray 8 feet into the air! At least you can usually tell, if the ground is wet around it... that it's going to take your head off, if you put your mouth over it before turning the knob. p.s. europeans just have fountains, and you drink the water out them with your shoe like it's champagne!

Ha, I was just about to mention the 8' spray and surrounding puddle of evidence. What a waste... too bad I don't live in Europe, I would enjoy drinking shoe champagne.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#114

Post by nlunbeck »

walthamstow wrote: post #6

I miss water fountains that you can drink directly from, as opposed to those that can only fill up a bottle. There's one outside Blackhorse Road tube that only does the latter, you have to contort yourself to drink directly from it and people will look at you like you're mad.

I always prefer the bottle filling stations over drinking fountains, for the 20% of the time that I actually have a bottle with me.

In gyms/libraries/airports it always feels like refilling stations get 5x more use than drinking fountains, but when you're anywhere else, what are the odds you're carrying a bottle?

Re: The drinking fountain button

#115

Post by bombcar »

Johnny555 wrote: post #105
bombcar wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my travels the USA is way more concerned with water-saving devices, even in areas where there really is no water conservatory problems. Toilets in Europe will still seem to flush using the full power of Niagara Falls, which are quite rare in the US now.

even in areas where there really is no water conservatory problems Is there really an area that never faces water conservation measures? Even normally wet Washington State is facing a drought due warm weather resulting in lower than normal snowpack, which is where much of the drinking water comes from. https://m.kuow.org/stories/washington-state-drought-emergenc...

Many areas that mainly use rain/snow water via ground water aquifers haven't had many if any water conservatory issues.

Usually the problem around here is sewage capacity - but perhaps it's a population density thing, and as long as you're below a certain density and it rains enough, nothing really is needed.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#116

Post by bombcar »

Johnny555 wrote: post #106
TeMPOraL wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You use more water flushing, or more water scrubbing your hands, after having to scrub your toilet due to insufficient flushing pressure.

Sounds like you need a better designed toilet. Good low flow toilets do exist. We replaced the old 3.5 gallons per flush toilet in our house with a new Kohler 1.28gpf unit and it flushes and clears the bowl just fine - no worse than the previous toilet with about 1/3rd the water use.

One of the best things you can do in a house is replace "early post-ban" toilets with modern ones, the very first low-flow toilets were absolutely ... shit.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#117

Post by alistairSH »

Balgair wrote: post #72
alistairSH wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What countries do have them? In the US, they seem to exist in offices and schools. Airports tend to have them, and often with a bottle filler on the side, which is great since we can't carry water through security. But, just walking down the street, truly public water? Is that a thing anywhere in the US, or elsewhere?

Wait, what US cities are you in that do not have public fountains in parks and whatnot? I'm struggling to think of any parks or high pedestrian areas around me that don't have a public fountain, nor in any of the cities I've lived in. Like, yeah, you're not going to have a fountain out in the middle of a parking lot. But they, to my recollection, seem to be everywhere that people tend to be walking a lot. As for Euro…

DC Metro, specifically Reston.

The park across the street doesn't have one. There are none in the town center (gotta buy Starbucks or similar).

And I don't recall seeing any public ones in downtown DC, other than the Mall and Smithsonian areas.

I already stated they do exist in quasi-public spaces (airports, offices, etc).

Like, if I'm running errands downtown, and I'm not in the tourist zone, there really isn't much without ducking into an office (that might be locked on the weekend).

Re: The drinking fountain button

#118

Post by weinzierl »

icambron wrote: post #104
weinzierl wrote: post #32

"Who among us hasn’t walked up to a drinking fountain, expecting a bubbling stream of life-giving water, only to experience the crushing disappointment of a measly trickle after smashing in that button?" That'd be me. I traveled quite a bit all over the world and these seem to be a pretty American thing. It's also a bit strange because for the countries that have them it is generally not recommended to drink tap wate…

I'm not quite following; are you saying it's not recommended that you drink American tap water? Or that there are bunch of other countries with sketchier water full of drinking fountains?

I would not drink American tap water, at least not in the cities that I travelled. It always smelt like chlorine and from what I googled apparently up to 4 milligrams per liter are regularly allowed in the US. This is definitely not a thing in western Europe. We don't need to talk about the things that you cannot taste or smell and what happened in Flint.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#119

Post by ghaff »

walthamstow wrote: post #111
plutoh28 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider getting a water bottle?

Why do you think it's a good thing that I must have a bottle with me in order to drink from a public water fountain? To be clear, I think fountains should do both direct drink and bottle fill-up.

And my experience conventions, even when they give out water bottles in the initial swag bag, is people mostly just want to grab a disposable plastic bottle.

I’m actually fine with tap water most of the time but I want to carry a bottle to sessions etc.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#120

Post by radlad »

Johnny555 wrote: post #105
bombcar wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my travels the USA is way more concerned with water-saving devices, even in areas where there really is no water conservatory problems. Toilets in Europe will still seem to flush using the full power of Niagara Falls, which are quite rare in the US now.

even in areas where there really is no water conservatory problems Is there really an area that never faces water conservation measures? Even normally wet Washington State is facing a drought due warm weather resulting in lower than normal snowpack, which is where much of the drinking water comes from. https://m.kuow.org/stories/washington-state-drought-emergenc...

Living in/near Michigan all my life and water conservation has never really been a concern, except when it comes to uproars over things like Nestle sourcing water from the Great Lakes.
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