Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The drinking fountain button

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 206 posts

Re: The drinking fountain button

#131

Post by mjevans »

throwup238 wrote: post #100
DoughnutHole wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly an instance of the California effect? National manufacturers have to design toilets for western states where conservation is a huge issue - might just be cheaper to sell those toilets nationwide than to have a different product line for wetter states.

It's due to the Energy Policy Act of 1992: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Policy_Act_of_1992#Impa... It set a max volume for toilet flushes of 1.6 gallons and since it's a federal law, it covers everyone.

Invariably, I end up using _at least_ 3.2 gallons as it takes multiple flushes to finish the job.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#132

Post by netsharc »

openplatypus wrote: post #92

Meanwhile in Germany: 0.50€ for tap water in restaurant No public drinking water facilities

Suuure... where are you in Germany?

https://overpass-turbo.eu , the sample query is already for drinking fountains. I navigated so Berlin is on the map and clicked Run, and it shows me all drinking water fountains on the map. A few of them even have image links, for example: https://imgur.com/d6UheOw

Re: The drinking fountain button

#133

Post by CivBase »

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…

Since when was it "generally not recommended" to drink tap water in America? Most places I've been in America the water looks, smells, and tastes just like the stuff they sell in bottles.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#134

Post by netsharc »

lambdaxyzw wrote: post #23
piskov wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are not fountains but glorified watercoolers with sparkling water and, sometimes, lemonade. Most of the time they were not free although very cheap: 1 copeck. These survived up to the 1995, several years after the fall. And yes, most glasses have never been stolen. Shared glasses were quite safe because every machine had special button to clean the glass with pressurized technical water (several calibrated jets…

>It’s only after the fall of the Soviet Union that shit with plastic poured into. As well with the fall of recycling, morals, etc. Soviet Union was green not because of morals, but because it was poor and couldn't afford single use packages. I remember when Nutella entered my country, the empty Nutella jars were washed, kept and used as glasses for drinking - because buying new glasses was hard or expensive. >And yes…

> couldn't afford single use packages

I'm glad we live in the 21st century where we can afford single use packages. It will only cost us our civilization: https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/?int...

Re: The drinking fountain button

#135

Post by gottorf »

throwup238 wrote: post #100
DoughnutHole wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly an instance of the California effect? National manufacturers have to design toilets for western states where conservation is a huge issue - might just be cheaper to sell those toilets nationwide than to have a different product line for wetter states.

It's due to the Energy Policy Act of 1992: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Policy_Act_of_1992#Impa... It set a max volume for toilet flushes of 1.6 gallons and since it's a federal law, it covers everyone.

Definitely an odd thing to regulate federally. No reason at all why toilets in New Mexico (average annual rainfall 13") and Mississippi (56") should be held to the same legal limit of water usage.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#136

Post by fatnoah »

weinzierl wrote: post #118
icambron wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm a bit of a tap water connoisseur, and tap water in the US varies greatly. I grew up in the northeast US, in a town where the water comes from a mostly spring-fed lake. The water has zero chlorine taste or smell. I currently live in another town in the US where the water mostly comes from a local reservoir, and also has no taste or smell. In both cases, water pipes are buried to avoid frost, resulting in cold water from the tap all year.

San Francisco area also has surprisingly good tap water, likely due to the clay/soil in the areas the water is sourced from. In other places, like Florida, minerals and sulphur give the water a distinctly unpleasant taste, and shallow pipe depth keeps the water from getting cool.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#137

Post by WheatMillington »

the__alchemist wrote: post #110
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…

Interesting! USA seems to be the only country I've visited that drinks tap water, let alone has water fountains.

I'm not super well travelled, but of the ~9 of the ~10 countries I've been to, including where I live (New Zealand) it's normal to drink tap water. Thailand was the exception for me.

Water fountains are somewhat normal in New Zealand and Australia.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#138

Post by weinzierl »

radlad wrote: post #122
weinzierl wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> It always smells like chlorine and from what I googled apparently up to 4 milligrams per liter are regularly allowed in the US. Why is this a problem? Flavor? This is certainly different than places like Mexico, where the tap water isn't potable. > We don't need to talk about the things that you cannot taste or smell and what happened in Flint. If we're talking about unknown unknowns, this is true of anywhere in th…

> "Why is this a problem? Flavor?"

Yes, if it already smells after chlorine, how can I know what else is in there. If it was from a clean source, it would not need chlorine in the first place.

> "If we're talking about unknown unknowns, this is true of anywhere in the world."

No, water supply in Germany is closely monitored at the source, at the water works and even close to the user in apartment buildings and rental properties. Also, our water supply is not privatized, like in the US. A disaster like Flint could not happen here.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#139

Post by throwup238 »

gottorf wrote: post #135
throwup238 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's due to the Energy Policy Act of 1992: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Policy_Act_of_1992#Impa... It set a max volume for toilet flushes of 1.6 gallons and since it's a federal law, it covers everyone.

Definitely an odd thing to regulate federally. No reason at all why toilets in New Mexico (average annual rainfall 13") and Mississippi (56") should be held to the same legal limit of water usage.

The low flow restriction was criticized at the time for exactly that but I believe the reason it ended up in the bill is twofold: manufacturers wanted a unified standard at the national level that didn't change at the whims of 50 different state legislatures and the bill was geared towards energy conservation, not water usage. Since toilets account for 30-40% of indoor water usage and pumping water around is quite energy intensive, it does have an effect even if you're in a wet region.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#140

Post by ssl-3 »

recursive wrote: post #102
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.

Not to mention, I often have to do 2 or 3 flushes after a more productive session, not to mention cleaning. Just like how I run the dryer twice on "hyper-giga-dry" if I actually want dry clothes.

I just put the clothes in the dryer and tell it to dry them.

It has a multitude of different modes, but "Normal" succeeds at this every single time -- regardless of the amount or dampness of what I put in there.

Am I doing this wrong?

Post reply on HN