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The drinking fountain button

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161–170 of 206 posts

Re: The drinking fountain button

#161
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not wrong, and I'm jealous of your dryer. There are like 5 levels on mine ranging from soggy to slightly damp.

It's just a regular ass-dryer. It has a way to detect moisture (and therefore will run until clothes are dry, whatever that takes), but AFAIK that's pretty common and has been for a long number of decades. (I've never really had an issue with a clothes drier unless things had become broken or clogged -- they've all worked fine until they don't, and then they get fixed or replaced.) But you should be jealous of my toi…

I'm jealous of all your household appliances. My last dryer had the same problem. I bought it new.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#162
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just a regular ass-dryer. It has a way to detect moisture (and therefore will run until clothes are dry, whatever that takes), but AFAIK that's pretty common and has been for a long number of decades. (I've never really had an issue with a clothes drier unless things had become broken or clogged -- they've all worked fine until they don't, and then they get fixed or replaced.) But you should be jealous of my toi…

I'm jealous of all your household appliances. My last dryer had the same problem. I bought it new.

Dang.

This present dryer was free -- it's a Whirlpool Duet Sport (yes really) that is probably around 20 years old.

The toilet...was not free. Changing out toilets is never fun, especially under duress. (But this one happened to be on sale the week that buying a new toilet became necessary, which was handy. I already know that it was the one I wanted, having once had an earlier version of that model, in an earlier version of my life.)

Re: The drinking fountain button

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is why you monitor the water supply. It is done in my rented apartment by a company commissioned by the landlord and it is done daily at the water works. If there are to many living organisms they add chlorine and inform the public, which happens only every couple of years. The alternative is dead organisms plus a quite toxic substance in your water.

> The alternative is dead organisms plus a quite toxic substance in your water. Chlorine being toxic in drinking water is your personal opinion. Your opinion is not shared by the people who are experts in drinking water treatment in the US. Chlorine kills microorganisms that aren’t filtered out in previous water treatment steps. Please cite some evidence that chlorine in drinking water is dangerous to humans at conce…

The CDC says the TLV for chlorine is 1.5 mg/m3. Note, that this is per cubic meter and not per liter. So a TLV of 0,0015 mg/l vs 4 mg/l in US drinking water.

Here is the source, as you requested:

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/idlh/7782505.html

And here the definition of TLV from Wikipedia:

The threshold limit value (TLV) is a level of occupational exposure to a hazardous substance where it is believed that nearly all healthy workers can repeatedly experience at or below this level of exposure without adverse effects.

So much for that, but it is only half the story. Chlorine is a gas and therefore volatile. The measured chlorine in the waterworks says little about the amount that ends up in your body.

What it does though is, that it forms compounds with organic substances (the microorganisms it kills) in the water, which in turn can be toxic or carcinogenic. Instead of regulating the volatile chlorine it makes much more sense to regulate the harmful compounds, which is exactly what many European countries do.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#164

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.

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

If that is your normal everyday experience you should consider changing your diet and or your toilet. Neither my wife nor I clog a toilet more than about once a year. The double flush might happen once every other month.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#165
post #62
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Destroying the Aral Sea was hardly "green". The list of environmental disasters caused by the USSR is pretty impressive, in a sad way.

Blaming Aral Sea disaster on USSR was/is mostly a PR stunt of post-Soviet Uzbekistan government. The largest part of the drying happened in 1990s and 2000s, because Uzbekistan was farming cotton and wheat in crazy amounts trying to offset massive imports in its new independent economy.

I think it’s hard to claim that things were sustainable and headed in a good direction before 1992, cotton farming notwithstanding.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#166
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm jealous of all your household appliances. My last dryer had the same problem. I bought it new.

Dang. This present dryer was free -- it's a Whirlpool Duet Sport (yes really) that is probably around 20 years old. The toilet...was not free. Changing out toilets is never fun, especially under duress. (But this one happened to be on sale the week that buying a new toilet became necessary, which was handy. I already know that it was the one I wanted, having once had an earlier version of that model, in an earlier ve…

I think old dryers are better at this. I think it's energy usage regulations that are making dryers this way. Dryers from decades ago were not subject to them.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#167
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dang. This present dryer was free -- it's a Whirlpool Duet Sport (yes really) that is probably around 20 years old. The toilet...was not free. Changing out toilets is never fun, especially under duress. (But this one happened to be on sale the week that buying a new toilet became necessary, which was handy. I already know that it was the one I wanted, having once had an earlier version of that model, in an earlier ve…

I think old dryers are better at this. I think it's energy usage regulations that are making dryers this way. Dryers from decades ago were not subject to them.

Perhaps.

Except it may be worth noting that this dryer came to me with the matching high-efficiency front-loading washer that it was originally sold with.

I'm not near them right now, but I think they both have remains of an EnergyStar sticker on the front.

They're both very, very digital compared to what I consider "old" appliances (like the sort that had motorized mechanical timers running the show).

Re: The drinking fountain button

#168
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From your first link, Table 1, I see that the United States EPA regulates chlorine to 0.2-4 mg/L. The upper bound is lower than the rest of countries with regulations. Some countries - including the European Union, United Kingdom, and Ireland - appear to have no regulations at all. Residual levels show 3 mg/L of chlorine in the United States which is higher than most other countries (Singapore, and to a lesser extent…

"From your first link, Table 1, I see that the United States EPA regulates chlorine to 0.2-4 mg/L. The upper bound is lower than the rest of countries with regulations. Some countries - including the European Union, United Kingdom, and Ireland - appear to have no regulations at all." The European Union is not a country and it is not surprising that it has no guideline, because the member states have. That the United…

No, the question is very much why you are against it when your claim is apparently that the water is not safe to drink because of it.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#169
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you read The Intercept article, you'll see that the company was hired to test the water after the Flint water crisis began, in response to citizen complaints. This is entirely separate from the federally mandated requirements around testing that was performed by government agencies. > That municipal decisions played an important role too, is - if anything - an argument for the thesis that the water supply in the U…

I don't think my claim is misinformed and I don't think the US and Germany are similar at all when it comes to water supply. Here we have multiple levels of security that would definitely have prevented a crisis similar to the one in Flint, even considering that corruption and criminal negligence could be at play. I also think we have different views what privatization means. Here privatization begins at the location…

Ok, you win. Germans are infallible and there have never been issues with tap water.

> Here privatization begins at the location where the water pipe enters the building.

As far as I am aware, the same is true in Flint. I do not understand the distinction you are drawing.

Additionally, your Wikipedia link is obviously not an exhaustive list of "water crises" nor does it offer any insight into whether lead in tap water has been an issue in Europe.

From an initial search, here's evidence to the contrary. Ctrl+F "Germany": https://www.zerowater.eu/zerowater-knowledge-center/lead-in-...

Re: The drinking fountain button

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If that is your normal everyday experience you should consider changing your diet and or your toilet. Neither my wife nor I clog a toilet more than about once a year. The double flush might happen once every other month.

I’d argue that clogging a toilet with any kind of regularity is still a failure of either engineering or diet.
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