As much as I love hedgehogs and blended hot and cold water taps, I think we need to maintain this just to make fun of British people. No usable sink taps in Great Britain for reasons.
Don't be silly, how would hedgehogs get up there? It's for pigeons and rats, ackshually.
I think having seperate water tanks was removed from our building codes around 30-40 years ago - they took a while to vanish and some homes still have them, but most of the time we have mixer taps by now just like everyone else. My house certainly has.
The other weird thing is that typically only the one tap in the house would be straight from the incoming mains water supply rather than the tank. This would be in the kitchen. So a lot of people still think drinking water from the bathroom is dangerous, which is only true if you still have a tank full of dead animals still up there in the roof.
I remember split faucet in old pubs and old homes in Germany too. those that survived the wars. I suppose you'd always have to put in a plug to get usable water temperature.
No, you never use a plug, that is for noobs.
First you burn your hands massively, burn off all the germs, then you cool your hands on the other side, freezing the last germs. The next time you switch it.
It is all about the shock factor, the germs shall never know what is next!
All you have to do is spend a couple of quid extra on a non return valve in the bond line and you can install a mixer. This was apparently too much cost for boomers
Very common in older houses in Portugal too. I grew up with these.
Single faucets for hot/cold only started to become standard like 15/20 years ago.
Even my shower had separate "dials" (not sure how to call them) for hot and cold (despite having only one shower head obviously xD). Which to be honest is kinda superior, because you can control the temperature much better.
Yeah I mean I'm literally looking at my bathroom sink with two taps. It's actually perfectly fine as long as you don't set your boiler temperature too high.
My understanding is that in some old buildings in the UK, the hot water isn't potable. So they use separate taps to avoid getting bacteria in the cold water.
No advantage, it's just a 120yr old house. Obviously the taps aren't that old, but will have been chosen later on by whoever redid the bathroom well before I bought the place, and they maybe liked the Victorian aesthetic of it.
I guess you can get yourself a glass of water with one tap and wash your hands with the other, and as I said above, if you have the water temperature of the boiler set to a medium temperature, you just have two taps with two uses.
Fellow American, also east coast. I think our countries older cities especially have more of these. Specially anywhere with benefits such as historic tax credits and such these can remain from as long as indoor plumbing dates back
American person here. Gen. Jones. This was pretty standard when I was a kid. A lot got converted to a single faucet over the years, but there was still a sink like that it the half-bath in the house my grandfather built in 1904 when I inherited it in the ‘90s. You either filled the basin and used that to wash, or you got really good at rapidly moving your hands from faucet to faucet to equalize the temp. (Or, you just used cold water.)
Literally my immediate reaction. Came to the comments to see if I was missing something. I still think it's normal. I have grown up with taps like this my whole life.
American here, and a lot of older sinks in basements, garages and forgotten bathrooms and stylized in douchey restaurants are like this. No clue how someone old enough to use the internet got so far without seeing one before.
ive always rinsed mine while my fam doesnt, didnt realise it was a brit thing- only takes 3s to understand how washing up liquid works + that it tastes bad to wanna wash it off, i really dont understand brits lmfao
When I was a kid I would just use the faucet on the right and wash my hands with freezing cold water. Now as an adult, I've become used to that, and I have to actively remind myself that I don't need to do that anymore
Yep. When I was a kid, our powder room sink was like that. Eventually my parents paid to replace the sink with a modern one, but we had the old one until probably 2007-2008.
Our house was built ~1890, with the upstairs bathroom added in later (not sure when) -- it's always had two faucets! The downstairs bathroom was added much later, and remodeled in the early 70's, and the two sinks each had a single faucet!
It really amazes me that the UK doesn't have mains pressure hot water systems.
Where I am in Australia, it's basically normal. It means you don't have to have contraptions such as shower pumps because your hot water pressure is just gravity fed from your attic.
Seen these many times - hated shaving with them. Scald-Freeze-Repeat. They're very frequently found around the world. Fill up the sink, shave, wipe down the sink. Frustrating as WTFaucet can be.
This was pretty standard in older/unrenovated buildings when I was a kid. Also had the taps that didn’t stay on. Or the push buttons that ran for like 5 seconds. Awfulness.
Grew up with this being the norm where I'm from countryside Ireland. Your post made me realise that this is uncommon??? Damn, learn something new everyday.
I grew up in the US in more than one house that had separate faucets. They were all old houses, unsurprisingly. There isn't room for this in a bathroom sink but kitchen and bathtub faucets were often modified with a mixer that attached to the two faucets and combined them into one stream. I've got one of those on my basement laundry sink to this day.
This is really common in old house in the US. I never got the hang of it when we'd visit my great-grandfather in the house my grandma grew up in. I either froze or burned the piss out of myself every time.
Common British L
Over 9000 years ago a hedgehog could die in your hot water tank, so you've kept this dogshit setup ever since.
And apparently this could only happen in Britain, there were no hedgehogs that could die anywhere else in the world oddly enough
As much as I love hedgehogs and blended hot and cold water taps, I think we need to maintain this just to make fun of British people. No usable sink taps in Great Britain for reasons.
We prefer to be called “British Denizens.” We are closer to beast than people.
Everyone else mandates a golden ring and no spikes in their water tanks
Don't be silly, how would hedgehogs get up there? It's for pigeons and rats, ackshually.
I think having seperate water tanks was removed from our building codes around 30-40 years ago - they took a while to vanish and some homes still have them, but most of the time we have mixer taps by now just like everyone else. My house certainly has.
The other weird thing is that typically only the one tap in the house would be straight from the incoming mains water supply rather than the tank. This would be in the kitchen. So a lot of people still think drinking water from the bathroom is dangerous, which is only true if you still have a tank full of dead animals still up there in the roof.
I remember split faucet in old pubs and old homes in Germany too. those that survived the wars. I suppose you'd always have to put in a plug to get usable water temperature.
No, you never use a plug, that is for noobs. First you burn your hands massively, burn off all the germs, then you cool your hands on the other side, freezing the last germs. The next time you switch it. It is all about the shock factor, the germs shall never know what is next!
many of those faucets aren't even high enough to get the hands underneath :D
All you have to do is spend a couple of quid extra on a non return valve in the bond line and you can install a mixer. This was apparently too much cost for boomers
Very common in older houses in Portugal too. I grew up with these.
Single faucets for hot/cold only started to become standard like 15/20 years ago.
Even my shower had separate "dials" (not sure how to call them) for hot and cold (despite having only one shower head obviously xD). Which to be honest is kinda superior, because you can control the temperature much better.
Having sepwrate valves that only mix afterwards is fine, and was common in many places, but comoletely seperate faucets are stupid.
How can a country that has designed the best plug design ever settle for this??
Schuko is by far the best plug design.
The British plug isn't even that good. It takes up so much space.
I agree. Id rather have the smaller one that's less safe
The other plugs are still very safe.
Safest =/= best
lol
British person here, looking at this post and going "perfectly normal".
New Zealander here. This is normal all over the pacific.
Yeah I mean I'm literally looking at my bathroom sink with two taps. It's actually perfectly fine as long as you don't set your boiler temperature too high.
What's the advantage to having the taps separate rather than mixing?
My understanding is that in some old buildings in the UK, the hot water isn't potable. So they use separate taps to avoid getting bacteria in the cold water.
No advantage, it's just a 120yr old house. Obviously the taps aren't that old, but will have been chosen later on by whoever redid the bathroom well before I bought the place, and they maybe liked the Victorian aesthetic of it.
I guess you can get yourself a glass of water with one tap and wash your hands with the other, and as I said above, if you have the water temperature of the boiler set to a medium temperature, you just have two taps with two uses.
No mixing valve to fuck up.
And wash your hands fast enough before it heats up!
or do the quick switch back and forth
If your hot water is set at a comfortable temp, it's probably growing bacteria.
It's a modern combination boiler, it heats the water up on the fly as it goes through.
Ah right, forgot about those.
Old American here, same response. I've seen many like this in the past
I’m an American in my 40s and I’ve seen these as well. I actually really like them.
I'm an American in my 30s and while these certainly aren't common anymore I saw plenty of them growing up.
You're crazy. Are you sure you're American?
I like them too. I have actually used one recently in a newer medical building. I'm not really that old, I'm in my 60s.
Fellow American, also east coast. I think our countries older cities especially have more of these. Specially anywhere with benefits such as historic tax credits and such these can remain from as long as indoor plumbing dates back
Young American here, same response. It’s a way some bathrooms are for historical reasons
American here too and have one in my house right now. Super annoying.
American person here. Gen. Jones. This was pretty standard when I was a kid. A lot got converted to a single faucet over the years, but there was still a sink like that it the half-bath in the house my grandfather built in 1904 when I inherited it in the ‘90s. You either filled the basin and used that to wash, or you got really good at rapidly moving your hands from faucet to faucet to equalize the temp. (Or, you just used cold water.)
Literally my immediate reaction. Came to the comments to see if I was missing something. I still think it's normal. I have grown up with taps like this my whole life.
I live in rural CA and my upstairs bathroom liked like this when I moved in.
Seen more than a few in the US
American here, ive lived in several houses with this. Old, but normal.
American here, and a lot of older sinks in basements, garages and forgotten bathrooms and stylized in douchey restaurants are like this. No clue how someone old enough to use the internet got so far without seeing one before.
Apparently the trick is to dart your hands from side to side so the temperature evens out.
Or put the plug in and fill the basin
"Put the plug in and fill the basin"
This was the intended design at the time.
Tap dancing
Wash one hand on the cold side and the other in the warm, then shake hands to normalize their temperature
Obligatory "that's what she said" or "giggity" joke
Shame do you need nice perfectly balanced warm water on your hands when you wash them?
Tbh I only ever wash my hands with cold water
I think the post title needs to be corrected to burning hot and almost freezing cold.
I grew up with lukewarm and freezing. Scalding is quite recent.
still waiting for the scalding update
Common in old enough houses too
and plenty of airports, or throughout Europe. I don't see what's weird about this?
It is uncommon for most of the US, and thus most of the audience of the sub.
It's mainly a UK thing though, I'm french, lived in Germany, traveled thought most of Europe, it's just you guys.
You never seen this before?
One of the main reasons was because the hot water wasn't suitable for drinking and this prevented contamination of the drinking water.
Faucets which prevent contamination but can mix both temperatures have existed for quite a while now.
Most brits have only just begun rinsing the soap off their dishes after washing them…
Stubborn bunch, really.
Invade almost every country in the planet in search of spices
Decide to use none except soap scent.
…man wtf
Aye
This coming from a country that has chlorinated chicken.
You enjoy your tea frothy, and with the essence of lavender Fairy?
It makes the tea feel fancy and you can change the flavour based on the washing up liquid. Endless opportunities!
ive always rinsed mine while my fam doesnt, didnt realise it was a brit thing- only takes 3s to understand how washing up liquid works + that it tastes bad to wanna wash it off, i really dont understand brits lmfao
Just cross your eyes til it becomes one faucet
It became four faucets
Or three if you get it just right
Grew up with this exact conundrum. Dumbest application of technology ever.
The was standard in the U.K.
Reason being that in the past hot water was not drinking water whereas the cold water was
Kiwi here, looking at my bathroom sink going, are you not normal?
Normal for older buildings. You just put the plug in and fill the sink like a mini bath for your hands.
When I was a kid I would just use the faucet on the right and wash my hands with freezing cold water. Now as an adult, I've become used to that, and I have to actively remind myself that I don't need to do that anymore
Ew
must be an old faucet
This is why we have code for temps on hot water lines. So you don’t lose skin by burns.
See it in some old buildings in the us also.
My mother’s pre-war NYC apartment for example.
Yep. When I was a kid, our powder room sink was like that. Eventually my parents paid to replace the sink with a modern one, but we had the old one until probably 2007-2008.
british engineering.
What, you've never seen Seinfeld?
Had the same thing growing up right here in America too. Used to be fairly common
Our house was built ~1890, with the upstairs bathroom added in later (not sure when) -- it's always had two faucets! The downstairs bathroom was added much later, and remodeled in the early 70's, and the two sinks each had a single faucet!
Uh... Yeah? AND?
OP must be young. These were (and still are) common all over the world. It's how it was originally done. Combining into one fixture came later.
Welcome to the UK
This is normal, just old/outdated in the US
One only tells the truth, the other only lies
Am I the only one who saw an eye at first?
You’re welcome
Siri remind me to invent something clever like this and get rich
Just have one hand under the cold water and one under the hot water. On average you're going to be fine.
My granny's bathrooms from The 40's or 50's or so had sinks with a hot and cold faucet, like this... but older enameled cast iron pedestal sinks.
It really amazes me that the UK doesn't have mains pressure hot water systems.
Where I am in Australia, it's basically normal. It means you don't have to have contraptions such as shower pumps because your hot water pressure is just gravity fed from your attic.
I'm from Ireland and I am wondering what some of you guys experience because this seems normal to me 😅
Seen these many times - hated shaving with them. Scald-Freeze-Repeat. They're very frequently found around the world. Fill up the sink, shave, wipe down the sink. Frustrating as WTFaucet can be.
I’m so glad I grew up in a place this is not common whatsoever.. I love my ability to control my temperature properly.
Grew up in new england and the old sinks still had this.
Is OP 12?
I had to endure these on my trips through Ireland and France, and it's really a struggle to get the temperature just right.
...people should travel more.
That’s the way shit used to be done before they figured out that it’s better to combine them with a shared spout.
Even if this design goes back to the 1800's, I still find it crazy that nobody thought to connect a pipe between the two so that you could mix it.
My Nan wants her sink back
This was pretty standard in older/unrenovated buildings when I was a kid. Also had the taps that didn’t stay on. Or the push buttons that ran for like 5 seconds. Awfulness.
This is literally the only way it used to be
Yes.
Yes.
My dad had a sink like that in his early 1900s apartment in Virginia. A lot of the older buildings in downtown Richmond have those.
Pennsylvania here. We had a faucet like this in my home growing up. (Philly row home built in 1945)
This was normal here in Norway as well back in the days
You've only been in newer buildings in the US and/or never been to Europe
Tapping into potential. Gives me a sinking feeling.
Growing up in the south eastern US we had one of these, it was already old 25 years ago. It sucked.
Unthinkable!
Idiotic
Burn your hands or freeze your hands in the winter. Choices.
Looks like they both leak, too.
I just remembered accidently pressing my back into the hot water tap while the bath tub would fill up 😭 shit hurted
You don't find the separate faucets for hot and cold charming?
You don't find the separate faucets for the hot and cold charming?
I was gonna say….clearly somewhere in Europe?
I was so confused at this post because this is 90% of taps where I'm from. Although a lot of people are starting to switch to mixers
have you ever been outside of your country? are you american?
My dad's house and my grandma and great grandma had houses with these. Pretty normal for old houses in America
USA-normal in old places. The building I’m sitting at has a few of these (currently sitting across from a sign that says it was built in 1933).
Thanks reddit for bringing me hear because of r/diWHYnot
Old style.
Premix costs extra.
Grew up with this being the norm where I'm from countryside Ireland. Your post made me realise that this is uncommon??? Damn, learn something new everyday.
Where's the wtf lmao. Standard taps
I grew up in the US in more than one house that had separate faucets. They were all old houses, unsurprisingly. There isn't room for this in a bathroom sink but kitchen and bathtub faucets were often modified with a mixer that attached to the two faucets and combined them into one stream. I've got one of those on my basement laundry sink to this day.
Wot
Used to be normal
Used to be the norm.
What else is supposed to happen?? It's the normal way
This is really common in old house in the US. I never got the hang of it when we'd visit my great-grandfather in the house my grandma grew up in. I either froze or burned the piss out of myself every time.
This is called a basin.
Its been such a long day I actually thought "Whats wrong with that?" for a moment
Is OP a child? How have they never seen taps like this before? Showers and baths also have hot and cold water taps.
you say that like its a secret technique
You’re kidding, right?
Oh, you provincial spring flower
Ask for a "bo-ol o wa-uh"
Good luck there…
You must be very young... or new in the UK.
Average American discovers the Brits do it different
I dont see the issue here 😅
Not even british and this shit is normal.
My house has this and it’s not even that old. It’s pretty common.