Hot water on the left or on the right

[Fat Guy]

I've lived my whole life knowing with some certainty that the knob for cold water is on the right and the hot is on the left. If it was backwards, it meant the plumber hooked it up wrong.

Recently, though, I saw a faucet with the hot on the right and cold on the left, and it was clearly engineered that way because the blue and red dots lined up with the result. This faucet happens to be in my kitchen.

I can't decide whether to reverse the connections, or go with the whole backwards thing.

[lstrelau]

I'm with you. i would change the taps otherwise you will end up confused every time you use a sink somewhere else. Is it only one of your sinks that is 'backward'?

For me it would be like getting back to my own manual shift car after I have been on vacation driving an automatic transmission rental car and I forget to use the clutch!

[Pierogi]

For a sink, it should be an easy enough fix, and I'd do it. In my 3/4 bath shower, however, since the feed pipes are sunk into a concrete wall.....not so much. So I live with it.

Actually, the sinks in both the master bath, and the kitchen have the feed sources reversed, but they've been compensated for by crossing the under-sink feeder pipes coming from the source to the faucet, so the faucet works as expected.

Again, a much easier fix than cutting into concrete......

[Dave the Cook]

Is this a single-handle control? I ask because on some of those, you can install the control rotated 90 degrees off, and it makes everything wonky.

[Fat Guy]

It is a single-handle control.

[Mjx]

I've lived my whole life knowing with some certainty that the knob for cold water is on the right and the hot is on the left. If it was backwards, it meant the plumber hooked it up wrong.

Recently, though, I saw a faucet with the hot on the right and cold on the left, and it was clearly engineered that way because the blue and red dots lined up with the result. This faucet happens to be in my kitchen.

I can't decide whether to reverse the connections, or go with the whole backwards thing.

I'd leave it, unless you really enjoy messing about with plumbing/paying plumber's fees. In two weeks, you probably won't give it another thought.

[Anna N]

I have always considered it a dangerous situation - not for me but for any youngsters/oldsters who might get a burn from the hot water. The cottage where I used to stay for a couple of weeks in the summer had this crossover and it was totally annoying. I would have to have it switched.

[Simon_S]

Funny you should say this, on my recent bathroom shopping expeditions it's become apparent to me that I'm used to the idea of the hot on the left in the bathroom, but hot on the right in the kitchen. I was trying to figure out if that's normal, but it certainly doesn't make a lot of sense.

[baroness]

Switch it to standard for the area - hot on the left.

You are not the only one using the faucet - what about the safety of your family and guests?

[Mjx]

I have always considered it a dangerous situation - not for me but for any youngsters/oldsters who might get a burn from the hot water. The cottage where I used to stay for a couple of weeks in the summer had this crossover and it was totally annoying. I would have to have it switched.

Switch it to standard for the area - hot on the left.

You are not the only one using the faucet - what about the safety of your family and guests?

The risk of burns is a reasonable concern, but everything I recollect on that matter has had more to do with unsupervised children playing in the kitchen/particularly hot water coming out of the faucet (close to boiling).

If the plumbing is altered, but the control handle can't be reversed, so the hot/cold markings no longer match the actual temperatures, this would still present the possibility of unpleasant surprises.

[MelissaH]

My parents installed a faucet in their kitchen that infuriates me every time I go to visit. The problem is that I keep on thinking it's the handle end pointing to the right (for cold) or left (for hot), but the way the faucet's designed, it's actually the other end of the thingamajig, where it's pointing. So when I think it's set for full-blast cold, it's actually set for full-blast hot. I suppose I'd get used to it if I lived there, but I wouldn't have bought the darned thing.

MelissaH

[Fat Guy]

I'd leave it, unless you really enjoy messing about with plumbing/paying plumber's fees. In two weeks, you probably won't give it another thought.

I still have the contractor around on almost a daily basis, so getting the connectors switched is easy and doesn't represent an added cost. I just have to decide for sure one way or the other by, like, now.

[Fat Guy]

If the plumbing is altered, but the control handle can't be reversed, so the hot/cold markings no longer match the actual temperatures, this would still present the possibility of unpleasant surprises.

This is my major concern. Otherwise I wouldn't hesitate to switch them to the regional standard. Bizarrely, the markings are not visible until you turn on the water.

[Darienne]

Just asked the DH how to reverse the hot and cold and he told me how. Mr. Renovations, he is. I see that you have contractors present so they can do it easily. It is a very small adjustment...which I won't bother describing because they'll do it for you.

I would change them to the standard and get something to write over the incorrect directions. No question. None. IMHO.

Our new stove has the burners opposite from the stove I had for I don't know how long and all the stoves before I guess, and after more than two years I still don't have them straight, even though the knobs have little circle doodads beside them. I don't want to have to figure it out each time...but I do have to. I put labels on the stove which tell me which is which. Rats.

[Florida]

How is every other faucet in the house set up? If the kitchen is the only place where the hot is on the right, then it's clearly "incorrect" and the plumber should switch it to be consistent with the rest of the house.

Edited April 18, 2011 by Florida (log)

[Blether]

Don't you call these "mixer taps" in the States ? How hard would it be to replace the tap altogether ? The one you have sounds, err, confused, to put it politely.

I was taken aback once again this weekend over sink / tap design - I visited a restaurant where the bathroom sink was a flat, shallow, rectangular affair - most stylish but totally impractical. The tap barely reached over the back edge and despite the generous acreage of sink bottom, I was knocking my hands against both it and the sink back as I washed.

I'm constantly struck, even in more mainstream deep, round sinks, by the number of stingy tap setups that hold you up against the wall. What is it with these things ? An authoritarian urge to put the needs of the sink over those of the people who use it ? I guess it's nice for the designer if he lives in a land of milk, honey & infinite leisure where everyone indulges in a filled and refilled sink every time. Me, I live in the real world. Am I missing something ? Give me a tap that reaches out far enough for me to wash under it in peace.

Edited April 18, 2011 by Blether (log)

[Fat Guy]

Here's the device:

Every other fixture in the house is hot-left/cold-right.

It's official, I'm having them switched. Now I just have to figure out what to do with those markings.

[Darienne]

OMG. I took cooking classes in a kitchen with one of those taps and neither I nor the other students could manage the taps properly. I can't remember which way they were set, vis-a-vis cold and hot, but they drove me crazy.

All the best! (But then you are one very smart guy and you'll no doubt get it quickly! Your youngster won't have any trouble at all!)

ps. Yeah. I am more than old enough to be your Mother!)

Edited April 18, 2011 by Darienne (log)

[Simon_S]

But that tap IS hot left, cold right, isn't it? As you pull to the left the indicator goes further and further to the right, indicating hotter? It sounds like it's just incorrectly plumbed or am I missing something?

ETA: I assumed the whole thing (including the indicator panel) moved, but on second thoughts maybe it doesn't? One way or the other, that tap would probably drive me bananas.

Edited April 18, 2011 by Simon_S (log)

[Fat Guy]

The indicator is stationary.

[Mjx]

. . . .

Every other fixture in the house is hot-left/cold-right.

It's official, I'm having them switched. Now I just have to figure out what to do with those markings.

I'd just get some of those little circular stickers (get white ones, and colour them in with markers, then you can use the rest to mark herb jars or something), and affix them to either side of the lever.

That unit looks identical to ones I've seen here, and they're never installed facing forwards, but facing to the right, so Hot and Cold are actually related to 'push' and 'pull'.

[Fat Guy]

Specifically the model is "Hansgrohe 'Swing C' Single Handle Pullout Kitchen Faucet, 2 Spray Modes (06128)."

[Fat Guy]

That unit looks identical to ones I've seen here, and they're never installed facing forwards, but facing to the right, so Hot and Cold are actually related to 'push' and 'pull'.

Interesting. I see from some online photos that the thing may be installed 90 degrees wrong. I'll have to see if it's easy to change or impossible.

[natasha1270]

It is probably installed 90 degree off because there's not be enough clearance for back/hot, front/cold set up.

[GordonCooks]

The fixture in installed 90 dg incorrectly counter-clockwise.