Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Hot water on the left or on the right


Fat Guy

Recommended Posts

Personally, I'm a big fan of red and blue markings, but R-L convention in this case has plenty of value.

ETA: And Steven, I think it's pretty clear yours is a device that's been designed for horizontal deployment and shoe-horned in vertically.

Edited by Blether (log)

QUIET!  People are trying to pontificate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

The moment I saw that, I suspected one of the Northern European companies, such as Grohe or hansgrohe, since that seems a popular design with them. I believe the thinking behind this arrangement is that push/pull is more intuitive, or easier with wet hands than left/right.

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
Manager, eG Forums
mscioscia@egstaff.org

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

We have a Delta faucet that is designed to have the handle mounted to the right. There are a couple problems with having a side mounted handle though. First, you're limited to which hand you use to regulate the water. Second, with it mounted to the side, every time you reach for it with wet hands you drip water on the counter and leave water marks.

I've considered mounting ours like yours is currently and reversing the water lines. I think it would probably work better that way. My wife likes it where it is though.

CIMG4297.JPG

As far as what to do with the markings, I'd ignore them. :)

Larry Lofthouse

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On my first day of a summer job in college working for a plumber, I was admonished that there are only three things one really needs to know about plumbing:

1) Hot is on the left

2) Shit runs downhill (reference to the way drains must be installed)

3) Don't bite your fingernails

The rest, I was assured, is easy.

Incidentally, the place I work now has a backwards-plumbed sink which is legitimately dangerous as the hot gives water in the 160F range in under 10 seconds at considerable pressure. One of these days I may get annoyed enough to change it, though that might be dangerous in its own right, sine everyone is more or less used to it that way.

Andy Arrington

Journeyman Drinksmith

Twitter--@LoneStarBarman

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, it may be 90 degrees off. I might think it would be installed on the right side so that pushing back was hot and pulling forward was cold. If you had someone unfamiliar with how it works were to use it, my guess is more often they would pull it forward and worst case get cold water.

"A cloud o' dust! Could be most anything. Even a whirling dervish.

That, gentlemen, is the whirlingest dervish of them all." - The Professionals by Richard Brooks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On my first day of a summer job in college working for a plumber, I was admonished that there are only three things one really needs to know about plumbing:

1) Hot is on the left

2) Shit runs downhill (reference to the way drains must be installed)

3) Don't bite your fingernails

The rest, I was assured, is easy.

Incidentally, the place I work now has a backwards-plumbed sink which is legitimately dangerous as the hot gives water in the 160F range in under 10 seconds at considerable pressure. One of these days I may get annoyed enough to change it, though that might be dangerous in its own right, sine everyone is more or less used to it that way.

And number 4... Payday is on Friday. :)

Larry Lofthouse

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We're still unpacking and soon I head to North Carolina for a week. So it may not be right away. Yes I'm exhausted.

Posted from my handheld using the Tapatalk app. Want to use eG Forums on your iPhone, Android or Blackberry? Get started at http://egullet.org/tapatalk

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd have the contractor switch the feed lines and just change the indicator colours using nail polish. The colours are only visible when the faucet is actually running anyway.

There are 3 kinds of people in this world, those who are good at math and those who aren't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

This seems to be the right answer. I guess it's the inevitable outcome when you design on paper and then build in the physical world. So we have no choice but to mount it with the controls forward-facing. I'm encouraged by LoftyNotions's comments, though. I think I'll take the position that we mounted it this way on purpose because the right-facing orientation is flawed. I may or may not paint over the hot-and-cold indicators, but the lines have now been reversed and cold is to the right as is normal in these parts.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is only semi-related, but for people who read plumbing threads this might be an interesting bit of trivia. I was recently responsible for maintaining a house in which I discovered had no hot water flowing. I checked the water heater and it was lit and appeared to be making the noises that water heaters should make. The pipes close to the heater were hot, so I couldn't understand why there was no hot water at the kitchen tap.

I called a plumber to come out and check the water heater and he determined that a failed single valve in an upstairs bedroom had failed, so the hot and cold lines were open to each other. Since the cold water lines have a bit more pressure, they would supply any hot water demand through the cold line of the failed shower valve.

Sometimes plumbing isn't simple.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This seems to be an issue of letting the contractor/installer make any of his or her own decisions. I had a very similar issue when we were renovating our kitchen in DC - I think the contractor would've installed the sink upside down if I wasn't watching over them every step of the way. Even with me there, they ended up using some weird caulking that I ended up removing and recaulking once they were finished - I had had enough of dealing with them so I just paid 'em and did some of the repair myself.

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...