Trump takes aim at trickle-down toilets, faucets

[mountaineer]

Somewhere along the line, the federal government concluded it needed to regulate how much water runs through toilets and what kind of lightbulbs we all should be permitted to use. That Trump would like to reverse such insanity is okay with me.

[sneakypete]

Somewhere along the line, the federal government concluded it needed to regulate how much water runs through toilets and what kind of lightbulbs we all should be permitted to use. That Trump would like to reverse such insanity is okay with me.

@mountaineer

It's ok with me if you want to spend more of your monthly  budget on water and electricity,but we are going to have a problem if you try to take my water-saving toilets and my electricity saving light bulbs away from ME.

[mountaineer]

It's ok with me if you want to spend more of your monthly  budget on water and electricity,but we are going to have a problem if you try to take my water-saving toilets and my electricity saving light bulbs away from ME.

My point is that it's none of the government's #*%& business which showerhead or lightbulb I use.

[Fishrrman]

I still have an old, "pre-regulation" Speakman shower head.

It's caked up on the outside with calcium, but I'm not changing it.

I don't care how cruddy it looks because there's no flow restriction with this one ... NONE!

aligncare, you are dead-on in your comments in #17 above.
Repeal the ridiculous regulations on toilets and shower heads, and that means MORE votes for Mr. Trump's re-election next year!

[Cyber Liberty]

It is hilarious stuff, but I can't relate.  Never had to flush ten times ever.  The automatic sinks are annoying.  It takes several swipes to get the soap off.  I have never been orange either.  It does make sense though.  They need to create a bigger golden toilet for Trump.  One with a huge flushing ability for all his S___.

See, this is something I can really agree with sincerely.  Hey, if it ends up meaning I can finally get a toilet that gets the job done in one flush, at a reasonable price, I can get behind that too....

It's the one thing I dislike about this house.  The place is a paradise outside of that.

[libertybele]

I see that the other way around, @sneakypete ... I see us as enslaved by these conveniences. Kinda like when I went back to scratch cooking. It DOES taste better, but I think that half of that is in the anticipation. I had forgotten how wonderful it is to fill the house with the smell of baking bread or a roast in the pan. And that can only be present when cooking from scratch.

All things are kinda that way... There is additional satisfaction in doing it old school that is missing nowadays....

But I get it... It will be hard for me to give up 220, and my welder and air compressor. Part of me would prefer a foot in both worlds... But if I have to choose, the old ways are better.

Even the 'unheated' house. I don't mind stoking up a wood fire... WAY better heat than gas.

Agree -- nothing keeps you warmer than a good wood stove.  We used to heat our entire home (basement as well) with one wood stove and we were quite cozy.

Only drawback is forgetting to bring in wood from the outside before going to bed and having the fire die down and having to go outside at the crack of dawn for more wood. 

[Chosen Daughter]

@mountaineer

It's ok with me if you want to spend more of your monthly  budget on water and electricity,but we are going to have a problem if you try to take my water-saving toilets and my electricity saving light bulbs away from ME.

Your probably like me.  Never had to flush 10 times, and never looked orange. 

[Chosen Daughter]

See, this is something I can really agree with sincerely.  Hey, if it ends up meaning I can finally get a toilet that gets the job done in one flush, at a reasonable price, I can get behind that too....

It's the one thing I dislike about this house.  The place is a paradise outside of that.

More Fiber, less McDonalds and its the perfect paradise.

[Cyber Liberty]

More Fiber, less McDonalds and its the perfect paradise.

When a toilet fails to flush on a simple job of a Number One, then the first floor head is on the blink, and not related to the volume and, uh, consistency of my other, uh, discharges.    

[Chosen Daughter]

When a toilet fails to flush on a simple job of a Number One, then the first floor head is on the blink, and not related to the volume and, uh, consistency of my other, uh, discharges.   

If it can't flush number 1 it surely is a dud!  In that case I am amazed.  I suddenly feel the urge to vote for Trump.  He cares about problem flushing.

[roamer_1]

Agree -- nothing keeps you warmer than a good wood stove.  We used to heat our entire home (basement as well) with one wood stove and we were quite cozy.

Only drawback is forgetting to bring in wood from the outside before going to bed and having the fire die down and having to go outside at the crack of dawn for more wood.

For me, it's kindling... I always put it off... It's such a fussy thing to have to mess with it. Hauling the wood in is a one and done kind of thing, over in a minute, so I do it without much thinking.... but filling the kindling box takes a while, and is comparatively painstaking... And so I procrastinate.

Not that it matters all that much... I burn mostly pine, fir, and larch, so the kindling comes from busting down the larger stock... so I can always make it on demand. It just makes a heck of a mess around the stove, and is way better done out on the woodpile... A fact that I can note as true, but have a hard time practicing. 

[roamer_1]

I still have an old, "pre-regulation" Speakman shower head.

It's caked up on the outside with calcium, but I'm not changing it.

Either take it off and soak it, or hang a bucket of vinegar up there to soak it and all lime will just go away, opening the holes back up while it is at it. That is a regular occurrence here, as I use water from an artesian spring... Lime deposits are just part of life for me.

I don't care how cruddy it looks because there's no flow restriction with this one ... NONE!

I don't get all that... I just take the head apart and remove the restricter, and/or drill out the holes... Never have had a problem altering the new stuff to be proper.

[Smokin Joe]

You must mean no one else... 😁

I will say this much... If I ever get back out to the sticks, it won't be a problem anymore. 

Seriously? C'mon, privvies were the mainstay in the oil patch until everything had to be hauled offsite.
Only they were mostly steel, drafty, and even less 'fun' than a wood one when the mercury got below -30.

I also remember toilets that had a 5 gallon tanks that could handle most anything...

[Smokin Joe]

Either take it off and soak it, or hang a bucket of vinegar up there to soak it and all lime will just go away, opening the holes back up while it is at it. That is a regular occurrence here, as I use water from an artesian spring... Lime deposits are just part of life for me.

I don't get all that... I just take the head apart and remove the restricter, and/or drill out the holes... Never have had a problem altering the new stuff to be proper.

Yeah, a 3/8 drill bit works wonders with a flow restrictor.

[Lando Lincoln]

When a toilet fails to flush on a simple job of a Number One, then the first floor head is on the blink, and not related to the volume and, uh, consistency of my other, uh, discharges.   

@Cyber Liberty  If a toilet fails to handle the light duty job, the commode probably isn’t the problem. Inadequate venting of the plumbing or a downstream back-up/restriction is causing the headache. Almost certainly.

[massadvj]

Treat yourself to a Grohe or Hansgrohe (two different companies, same German family) shower head for Christmas.  Game changer!

]Thanks.  Will check them out.

[roamer_1]

Seriously? C'mon, privvies were the mainstay in the oil patch until everything had to be hauled offsite.
Only they were mostly steel, drafty, and even less 'fun' than a wood one when the mercury got below -30.

I also remember toilets that had a 5 gallon tanks that could handle most anything...

Heh. Green Rooms... That's the vernacular for porta-pottys hereabouts, because the original ones were green... I have seen the inside of many a green room on construction sites.
 
Funny story about that... My partner and I were up on a jobsite... It was terrible cold... -20 or so, and it was late... maybe 10 at night...  We had a paint room rigged up in the basement, but as cold as it was, drying times were real bad, and we were trying to get another coat on it before going home...

Well, my partner went out to use the green room... He'd had to go for a while, but had been holding back... You see, at those temps the tidy-bowl freezes over, and there was a mountain of... stuff... built up on top... To the absolute height wherein sitting down was risky.

Well, it seems my partner's... um... contribution... was the one that broke the camel's back, as it were, wherein the tidy bowl iceberg (and other contents) broke loose and rolled over...

He came down to the paint room with tidybowl stains all the way up to his neck, and simply stated, "We have to go home now."   

Well, needless to say, it was an amazing miracle that there was a big pile of moving blankets to wrap him in for the ride home... Because it's damn cold in the back of a pickup at 20 below... 

True story.

[roamer_1]

Yeah, a 3/8 drill bit works wonders with a flow restrictor.

That's right... and 3/16 on the diffusing holes...

[Lando Lincoln]

For me, it's kindling... I always put it off... It's such a fussy thing to have to mess with it. Hauling the wood in is a one and done kind of thing, over in a minute, so I do it without much thinking.... but filling the kindling box takes a while, and is comparatively painstaking... And so I procrastinate.

Not that it matters all that much... I burn mostly pine, fir, and larch, so the kindling comes from busting down the larger stock... so I can always make it on demand. It just makes a heck of a mess around the stove, and is way better done out on the woodpile... A fact that I can note as true, but have a hard time practicing. 

Here is how things are supposed to work at our cabin.  The privy, wood shed, and cabin are at the corners of an isosceles triangle with the short leg between the toilet and shed.  When nature calls (and it always does), you are supposed to return with an armload of firewood.  There is always a breakdown in the West Point honor system.

Your comment about heat is spot on.  Radiant heat is far more comfortable than forced air heat. 

[roamer_1]

Here is how things are supposed to work at our cabin.  The privy, wood shed, and cabin are at the corners of an isosceles triangle with the short leg between the toilet and shed.  When nature calls (and it always does), you are supposed to return with an armload of firewood.  There is always a breakdown in the West Point honor system.

Your comment about heat is spot on.  Radiant heat is far more comfortable than forced air heat.

Yeah... We had a rick or two stacked in the mud room, so every time I went outside, I returned by way of the woodshed, and I came back in with an armload. That was always just me - but the gal I was with or her kids would carry from the mudroom to the wood box. So that was pretty fair. At least as fair as I was gonna get 

[Smokin Joe]

Heh. Green Rooms... That's the vernacular for porta-pottys hereabouts, because the original ones were green... I have seen the inside of many a green room on construction sites.
 
Funny story about that... My partner and I were up on a jobsite... It was terrible cold... -20 or so, and it was late... maybe 10 at night...  We had a paint room rigged up in the basement, but as cold as it was, drying times were real bad, and we were trying to get another coat on it before going home...

Well, my partner went out to use the green room... He'd had to go for a while, but had been holding back... You see, at those temps the tidy-bowl freezes over, and there was a mountain of... stuff... built up on top... To the absolute height wherein sitting down was risky.

Well, it seems my partner's... um... contribution... was the one that broke the camel's back, as it were, wherein the tidy bowl iceberg (and other contents) broke loose and rolled over...

He came down to the paint room with tidybowl stains all the way up to his neck, and simply stated, "We have to go home now."   

Well, needless to say, it was an amazing miracle that there was a big pile of moving blankets to wrap him in for the ride home... Because it's damn cold in the back of a pickup at 20 below... 

True story.

Green Rooms came much later. The ones when I started out in the patch, and for a couple decades thereafter, consisted (as did many of the older farm ones) or a small shack sited over an open hole. On the rigs, these were constructed of steel plate and particularly unforgiving in winter. Only one rig I worked on had one which was insulated, lined with Formica panels, and had an electric heater. The hands (and for that matter, all users) kept the place spotless--no mean feat on a large oil drilling rig.

At one time, the rest areas were little more than outhouses (significantly upgraded since).
When one was closed about 13 miles north of town, one which a lot of people relied on, someone put an old farm outhouse out there, just sitting on the ground without a hole under it, as a joke one night.
It was promptly utilized to the extent that the cleanup was considerable.

As far as I know, the pranksters were never apprehended.

[Smokin Joe]

Yeah... We had a rick or two stacked in the mud room, so every time I went outside, I returned by way of the woodshed, and I came back in with an armload. That was always just me - but the gal I was with or her kids would carry from the mudroom to the wood box. So that was pretty fair. At least as fair as I was gonna get 

@Lando Lincoln @roamer_1

As an aside, I have noted that almost all of the oldest houses around have thickets of lilacs in the back yard.
Lilacs bloom early in the spring, and some of the local varieties are so strongly fragranced as to be pungent.
My bet is that they surrounded the privvies, and when the spring thaw came, the blossoms covered the smell of the winter's accumulation thawing and settling...
If the lawn nazis haven't eradicated the original yards, it's interesting to see the lavender and a host of useful herbs growing wild (nothing illegal, just herbs with some medicinal value which most folks would only consider weeds in a modern lawn).

[roamer_1]

On the rigs, these were constructed of steel plate and particularly unforgiving in winter.

I'd reckon it's a mighty good friend that will pry your a$$ off of a frozen steel seat... That's the sort of thing a feller can't live down. 

A sheepskin might be a necessity at that point...

[Smokin Joe]

I'd reckon it's a mighty good friend that will pry your a$$ off of a frozen steel seat... That's the sort of thing a feller can't live down. 

A sheepskin might be a necessity at that point...

No, you just wait for some other poor sod to go in and warm it up... failing that, a layer of paper will keep you from sticking anything tender to the seat or the metal...

[roamer_1]

@Lando Lincoln @roamer_1

As an aside, I have noted that almost all of the oldest houses around have thickets of lilacs in the back yard.
Lilacs bloom early in the spring, and some of the local varieties are so strongly fragranced as to be pungent.
My bet is that they surrounded the privvies, and when the spring thaw came, the blossoms covered the smell of the winter's accumulation thawing and settling...

@Smokin Joe
An interesting supposition... At my grampas place down in KS the out house was back behind the garage, and the path thereto ran alongside the garage between that and a large hedgerow of lilacs... present to this day.  I never made that connection, but you are probably right.

If the lawn nazis haven't eradicated the original yards, it's interesting to see the lavender and a host of useful herbs growing wild (nothing illegal, just herbs with some medicinal value which most folks would only consider weeds in a modern lawn).

That is quite easy to see out on the long abandoned homesteads around here... The herb beds are long gone, but the propagation of the plants that were once in them is evident.

Equally easy to detect are old native sites. One of my lady friends is a foraging expert, and she and I met because she wanted to go to places where certain plants grew together, seeking those old native gardens out. I can't remember all of it, but Devil's Paintbrush was one of them.