Ideal Faucet

[iacas]

I don't know about you, but I think if you just cared about functionality:

• Design a stick (like a stick shift) with a dial on top.
• The dial twists left and right, with hot being on one side (left in the U.S.), and cold on the right. Designate it with colors, letters, or a combination.
• The whole stick pushes up and down to adjust flow rate.

Nothing confusing about that.

It's not the most esthetically pleasing… perhaps. But that's not the challenge.

[colin007]

I don't understand, what you're describing is basically what I have but without the twisting. Am I missing something?

[iacas]

It's a thought exercise or a challenge spurred on by the xkcd cartoon.

Design the ideal faucet, or a "non-confusing faucet control."

[colin007]

I guess I'm just confused by who is confused by their faucet. Sorry lol I just don't get it

[iacas]

1 minute ago, colin007 said:

I guess I'm just confused by who is confused by their faucet. Sorry lol I just don't get it

I've seen some that are mildly confusing. Hotel showers, too, sometimes. Especially if the handle goes more than about 200° around.

[saevel25]

37 minutes ago, iacas said:

I've seen some that are mildly confusing. Hotel showers, too, sometimes. Especially if the handle goes more than about 200° around.

That is like the shower at my local gym. The first 45 degrees does not turn on the shower.

[dennyjones]

Many years ago my son had a friend from Las Vega stop by for the night.   He wanted to take a shower but had to call my son from the shower to ask him how to get the water to the shower head.    It's not always simplistic.   

We just installed a new Moen kitchen faucet.  Up is hot, down is cold. Move the handle away from the base to get more pressure and move it toward the base to shut it off.    Once you've done it, it's easy but the initial use is not intuitive. 

[billchao]

1 hour ago, dennyjones said:

We just installed a new Moen kitchen faucet.  Up is hot, down is cold. Move the handle away from the base to get more pressure and move it toward the base to shut it off.    Once you've done it, it's easy but the initial use is not intuitive. 

I have a kitchen faucet like that. It also has a motion sensor on the side so you can turn it on without touching anything which is a pretty good feature when you’re cutting up chicken or something, but terrible when you’re wiping the counter next to the faucet 😃

[boogielicious]

To me, ‘simple’ is both intuitive and easy to maintain. Faucets have to have mixing valves for the most part today because you don’t want to scald the user. So public areas can’t really have independent hot and cold valves by code like the old days. The simplest and most intuitive mixing valve would be a lever handle where up and down (wall mount) or front to back (counter mount) opens the valve and temp is controlled left to right with left being hot. It’s safer because pushing straight back or up, it mixes 50/50.

[colin007]

2 hours ago, boogielicious said:

To me, ‘simple’ is both intuitive and easy to maintain. Faucets have to have mixing valves for the most part today because you don’t want to scald the user. So public areas can’t really have independent hot and cold valves by code like the old days. The simplest and most intuitive mixing valve would be a lever handle where up and down (wall mount) or front to back (counter mount) opens the valve and temp is controlled left to right with left being hot. It’s safer because pushing straight back or up, it mixes 50/50.

Yeah this is what I have. My FIL is a plumber and keeps it simple, he won't use any of that new fangled stuff in his own house.

Also, why are people setting their hot water heaters so hot? Mine is set to 116 degrees.

[billchao]

4 hours ago, colin007 said:

Also, why are people setting their hot water heaters so hot? Mine is set to 116 degrees.

Because I can always make hot water cooler if it’s set at a higher temperature but I can’t make it hotter if it’s set at a lower temperature. Plus my mother and I both have restaurant backgrounds so we’re used to it.