"Who among us hasn’t walked up to a drinking fountain, expecting a bubbling stream of life-giving water, only to experience the crushing disappointment of a measly trickle after smashing in that button?"
That'd be me. I traveled quite a bit all over the world and these seem to be a pretty American thing.
It's also a bit strange because for the countries that have them it is generally not recommended to drink tap water and for the few countries where tap water is considered safe to drink they are virtually non-existent.
National manufacturers have to design toilets for western states where conservation is a huge issue - might just be cheaper to sell those toilets nationwide than to have a different product line for wetter states.
Europe doesn't have the water scarcity issues of the US. When my brother in law from Germany visited a few summers ago he was shocked by the amount of drought news and water conservation instructions broadcast daily on TV.
even in areas where there really is no water conservatory problems
Is there really an area that never faces water conservation measures?
Even normally wet Washington State is facing a drought due warm weather resulting in lower than normal snowpack, which is where much of the drinking water comes from.
The style of toilet matters in the US. The problem is that the cheapest toilets tend to also meet all sorts of greenwashing (no pun intended) certifications while being unreliable, smaller, and not very good. Tankless ones are far more expensive initially, but are more reliable, flush with greater force, and use little water.
Most toilets in Western Europe, at least new ones, have two buttons for low and high flow. Low flow is not an unalloyed good, though, it leads to sewer lines getting clogged, which can be a pretty expensive thing to fix depending on where the sewer access is.
Oh man, don't forget the ones that spray 8 feet into the air!
At least you can usually tell, if the ground is wet around it... that it's going to take your head off, if you put your mouth over it before turning the knob.
p.s. europeans just have fountains, and you drink the water out them with your shoe like it's champagne!
Ha, I was just about to mention the 8' spray and surrounding puddle of evidence. What a waste... too bad I don't live in Europe, I would enjoy drinking shoe champagne.
I'm not quite following; are you saying it's not recommended that you drink American tap water? Or that there are bunch of other countries with sketchier water full of drinking fountains?
I would not drink American tap water, at least not in the cities that I travelled. It always smelt like chlorine and from what I googled apparently up to 4 milligrams per liter are regularly allowed in the US. This is definitely not a thing in western Europe. We don't need to talk about the things that you cannot taste or smell and what happened in Flint.
Since when was it "generally not recommended" to drink tap water in America? Most places I've been in America the water looks, smells, and tastes just like the stuff they sell in bottles.
I'm not super well travelled, but of the ~9 of the ~10 countries I've been to, including where I live (New Zealand) it's normal to drink tap water. Thailand was the exception for me.
Water fountains are somewhat normal in New Zealand and Australia.
I miss water fountains that you can drink directly from, as opposed to those that can only fill up a bottle. There's one outside Blackhorse Road tube that only does the latter, you have to contort yourself to drink directly from it and people will look at you like you're mad.
I always prefer the bottle filling stations over drinking fountains, for the 20% of the time that I actually have a bottle with me.
In gyms/libraries/airports it always feels like refilling stations get 5x more use than drinking fountains, but when you're anywhere else, what are the odds you're carrying a bottle?
I always preferred the spring loaded knobs (or levers) that you twist compared to the buttons you press down. More leverage, easier to use and modulate if necessary.
I remember those. 4-sided either rounded bulbs or paddles that blended into the central hub. The disadvantage is that they require fine motor control and so aren't accessible to all people. The problem though is that most of the pushbutton types tend to require too great of force to be usable by anyone. I prefer the crashbar button type that requires some force to engage but much less force to remain engaged.
https://overpass-turbo.eu , the sample query is already for drinking fountains. I navigated so Berlin is on the map and clicked Run, and it shows me all drinking water fountains on the map. A few of them even have image links, for example: https://imgur.com/d6UheOw
Not at all true in my experience though I have seen a jump in the number of fountains with integrated hands-free bottle fillers (which is a win in my book).
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That'd be me. I traveled quite a bit all over the world and these seem to be a pretty American thing.
It's also a bit strange because for the countries that have them it is generally not recommended to drink tap water and for the few countries where tap water is considered safe to drink they are virtually non-existent.
Toilets in Europe will still seem to flush using the full power of Niagara Falls, which are quite rare in the US now.
National manufacturers have to design toilets for western states where conservation is a huge issue - might just be cheaper to sell those toilets nationwide than to have a different product line for wetter states.
Is there really an area that never faces water conservation measures?
Even normally wet Washington State is facing a drought due warm weather resulting in lower than normal snowpack, which is where much of the drinking water comes from.
https://m.kuow.org/stories/washington-state-drought-emergenc...
At least you can usually tell, if the ground is wet around it... that it's going to take your head off, if you put your mouth over it before turning the knob.
p.s. europeans just have fountains, and you drink the water out them with your shoe like it's champagne!
Water fountains are somewhat normal in New Zealand and Australia.
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In gyms/libraries/airports it always feels like refilling stations get 5x more use than drinking fountains, but when you're anywhere else, what are the odds you're carrying a bottle?
To be clear, I think fountains should do both direct drink and bottle fill-up.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoCOQb2u-N8
0.50€ for tap water in restaurant
No public drinking water facilities
https://overpass-turbo.eu , the sample query is already for drinking fountains. I navigated so Berlin is on the map and clicked Run, and it shows me all drinking water fountains on the map. A few of them even have image links, for example: https://imgur.com/d6UheOw
Someday I'll get arsed enough to figure out where the valve/plug is.
Don't even get me started on water fountains that require power.
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